Egyptian Theatrics

So, no vacation insurance but things are working out. A friend from Boston is visiting this weekend and we're both sick. She's a little further into recovery than I am, but suffice it to say we're neither operating at full speed. Not that you'd know it from today.

Yesterday we did things close to my home, went to a farmer's market, had brunch, then took a nap. (Well, I think she read, but let's call it a long nap.) Then I made some food for my cooking class potluck and we did that for our evening entertainment until I turned into a pumpkin and we walked the 50 feet back to my place and crashed.

I spent another night waking up ever time I turned over when whatever battery acid my body is producing burned another hole in my throat or eye. Seriously, I've had sinus infections last longer than 5 days, but never since I found the sinus rinse. Even with rinsing and meds and more meds and hot showers, I've been extra super miserable. This is just not letting up. And then my voice quit just in time for tour guide duties.

Today we drove down into the Hollywood area, saw the Hollywood sign, went to the Farmer's Market which seemed more a collection of restaurants than raw food shops. We got some delicious, and unexpected, beignets at the gumbo shop which served well as her second breakfast and my first. (Second breakfast for me was a slice of ham and egg "pizza".) We had just enough time to find parking near the Egyptian Theater so we could take in a public radio talk on the top oscar nominees. Considering how little interest we both have in the movie industry, we enjoyed it quite a lot and understood more than we'd expected. Also got some recommendations for stuff to watch. (Since you asked, I'd say 2009 was a fantastic year for movies generally, but my fav Whip It! doesn't seem to be getting the rewards.)

After the talk, we walked over some sidewalk stars to the Kodak theater where they're setting up for next weeks award ceremony. There wasn't all that much to see, and it wasn't long before she said "it's too crowded, get me outta here", which didn't surprise me much since that seems to be the consensus of 4 out of 5 of my friends. We tried to get to the Griffith J. Griffith observatory, but so was the rest of LA, so we did a quick drive by and took off for the beach. 40 minutes of sitting in traffic later, we finally picked up speed and were able to take the PCH all the way up to dinner in Ventura Harbor. It's not a bad day to see the sun set over the channel islands as the breakers hit the shore and the day is just shy of balmy (and certainly warmer than snowing). I croaked out some descriptions but mostly we just enjoyed the view.

My favorite seafood place served up just what I'd hoped for, then we made it back just in time for the closing Olympics ceremonies. Not bad for running on fumes. I may have overdone it. Leaning forward to type this had activated all my sinuses and I've started to cough, choke, and tear up but have powered through to let you know we survived our outing, even if we might have overdone it just a bit. But it was doing good stuff. Tomorrow I'm going to try working again, and she's going to sojourn down to San Diego. Wish us luck!