11.13.98

    The last few days have been stunningly gorgeous. Clear blue skies and a healthy breeze. From an elevation you could get a 360 degree view of the mountains, hills and water which surround Los Angeles. The smog seems to obscure the majority of these views. Walking the dogs has, for the most part, been a perfectly pleasurable event. I could feel the change in air quality. Aaaah. In with the good. Out with the bad.

    T.'s father, my new father-in-law, has been here on business for the past few days. The first evening he was here the three of us decided to take in dinner at Killer Shrimp. This food was totally grubbin' if you love shrimp. You have to love shrimp to eat there because that's all they serve: shrimp on angelhair pasta, shrimp on rice, shrimp on shrimp. Each plate comes slathered with this spicy sauce that has your mouth on fire and begging for more. To chill the heat they put out a huge colander full of bread.

    So, we were shellin' and talkin' and grabbin' for de bread and then, just to punish ourselves a little more, dippin' da bread in the hawt sauce and doin' itch all over t'again.

    Something about putting away a plate of shrimp brings out the old, cajun woman from within. Watch out or I'll put a hex on you!

    Thursday, I did a small piece of contract work in which I went out to Hollywood and set up this guy's computer. It's quite a drive in the middle of the afternoon to get out there and the 101 has to be one of the worst freeways for interchanges everywhere. It goes East/West at a junction to the North/South 405. However, when you get to the exit from the 405 the choices are 101 North or 101 South and Los Angeles or Ventura. Huh?

    And then, to make matters more confusing, there are only two lanes dedicated to switching people from the 405 to the 101 and these lanes separate with one going South/Los Angeles and the other going North/Ventura. So, traffic on the 405 slows to a grinding halt as hundreds of cars attempt to get through this nightmare.

    When I went out for the job interview out in Agoura Hills the guy told me to take the 101 West. Well, there is no 101 West so I guessed and took the Los Angeles direction which was, of course, wrong. I drove all the way out to heck (you know how far away heck is!) and then had to drive all the way back and past the 405. Argh.

    Well, learning from my mistake I took the correct direction on the 101 towards Hollywood but things would turn out not to be so easy. I needed to take the 101 to the 170 and go North on that. On the map it appeared that the 101 turned into the 134 right at the point that the 170 crossed it. No problem, right.

    At some point the 101 splits and you have the choice: more 101 or take the 134. What to do? What to do? So, I continued on the 101 which was apparently wrong and I never came to the 170 junction. I turned around and lo and behold the 101 splits into the 101 and the 170. That makes a lot of sense... really.

    I finally made it there and installed this guy's computer at Western Costume which is, I guess, a costume rental place for movies and plays and whatnot. They had two Genghis Khan type warrior outfits on body frames in the lobby. Pretty cool.

    Coming home was no less horrifying and I ended up once again going the wrong way on the 101 and having to exit and get going the right direction. Of course, the traffic I was in going the wrong way was simply crawling along. I was yelling in my car that "I wanna get off! I wanna get off now!!"

    I got home in time to meet T. and his father for dinner at Bruno's. Bruno's is just way cool. I'll have to thieve a menu sometime so that I can put the history of the restaurant in here.

    Today was suitably Friday the thirteenth in which I wrangled with more traffic and got white-knuckly irritated at the guy in Fox Photo. This gimp pitches me for twenty minutes on the virtue of joining the Fox Photo club in which I'll receive so many different types of discounts blah, blah, blah. All the while, I'm nodding my head and going "uh-huh. Yeah. Whatever. Sign me up already. Shut up. Shut up. SHUT UP!" As I'm going through the Honeymoon photos I find the panoramics we took. Only, these are printed on the regular paper.

Me:
Why are these printed this way? These are supposed to be panoramics.

Freak:
Oh, well, you have to ask for those to be printed on panoramic paper.

Me:
Why?

Freak:
Well, because that paper is more expensive by about thirty cents.

Me:
Yeah, but there's fewer photos on a panoramic role.

Freak:
Not really.

Me:
Well, actually there really are fewer photos and these are underexposed.

Freak:
Oh, really?

Me:
Yes.

Freak:
Hmmm... well we'll have to reprint those for you.

Me:
Okay. While you're doing that then I want you to print them as panoramics.

Freak:
Now, that will cost more.

Me:
Yes, I know, just DO IT!

Oh. My. Gawd. I thought I was going to kill him. Then, to make matters worse, I go to pay and he says that my debit card is declined. I had just used it to get cash and I knew that I had plenty in my account. He asks me what I want to do and I tell him that I want him to try it again. He does and says in this lispy voice, "Sorry." I look in my purse and, of course, my checkbook is at home where it should be whenever I have stupid problems like this. I clenched my teeth and told him to put my stuff in a bag and I'll come back with cash.

    I drove home like a maniac. My blood-boiling fury actually scared me. I could have really hurt somebody.

    I got home and called Wells Fargo who claim that there's nothing wrong with my card. I call Fox Photo and tell him to hold my stuff because I couldn't come back for it right then. Truth is, I was scared of getting back into the car.

    Now, we're heading out to get a movie and some dinner. Tomorrow, baring any unforseen obstacles like weather we'll be going sailing.