I want to thank everyone for the great e-mails and comments of support. It really does mean a lot to me.

One of the first things I was worried about after losing my job (aside from the complete lack of income and my desire to stay fed and sheltered) was figuring out what to do with myself and all my free time. I didn’t just want to sit on the couch and watch TV while feeling sorry for myself. I also didn’t want to gain a whole bunch of weight by not being active. So I’ve made a schedule for myself. I make a mental list everyday of things I want to get done. Exercise, cleaning, running errands, writing letters or postcards, whatever it takes to stay busy. Last week I decided to start learning to cook. I made Challah (Jewish bread) from scratch, and it looked and tasted awesome (if I do say so myself). I’ve also made meat loaf and mashed potatoes from scratch, and both turned out to be fantastic. I’ve always collected cookbooks, as if that would somehow make me a good cook, and now I’m finally getting to use them. It turns out that I really like to cook (and based on the comments I got when I posted that info on Facebook, everyone who knows me has a cracked jaw right about now). I’m just not all that fond of the cleaning up part. I keep trying to learn to clean as I go, but I get frustrated when I clean and put away things that I take back out 5 steps later. Measuring cups for example. Do you have any idea how many times you have to measure things while cooking? People on the Food Network never seem to measure anything, and I sure hope someday I can get to that point. Because I’m pretty sure my measuring cups are going to fall apart at any moment.

Aside from cooking, I now have time to do all sorts of fun stuff that I was always too busy to do before. A couple weeks ago I helped my sister set up her classroom before school started. This is her fourth year of teaching, but only the first year I’ve been able to help her, since my work hours and her school hours were always the same. (I’d like to take a brief moment to thank all the teachers I had over the years for all the work they did to get things together before we all showed up and destroyed everything. I had no idea how much work went into getting a classroom ready to be taught in. Also, if you’d like to show your appreciation for your local teachers, try donating to their classrooms. I know they can use anything they can get, especially since they’re still using the same text books that I had when I was in elementary school. I’m 30 now, and somehow I think there’s probably more updated material they could be using if they had the money. Seriously.) Jen and Mom and I got a lot of work done while we were there, and I finally got to see all of the fun toys she’s been talking about for the last 4 years. I’m not ashamed to say that I had a lot of fun testing out some of the toys to make sure that they were safe for the kids. Or something.

Last week I also got to have a full day date with my Dad, which is something I can’t remember ever getting to do. We started off with lunch and then drove out to Los Angeles and the Griffith Park Observatory. It’s been a LONG time since I’d been there, but it’s still just as entertaining and educational as it was when I was a kid. It’s also normally a beautiful spot to take pictures from, but since there are huge fires not too far away, it was really smoky, and also really hot. We caught a show inside the Planetarium which talked about the earth and the universe, and constellations. The mythology of the constellations has always interested me, so I enjoyed the presentation immensely. Dad enjoyed a nap instead. Then we drove down to the Dresden restaurant (as seen in Swingers) and had a fantastic dinner.  The Dresden, along with several other restaurants in the area, provides a “Dine & Ride” package if you’re going to see a concert at the Greek Theater, which is right down the hill from Griffith Park, and right up the street from The Dresden. The Greek Theater is known for it’s horrific parking, so we took advantage of the Dine & Ride shuttle service to catch The Pretenders at the Greek. I’d never seen The Pretenders before, but I knew a few songs and liked them, so I was excited to go. The first opening act was Juliette Lewis (yes, the actress) and her band. Juliette was energetic to the point of being spastic, and while she seemed to love what she was doing, she’s not really quite that talented in the musical arena (Read: She. Was. Awful.) I could not wait for whoever the second band would be, just to get Juliette off the stage. Karma, however, kicked me right in the ass for making such a wish. Cat Power was the next band, and where I once thought Juliette was awful, I thought she was phenomenal in comparison to Cat Power. Every single song they played sounded exactly the same: slow and drawn out. And while their name is Cat Power, the songs sounded very much like a recording of a cat in heat, only with the player running low on batteries, therefore stretching the moaning out into long horrible sounds. They did a few cover songs (if you can even call it that) that we only recognized from the lyrics. “Thunder only happens when it’s raining” is a pretty recognizable phrase, and it took me a full 3 minutes of hearing the “song” before I even had a clue as to what it was. By the end of the set, people were shouting at the stage “Play something good!” and mimicking slashing their wrists. In the blissful pause between the end of Cat Power’s set and the beginning of The Pretenders, the only conversation that could be heard in the entire amphitheater was about how bad that was, and how so many people wanted to leave. Dad predicted that there would be more energy in The Pretenders first 3 notes, than in Cat Power’s 11 whole songs, and I’m pleased to say he was totally right. The Pretenders came on with a bang, and didn’t let the energy stop for the entire time they were there. I only knew 4 of their songs, but they were so good that I enjoyed the whole show. Chrissy Hind was amazing. The woman is 58 (as of yesterday. Happy Belated Birthday!) and was bouncing around the stage in killer high heel boots playing guitar like no ones business. As a 30-year old who can’t walk on flat ground in sneakers without tripping, I was impressed with her guitar playing in those kick ass boots. The show was awesome, and I’d happily see them again.  All in all the day was great. I was glad to spend some time with my Dad, even if it did include a smoky day, and a horrible band.  The rest was worth it.