fete du test-day 2

I woke up in Desert Hot Springs, I slipped into my swimsuit and left A in the room to sleep. I swam, in the small way I know how to swim, dipped in the medium hot and super hot, mineral springs. And I sat there head back contemplating life's most recent events, a hairy backed man strikes up a conversation in broken English about how loud he finds Mexican people now that the pools population has suddenly swung south of the border. He wanted to know if I were American, which I guess is the burning question on most people's minds. His friend joined him and we began having a broken conversation, they are from LA and before I get asked questions on where I live and would I like to possibly go dancing or out to dinner, I feign how hot the pool is. They are very disappointed that I am checking out of the hotel and want to know where I am going.

There is something that Eastern European and homeless men find insanely irresistible about me.

Where I am going is back to Joshua Tree and the Test to experience performance art and see a man made crater. Our first stop is to replace the map we lost and stock up on waters. Our second stop was a dry bed lake after all to see a dance with ribbons.

That goes a little something like this:











The desert is such a monochromatic place, but it is amazing in its monochromaticness. It was however nice to see it broken up with color, even if it was an hour, once a year. I think colors become more brilliant there, like they like to show off.

Next stop was the Yucca Crater installation that was, for lack of a better term, in the most beautiful middle of nowhere. That made me shout "praise the Lord for the GPS, and the 4G and the smart phone." sorry, still riding on the gospel high.

It ended up being a very surprising installation. It ended up being an oasis for you to swim in, unfortunately for us there were too many bodies.

Even though I didn't get to experience test as much as I wanted, a conundrum of time and space, I did get the chance to take a lot of great photos. The desert seems to want to be the star of the show.

I will definitely be at Test next year and this trip was a very good HDTS 101 for me. I will have more of a strategy instead of the zen like tumbleweed I was this year.

amendment of the amendment

I know it feels like I can't let it go, but this post from my lovely friend and favorite healer, made me a little sad.

read.

fete du test- day 1

When two things you haven't done before suddenly coincide you have no choice but to run toward that direction. Even if that direction is in the middle of nowhere.

My desert experience has been very limited, a drive through the Valley of Fire where I watched a sidewinder cross the road as we were coming toward it and a day were I shot a prison riffle w/ a bunch of republicans. (that thing can kick)

Living so close, an hour and a half, I felt the need to make that experience list be more than venomous snakes and assault riffles. I needed to touch a dry bed lake, be creeped out by windmills, see stars unobstructed by lights and hear gospel songs sung by people in handmade crocheted garments.

The answer to this yearning was High Desert Test Sites .

A and I climbed into the car and headed an hour an a half east armed with new music and sunscreen. We watched the landscapes become more alien. Fields of windmills and precariously stacked rocks that slowly revealed more rural places. I wondered what it is that people do out there. A said cook meth. I thought a bit more G rated, like get a lot of reading done.


We rolled into town in just enough time to grab a map and directory. They had gluten free fudge cookies available by donation-they must have known I was coming. We booked it, the two blocks to Art Queen gallery to catch the World Famous Crochet Museum Gospel Revival. And they revived and they sang and I felt the Lord and I felt a tremendous guilt for not crocheting more.

So feeling uncomfortable by the heat and my guilt, we moved on. We headed to Pioneer Town to have margaritas with friends at the famous Pappy and Harriets and it was filled to the brim with leather and bandanas. (and some shockingly white teeth) I guess the same weekend was a biker rally in Palm Springs. The drinks were strong and everyone was having a good time, it was jovial, but I was secretly was hoping a bar brawl was going to break out because I have always wanted to break a beer bottle over someone's head and string a sentence together that had expletives and scorned woman dialog in between the expletives, but alas, I can't do everything I have never done all at once.

Then we left, taking pictures along the way, speeding steadily towards one of the worst meals I had in 12 years.

carpocalypse-an amendment

When I moved to Los Angeles, I lived in an apartment building for a couple months and there was a caretaker who was a very chatty guy, he spent a lot of time at the Self Realization Fellowship , and liked to talk about that experience with me. I think he thought maybe it would help me in some way, to live vicariously through his spiritual wanderings. He once said to me:

"If you have an issue that is plaguing you and you cannot change that issue to your favor, maybe the only thing you can change is how you react to it."

I was reminded today that I had an original intent when writing the post Carmagideon Time . It was mainly to compare how peaceful carmageddon was to the agony it is whenever Obama comes to town. I think with the experience of Obama coming here, as a rule, in rush hour traffic made people freak out about Carmaggedon a little more than was rational.

Understandably so, Obama coming to town is a beeping, angry mess of near fatalities. Twenty minute commutes turn to hours and it is just a bunch of people sitting in tin cans not moving just getting more and more pissed off, making stupid decisions, almost hitting pedestrians with their cars, just wanting to go home.

I think that is what people expected with Carmaggedon. This, what happened today and what happened a month ago, and what will continue to happen until 2012.

Obama is never not going to come during rush hour.

At first I was angry, then I tried to beat him to my destination and when that didn't work I went to have a dinner with a friend and just let him pass by.

Thanks creepy apartment caretaker.

blogger vs blogger

I love the blogger vs blogger interview. While I am ruminating on HDTS, read the interview lala did with me. Insight perhaps, almost a full photo of my face, oh no!

Doing lala land w/ kitty cattaraugus.

Casta Diva -Maria Callas was one classy lady.

The feeling is mutual

Dear one fan of my blog,

You are very smart and attractive.

love,
kitty

Interview pre-wild west

T and I were sitting at Joe's eating a very hearty breakfast of eggs, hash browns and vegetables and I thought it was the perfect setting to do another "blogger vs blogger" interview.

I have known T for over 3 years now, and she has an amazing blog about exploring the wilds of California called Western Wilds . I have been on some of her excursions. I am referred to as K. She introduced me to tide pooling and for that I am eternally grateful. Before I get all mushy, here is our chat.

Kitty: So, what did you do today?
T: Woke up super early and took a boat to Catalina in the fog.

Kitty: See anything interesting on the way?
T: I saw a super cool Blue Whale w/ a big tail and I am totally going to write about it in my blog. (See here )

Kitty: Where are you from?
T: A little suburb outside of Detroit in the great state of Michigan.

k: Why did you move to Los Angeles?
t: (a pregnant pause) Following my man.. and to go to UCLA to be a librarian, but mainly following my man.

Her man is outside on a park bench recovering from the realization that he is not a sea person. Not a great time to find out. Especially because on the way back it is choppier. And although I was up top, because of the lack of places to sit together, I heard that a baby started a vomiting chain reaction that can only be likened to.. remember that scene with the pie eating contest in Stand By Me, we have all seen it, you know what I am talking about.

k: How long have you been writing your blog?
t: two years-she looks up in puzzlement- I can't remember. I cheated though and went back and retroactively posted. I started the blog in November of 2009, although the posts look like I started the blog in January.

k: why do you blog?
t: before the blog I would keep track of the tides and then decided to share the information w/ others. A close friend V inspired me to explore the world (in SoCal) and wanted to share that with others.

I like to show people that you can escape the city within a half a days drive.

Since starting the blog, many California explorers contact T about things she has seen. She often contributes photos of "what the heck is this" to iNaturalist which is a forum for people to share all the naturey stuff they see and help to identify naturey stuff for other people. They helped identify the 20 legged sea star we saw-which is actually called something I can't remember.

I hope she has inspired you to explore. She and I will be bringing a report to you next month-ish on Mono Lake, one of the many California state parks that they will be closing by next year due to budget cuts. See them while you can.

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Not everyone can be king of the world

Should some things remain a fantasy? When exploring, sometimes what is in your memory is way better than what it actually IS. You wonder then, would it be better left unexplored?

Catalina, for me, was a mysterious place. A place for couples and tandem bikes (they are playing songs of love but not for me...) a place, and I guess I mention it frequently, that was not sold to the US by Porfirio Diaz in that agreement of $1 million and the Brown Berets tried unsuccessfully to occupy in the 70's in the name of Aztlan, because in fact it was owned by no one. (so far from god so close to the united states)

My friend T (interview upcoming) and I bought a Groupon for a half off boat trip and seized our chance to explore this place we both wanted to visit since moving here from our respective places in the middle west. To this place, our fantasy island.

Our boat ride was an hour and forty five minutes, for me a pleasureful journey, because there is nothing I love more than staring into the expanse of the ocean and feeling so insignificant a speck. We passed flotillas of birds, departing planes and were greeted by a Blue Whale who kept us at a safe distance. I missed the fluke w/ my camera. I sat huddled in my hoodie, with a cup of coffee as dolphins welcomed us to the island.

We landed/ported, we walked into town and tried to find a place to eat and we settled on Joe's, where they serve drinks in waxy dixie cups so the tourist population (TP) doesn't cut themselves. I listened as the May-December international romance, tried to decide my nationality. They decided w/o asking that I am Lithuanian and my eyes are green. Curse my amazing hearing.


Next stop, Catalina Conservancy to find tide pool sites (there are none) and other nature goodness we could stumble onto in the short time we were on the Island of Catalina. Our only option was a hike up to the Wrigley Memorial and botanical gardens. A hike where we choked on exhaust from the many golf carts that passed.

I learned many things in this place, like the previous post on what can kill you and what can save your life. What an endemic is and that there is nowhere you can go within walking distance that you can truly feel alone.

In the end Catalina is just a touristy beach town, with its sand dollar key chains, palatable food and a place where you can get a "my boyfriend went to Catalina Island and all he got me was this t-shirt", t-shirt.

Maybe it should have stayed in my memory as this place for lovers and revolutionaries.

intermission

While I get my posts together, enjoy this tidbit I learned while in Catalina.

you can make poison darts.

you can drink this when you are thirsty

don't get them confused.

ask miss kitty

This is for the men out there going on dates tonight. I think it is because you do not know, so I am here to provide a service.

1. Do not talk about porn on the first date

2. Do not ask if their hair color is natural

3. Negging won't get you anywhere, it makes you look like an asshole.

4. Do not say "do you know who you remind me of? (fill in name and description of bitchy character in a movie)

5. Never ask if your date has ever considered plastic surgery

There, if you can remember these five you are already ahead.

smartsexyfunnywomendating

My friends have heard my dating stories as of late, the bad ones, the ones that make me laugh hard. And I of course being the great story teller I am, make them laugh along with me. I had a brief stint in online dating, I met some great people doing really cool things, but there wasn't a connection with a lot of them or they didn't have a connection with me. I had a few socially awkward guys, guys who never had girlfriends before I think. I also had some right assholes.

The best email I received was:

"So, you are from the Midwest, I am surprised you are not fat. You're pretty, I have seen better, but yet you have a certain look about you."

The funny thing was that I got that email on Valentine's Day, after work, two hours before I went to see a Mortified reading. I should have gotten up on stage.

The best comment I had on a date was:

"It seems that you have lived a sheltered life, but at least you have good taste in music."

This from a guy from a small town in Colorado where everyone thinks the same. (that were his words, not me being snarky)

My friends say, "you should start a dating blog" and the funny thing is that I already did. I started it with a group of singlesmartsexywomen, and slowly it just wittled down to just me. I know what I think and that being my 3rd blog, I decided to let it go. I also decided that it would be a bit daunting for anyone who dated me. Would they feel pressured by the blog?

So here it is Twominusone

Too bad I never got to share the story of me being offered the leftovers from a romantic dinner an ex had with his new lady. She got the lobster, I got the booty call.

smartsexyfunnywomenwriting

In another case of smartsexyfunnywomenwriting, here is another blog you may fancy.

Hirzegovina

It is about bikes/music/life/not sleeping/LA/boys not men/art and all the stuff we think about but don't write down.

Enjoy!

Just love this work from Maurizio Anzeri, thanks for the tip Miss hirzegovina

We all float

I made a vow that this summer would be different, I would go to the beach more. I would be in my swimsuit more, I would actually try to make this pale skin of mine turn a color, I would get freckles, I would bury my feet in the sand, I would smell sweetly like coppertone.

I was in my swimsuit twice this summer. (see pictured) both times were very memorable. both times made me happy.

The first was for my birthday, when we rented a mid-century modern house and I locked myself in w/ the greatest friends a person can have and we ate, and swam, floated and sang and schemed. The second, that I will not go into here, just know that it was memorable and still continues to be...

I think I was tricked by LA, as we just finished what is usually the hottest month, a month where I could go to the beach free from the throngs of the Tourist Population (or the TP as we have begun to call them) I am huddled in my hoody drinking tea.

Summer definitely came to an end here this time. A sudden shocking end. It got too cold to wear my swimsuit. And now I'll have to wait until next year.

Wrong. (on the cheap)

If you aren't aware, this weekend marks the kick off of Pacific Standard Time all around the SoCal area. Sunday is also free, so if you don't take advantage of it, it is completely your fault.

And they event have free shuttles going from museum to museum, so again, no excuse.

Asco exhibit=free
3 Getty exhibits=free
Eames exhibit @ A+D= free (did you know Ice Cube is a big collector of Eames furniture, well know you know)
Mexican Modernism in LA=free

Scroll down the website to free admission and see all the wonderful FREE.

I promise it will be great.