all the places i have been are so close to the places i haven't been

 
Whomever said LA wasn't walkable, doesn't have very good friends or has lost their sense of wonder. Which on both accounts are very sad.

When I first met the talented c and lovely k three years back, they talked about the amazing pilgrimage walk they did as part of their honeymoon in Spain. For practice they mapped their own route here a very daunting walk from LA to Pasadena.  When they described what it was like to walk from neighborhood to neighborhood, I knew I was in.   Part of my love for this city is exploring its nooks and crannies. They just had to name a time and place and I would be there, ready to walk.

We tried once on a fall day a year or so back, but our mission was thwarted by the bottomless bloody mary’s at the Bowery.  As so many missions are.

Our second attempt happened the Saturday after Thanksgiving. With bellies full 7 of us set off determined to make it happen and to also work off all of that thankful goodness. We started on a hill and found ourselves on Alvarado which somehow turned into Glendale, I stopped to take pictures of signs and street art, the back of the heads of my friends.  It was strangely hot. 80 after it had been so cold, I started to regret, the leggings, sweater and coat that were weighing my pack down, making my dress stick to my skin.

I was thankful for our first stop which came so much quicker than I imagined. If you think about walking from Sunset and Alvarado to the Red Lion it doesn’t seem like something you want to do, but it only took an hour-ish.

Pit stop 1-The Red Lion

It was brief, since we got there so quickly and we were determined to move on.  We cheersed our great timing drank up and moved out.

We continued from Glendale blvd to Fletcher took time to take in the LA river a little swollen from the rain.

Pit stop 2- Foster’s freeze

While there, waiting for a chicken sandwich and some cones, we could have had our Stand by Me moment. Hundreds and hundreds of seagulls circling a half a mile up, but out of our way. We deduced it was a dead hooker in the alley. Some of us wanted to investigate, but we felt that it would take us too far off of our plan and we were doing so good.

A mile later we picked up a minute maid carton outside of a McDonald's that we took turns kicking all the way to Eagle Rock, at times it wouldn’t cooperate, would get caught in the legs of strangers, but we showed it who was boss. It was in tatters when we stopped in for a round of spectator bowling.

Pit stop 3- a pitcher at eagle rock (or is it all star) lanes

Everyone was still excited, we cheersed, we stretched, me showing off my tree pose another warrior one, both in dresses, maybe not the smartest. We ate veggies and dip inside the Chinese restaurant inside the bowling alley and left in search of the Oinkster. I had never been and a co-walker went on and on about its fantasticness. I was hungry, and after 3 hours veggies and dip and beer just weren't cutting it.

A wrong/right turn over to Yosemite to shorten up the trip made us miss going to the Oinkster, too far south and east, but gave us a tour of some amazing houses and we stopped to admire the handiwork of a man carving animal topiaries in his lawn, a condo unit with the best pavement for hopscotch and me to take a rest on a broke-down 1980’s dining room chair. Again maybe not the best poses in a dress.

We turned onto Colorado, staring up at the hill that would take us finally into Pasadena, a steep climb up and thankfully the wind picked up giving us the cool motivation we needed. We cheered as we reached the sign proclaiming the Pasadena City Limit and continued on to the bridge which was more beautiful in person, or maybe that was just the euphoria of feeling close to the end. Some of us were so happy that they even tried a cartwheel for the very first time.


We passed the Norton Simon where I have never been, passed the throngs of people who were out holiday shopping in old town who were definitely not moving fast enough for us. We had to make it to our last stop. Lucky Baldwin's which marked the end point for our trip. 


9.7 miles in 5 hours and 40 minutes. An amazing tour of the city I love, places I had never been


And true to the name of the restaurant, we were lucky to have a friend meet us at our end point, and we all piled into her pathfinder, 8 of us giggling like high school kids packed in like sardines. Talking about the next time we are walking. This time to Venice.

P.S. read oranges and avacados post about this walk and it was featured in the eastsider. how awesome. 

Like me or whatever

I created a facebook page for my blog, I figured, why not. I thought it might be a way to write things while I am gone for the holidays. For the 3 or 4 people who read my blog. Post pictures of the snow, etc. The blogger app pretty much blows, wastes your battery in minutes and crashes when you try to post photos. Photos are such a part of the blogging experience.

And I hope to one day put a little like button in the corner, but alas I can't get the coding to work. (I tried so hard) So up in the corner it says "like me or whatever" but there is no action in which to like me.

Secretly I need encouragement.

So if you can find me on facebook, Kitty cattaraugus-the blog, like me, and there will be some bonus material to the posts I am saving up for your reading pleasure.

hidden talent reprise

Oddly when I was writing that last post my cooking buddy sent me an email for a possible round 2 cooking class at the same place. The offer ends on December 22nd. I would do it, but this time of year I ned to think about spending on others. It would however make a great gift, if anyone I buy for lived here.

It is super reasonable. You'll have fun, you'll get tipsy and leave with some skills. Tracey is a great teacher, let's you figure things out on your own and teaches some great vocab. It is a wife and husband team. He cleans, and they yell at you if you try to help.

LA on the cheap-rediscovering a hidden talent

I am loving all the discount emails I am getting groupon, bloomspot, travelzoo, living social. If you haven’t signed up and don’t mind all of the emails, I recommend it. It is a great way to explore your city during this economic crisis. As I mentioned before, I did get the trip to Catalina at half price, normally close to $100. I purchased 10 classes at my favorite yoga studio for $49, regularly $110. I have a Burlesque class at Hell's Belles waiting for me when I get back from vacation. My best purchase came from travelzoo, a French cooking class for $35, regularly $75 dollars at Cashmere Bites.

I had wanted to start cooking again, I am surrounded by people who really know how to cook; make their own sausage from scratch, know how to debone a chicken to make their own galantine, cook down apples to make a sauce that goes over pork belly. I am beginning to feel a bit insecure around my friends.

I used to cook my way through college, a line cook in a southwestern fusion restaurant in Iowa City. The restaurant is no longer, and for good reason. When I left there I could cook a perfect steak, made ancho chili mashed potatoes that would squeeze perfectly through a pastry bag, everyone always loved my jalepeno cornbread. The owner asked if I could make it all the time. (recipes I still wish I had)

I used to love to cook. Would invent things that turn out to be amazing, but when you live with someone who doesn’t like to eat or likes to belittle your cooking skills, you end up ordering out and making a lot of BLTs. Let me tell you, vegetarian Fake-on does not smell good cooking in a pan-although being on a first name basis with Kalia at Sunset Thai isn’t so bad. I am completely out of practice, My cooking prowess now, is being "grill bitch" at my friend’s bbqs.

So now, I have a desire to cook again. To not look bad at my friend’s dinner parties, make meals that make me smile when I bite into them, even if it is just for me. So when a friend sent me a link to the cooking class I think it was a sign I was looking for.

I walked into the cooking/artspace/loft/commercial kitchen a bit nervous. What if after all these years I sucked at something I used to enjoy? I was especially daunted by the fact that our first lesson of the day was crème brulee, which I always thought was so hard, which it isn’t as much as you need a crème brulee buddy and I am so very glad I had one. My friend and I were paired up with this cute British couple, who looked to me as their cooking sherpa, I let it slip that I had some skills and maybe out of lack of confidence or their desire to learn, I backed off and played the role of cheerleader during crème brulee time.

By the time we cooked our coq au vin I was in the zone, but a little discouraged that I couldn’t chop my mirepoix ingredients as fast as I used to. (Maybe I should stop staring longingly at the Japanese knives at Surfas, and just buy one)

Sole Meuniere was by far the easiest recipe and perfect timing because all of the laughing, storytelling, wine drinking was making class go so long that we didn’t get the chance to make the French salad. I don’t know if it was the 3 hour wait, but the food we cooked was so delicious, made with so much laughter.

In the end our eggs were soft yellow, like a baby chick, our coq au vin was gluten/pork free and delicious and I had an incredible pyromaniac joy while liquefying sugar on the top of my crème brulee.

Lesson about French cooking: It takes a lot of time and a lot of ingredients, but it really isn’t that hard.

Note: bring your own wine as well, they provide some, you can drink during class

1899-reprise

I saw her again, the piratess of the mta, this time no butterfly bandage crudely covering her missing eye. There it was in its scar tissue glory, shiny and pink, with an almond sized darkness.

This time she had her shoes on and added a black feather boa to the ensemble.

Sometimes riding on the bus can make you sad, sometimes it is an interesting anthropological study, sometimes it can turn you off the steak you just bought at Ralph's.

Windy aftermath

Sometimes Los Angeles can be ugly beautiful.

I noticed this with the last windstorm or WIND EVENT, as they deemed it in the news, oh so dramatic.

I saw this, Thursday morning, in front of my apartment and had to take a picture of the windy aftermath, it looks very much like Jackson Pollock and his only tools were nature, the bright red plastic cup in the upper left hand side is oddly beautiful. A neighbor stopped to see what I was taking a picture of, he thought it was beautiful too.

I love having a camera with me always, helps me to notice the little beautiful and ugly things about this place.

Trees uprooted reminds me that there is indeed nature here.

I walked around the neighborhood, bracing myself against the windy city and laughed to myself as a THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU bag took flight, swirling and changing shape in the air looking like a sea creature in the sky, when the song below came on my ipod.

That moment couldn't have been more perfect.

I love you Los Angeles.

Furious winds

I was out on a walk today enjoying some fresh air, tubaless-bassless-llorarless sound and catch two PST exhibits. I stopped to get one of the beeps from my cell phone in front of the empty Hollywood Video and saw a sign, I wondered what was going to go into this space, one of the many empty spaces on Wilshire. Upon closer inspection I saw that it wasn't telling me about the new tenant it was something completely different: