Nobody Knows Anything

Welcome to Diane Patterson's eclectic blog about what strikes her fancy

Insomnia

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It’s 1:15am, I’m even kind of tired, but I cannot fall asleep. It’s like I’ve drunk a pot of espresso without the thrill of, you know, actually trying to down that much coffee. I don’t have an account on WoW (if you’re going to be up at this hour, at least make it count, right?). I can’t write—I was kind of hoping I’d have a dream tonight that would help me past my current plot problem.

Ugh. I don’t even have any good munchies around here. What did I do to deserve this?

Tuesday morning: Ugh. Last night was a recent minima for me: at the very most I got three hours, and I’m pretty sure it was two or fewer.

Tuesday evening: Darin comes home tonight with not one but two pints of Godiva Belgian Dark Chocolate ice cream (the best bar-none mass market chocolate ice cream out there). He said, “I read on your blog you didn’t have any munchies last night and that’s not right.” I love this man.

Nota bene

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Another addition to my list of things to remember:

Diane, you have to write every day, because if you don’t write for a couple of days it’s like marching through sludge.

I am so not having a great writing day.

Also, trying to incubate a dream on my story (as in, “Give me the plot mechanics for how such-and-such should happen!”) appears to be working yet. Sigh.

Things about LA

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  • Darin had forgotten the phrase “on the bubble.” We heard it again during the first few hours we were here.
  • Boy, there sure are a lot of billboards here, aren’t there? And most of them are the size of the sides of buildings.
  • Most of the billboards are for the movie Spanglish and the TV show Alias. Judging by the number of billboards, Spanglish is obviously the big holiday winner, right?
  • Jeez louise, there really is a lot of traffic in LA, isn’t there? Getting anywhere requires hitting at least 20 stoplighted intersections.
  • Michel Richard does make excellent pastries. But I am happy to report that the French patisserie near our house makes better pains au chocolate. Now if only they’d make baguettes. (Yes, I know that’s the job of the boulangerie.)
  • We’d forgotten you need to keep an eye out for celebrities at all time. The Michel Richard site reminds us though: “Don’t be surprise to see Hollywood celebrities lingering at the sidewalk tables, munching on croissants and espresso!” Okay, I won’t be surprise!
  • One of the billboards we saw was from the LAPD reminding us not to shoot off our guns to celebrate the holidays. Well, okay, if you insist. Darin reminded me we’ll be safe indoors, away from windows during the celebrations.
  • At one party we were at someone reported seeing that sign and saying, “Finally! Someone has taken out a billboard asking the LAPD not to shoot people this holiday season!”
  • Boy, those LAPD helicopters sure are something, aren’t they? Particularly at 1am. Yes. That is oh-so-fine.

I learned on this trip that while there are certain things I miss about LA (primarily the people, but a few things as well), I don’t miss the whole living-in-LA thing at all. At. All.