The Love Boat

The pastors' conference for the PSW was held on the Carnival Paradise this year. I had never been on a cruise of this magnitude - only having done such things as SF bay cruises on the Red and White Fleet or on a Coast Guard ship, and little jaunts, say, from the Yucatan over to Cozumel or Isla Mujeres - but nothing even close to the magnitude of a cruise ship. Some of the time you don't feel like you're moving at all, at other times you felt a gentle roll, and still others you could really feel like you were moving. My first shower at home, I really noticed that my shower was still!

Overall, it was a fun time - of course, the presented theology was questionable, and I did manage to get sick at one point, but all turned out just fine.

We sailed out of Long Beach, right next to the Queen Mary, with stops in Catalina Island and Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.

Our schedule was:
Monday: Board ship - register for conference - dinner at assigned spot
Tuesday: Morning sessions for the pastors - then afternoon in Catalina
Wednesday: Morning session - rest of day and evening in Ensenada
Thursday: Divine Service - rest of day at sea
Friday: back in Long Beach

Now... my thoughts on each day? So glad you asked. =)

Monday:
We had to check in (long line) at the Queen Mary for our trip on the Carnival Paradise. Of course, there had to be a snafu with my ID card, so instead of being released to another long line to board, after going through security, I had to get a new card printed. OK, now that's done, do we really have to get back in line to wait to board? Well, no, we just sidled along down the customer service section into what we thought would be boarding. Oh ho, no. What happened next was the first of many similar experiences: Take a photo. Of course, to get your photo, you have to pay, but they also don't want you to necessarily pass on the opportunity for the photos, either. Joy. Photo done - can we board now? No. Take the escalator upstairs for your official record photo for ID/safety. Glasses off, please. Now can we board? Ha ha ha, noooooo - another "fun" photo! We just went behind the folks on this one and boarded!

OK, uh, now where? We can't get to our room until 1:30... which is still almost an hour away. Oh, well, let's at least try to find our room so we know where we're going, then we can see about the conference stuff. We get to our deck and the stewards are not terribly happy that there are people in their halls: "It's not 1:30 yet." "But we just wanted to FIND our room." "It's not 1:30." Uh, yeah, got that, thanks. At any rate, our steward was actually working in our room at the time, and finished it right away, then calmed down.

Lots to see! How big is this ship? Will we see everything? Pictures! Camera! I really like these blue egg things!

Let's go outside. But first let's look at the pretty glassSensory/stimulus overload much?

By this time, we still hadn't left the harbor, and a nice couple offered to take our photo
I wonder if the order of these flags has significance
We were not given a conference packet upon check-in, nor were there signs stating "Welcome PSW Pastors" or "Conference in such-and-such room at such-and-such time" so we finally went to the customer service desk on board ("passenger service") and, hoo hoo, she couldn't find any information, either. She called a couple people and confirmed we actually were on the right vessel - the conference registration is going on NOW, she told us. OK, hightail it up to whatever deck and whatever room! Whew, we're here and must be at the end because there's hardly anyone here. Ha ha - yeah, it hadn't even started yet. In fact, we were told to "sit down" by the District VP because they weren't ready yet. Funniest thing of all? They had not packed the conference schedule, so no one had one. So we just sat. The conference was actually held in a "lounge," which is a fancy name for a bar, really. Here you go: The Queen Mary Lounge This is also where we saw a really bad karaoke show later that night and comedy shows a couple different nights.
Because registration was running late, we had to pretty much go back to our room to get ready for dinner, since we had assigned seats that night. We were at an interesting table - but did meet one really fun couple. After dinner we ended up going to a game show which was really silly, then wandered to karaoke. Wow. That's all I need to say, I think, on that.

That's enough for one post, I think! The other days will get their own posts, too.

Some filming locations at the end of September

It's always been interesting for me when I see movies/TV shows that were filmed in places that I recognize from having been there.  Now that we're in Los Angeles, the opportunities to see actual filming often presents itself.  Now, having said that, we've gone to a few locations, but so far we've only seen crew, not cast.  Ah, it's still fun because some of these locations are beautiful!

455 Lorraine - NCIS shoot

 This was an NCIS shoot at 455 Lorraine.  What a lovely neighborhood.  Of course, this property was hidden by super tall shrubbery, but we did get a peek into it as we walked by.  The fountain in the front is larger than our entire back yard just now!  But what an awesome place for entertaining!!
At this same location, we saw this pretty house

and

Sukkot, 24 Sept 2010

some Jews selling wheat for Sukkot. It was not too far from sundown, so I'm guessing they were approaching anyone they saw on their way back to the temple.  Also, the young one asked if I were Jewish.  I wanted to tell him, "Well, actually, YES!" but he wouldn't have understood.

The same day, we just barely missed the "House" shooting:

5885 Club Drive, Cheviot Hills, LA

This Cheviot Hills area is another section of the city that is very tree-lined with lovely houses.

A busy afternoon, we also tried to see the "Castle" shoot... which we determined by the address was at a corner bank downtown... but we only managed to see the costume lot. 

Spring St, downtown LA

Based on the amount of police presence, closed streets and the fact that the costume lot was pretty active, we figured they actually hadn't started shooting yet, but since it was heading on dusk on a Friday downtown, we decided to head back to the 'wood.

In the past month....

I haven't posted, but I have been taking photos!

 I have seen tarballs come up from the Pacific Ocean. Oh, and these smell something fierce. You can't smell them just being next to them, but pick one up and your hand smells like oil for a bit! Phew!!!

 and jellyfish, too.  These are so strange - they are clear as anything and look like a blob of well, just clear gel..

 This was a fantastic crepe I had at a place next to the Beverly Center.  Mangoes, strawberries and kiwi.

 We saw the spinning ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier

 and went to a potluck at the

 California office. The cucumber cups filled with red pepper hummus were awesome.  B made them from my idea.

 This house in Beverly Hills has a menagerie in its yard.

 This house in Beverly Hills is just lovely.

 The corner.

 A very tasty bhindi pyaaza I made. Great way to prepare okra. No slime, it's quick and very flavorful.

 A mass of people waiting for their American Idol audition at The Los Angeles Forum. Since we live 2 blocks from the joint, we walked over to check out the hubbub. There wasn't much hubbub.

 Guess where Mom and I ate when I visited over Labor Day weekend? 

 Why, Shalimar, of course. All that food was $10 - the salad and the dessert were "complimentary" from my buddy Kamran there. In addition to those two items, we had masala chai, saffron rice, naan, palak aloo methi and chana masala. Needless to say, we had no dinner that night.

 I made this from while grain pasta to which I added a fig-alfredo sauce, capers, fresh sage and freshly ground black pepper. YUMMY.   A lady at church brought us figs every Sunday for several weeks, so I had to come up with some ways to use them before they went bad. Some didn't make it, but alas.

 A millet-bell-pepper-onion curry that was easy and tasty with lots of protein.

 Another use for figs: fig-strawberry cinnamon rolls.

 Overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Laguna Beach.

 The highway at Laguna Beach.

 B looking into the Pacific Ocean at Laguna Beach after doing a Christian committal at the Riverside National Cemetery.

 A lifeguard station near El Segundo.

 Another okra quick saute with bell pepper, onion, parsley.

OK, so here's the thing...

While on one side of where I live you get the pics below, on the other side you get this:

Manhattan Beach

Manhattan Beach

The Pacific Ocean at Venice

It's just that I live in a place that is very diverse within just a few miles. One can be in the heart of the ghetto or in the midst of high glam in the span of about 20 minutes.

random week

1. Eight-Trey territory - pizza
So we went to this pizza joint in South Los Angeles called Jino's. We thought it'd be OK - and it wasn't too far, just east on Manchester a couple miles. It wasn't bad and we got a large cheese pizza with peppers AND an order of wings for B - and while we were waiting for it, B had a beer.... and it was all something like $11. Across the street is illustrated in the photo. Businesses right next door to each other have different area codes. Additionally, we were right in the middle of Eight-Tray gang territory.  Yep, we did see some guys in blue walking into the liquor store across the street or riding around on a bike.
 
2. Walgreens in 4 gang territory
Couple days later I went to a Walgreens closer than the one on Century (in former Crenshaw Mafia Gangster Blood territory in an area of Inglewood formerly referred to as The Bottoms) and when I returned, I checked out my handy-dandy "gang territory locator" and discovered I'd been in 4 different gang territories in the time it took me to go a mile and a half to get to Walgreens. Now, if I hadn't known, I'd just think I was kind of in any other inner city.

3. visiting the 96 year old
We visited a 96 year old woman from the church, and she died 2 days later.  What a blessing that B could communicate the Body and Blood of Jesus to her at that time.

Scenes From The Hood

I have neglected this space, but it really has been an adjustment here. More than I expected, really. I mean, the weather's great - there's none of the sticky heat from Fresno - and yet, just the process of moving, with boxes everywhere - and not having loads of energy to do much.... causes some stress.  I have had requests for lunch meetings and brunch networking, but the social anxiety has prevented me from doing much at all.
B and I are doing day trips, though, which is nice.  Sometimes just a few mile car ride to the Pacific Ocean.  It's like a double-edged sword, really.  With me working, I'm too tired at night to do anything - but with me not working, there's the stress of $......
But what I have been doing is take some photos of some weird and wacky things I see as I live and wander in South Central Los Angeles. It is a much different place than it was, say, from what one might remember from the films "Colors", "Boyz N the Hood" and "Menace II Society" , which did portray the 80s and 90s drug use and gang violence of the neighborhood where we live and the immediate surrounding areas.  South Central was one of the worst parts of the state and the nation to live. But apparently in the past 10 years, violent crimes has decreased by 57% and overall crime by 43%, according to the Inglewood Police Department.

I mean, there are certainly still gangs here, and I keep looking for which territory is where, but for the most part, it's just a gritty inner city.  I haven't heard gunshots, though there is a lot of fire truck and ambulance activity, which could very well be because we're on a main thoroughfare to a hospital - and is totally not gang-related at all because I don't see the reports on the news.
So....  herewith.... (and remember, click on any photo to increase its size!!)

On Century Blvd in Inglewood - near Jesse Owens Park and Western,  I think

Now I don't know what all the tagging is, but here are some thoughts:  There's a Crip gang called the Rollin 100s...you can see the word Crip marked out on the left and Hard Time.... 104 Hard Time Hustlers..... and there's a lot of crossouts to the letters, but the Ks are still visible. So what does this mean? It kinda looks like some Crip gang is challenging lots of the others that are listed on this wall. When K is added to some other identifying mark, it stands for Kill. So it's a threat. Nice, huh? 

Moving right along then....

I had to take a shot of this bench. This "books n' things" store ships to prisons and it wants you to know about it.  It just really makes a statement about the surroundings when the advertisement shouts such a thing.  While the store is about 2 and a half miles from where I live, the bench is near a bus stop about a mile closer to me, near a Walgreens I wanted to check out.

Want another? 

 

This former Academy Theater is now a church. This is almost at the corner of Manchester and Crenshaw. Lots of old theaters in lots of inner cities have become churches.  I went to a drama performance once in Oakland where this happened, and there are churches in downtown Fresno like this, as well. There is a church on almost every block in Inglewood. Either that or a psychic. And it's not just Inglewood - it's South Central and beyond into other parts of LA.

Which brings me to Crenshaw. Oh, everyone's heard of Crenshaw. A virtual free-fire zone in the 80s, this strip of road and it's neighborhood (with Leimert Park) was one of the 80s most violent in all of LA, dominated by gangs and crack. Now, however, it's home to the only 3-story WalMart anywhere and let's just

say you better bring a cart in from outside 'cause otherwise you're carrying stuff around all over the store and through the rest of the mall because it's your first time there and you obviously didn't know where to park.  The area is soooooooooo much safer now, so there's no problem in going there at all, at least during the day!  I mean, after all,

Crenshaw is Obama country!

Hope you're well. xxxoooxxx

Well, Here I Am!

Today:
Left Fresno early
Got to Inglewood, stopped at PetSmart before even coming home in order to get new litter boxes for the kitty
Went to the condo - it's not actually as bad with boxes as I expected, but I'm too tired and don't really know where to begin unpacking.
Took B to Untion Station so he could go back rto Fresno to finish things up.
Took a nap.
Kitty seems to be adjusting fairly well so far.
But I feel a little overwhelmed being here by myself right now.

That being said, I'm excited to be here!