Ack! Insanely busy! Wonderful times, but ack!

Let’s see. Saturday I had a chiro appt, then came home and beautified myself, and we headed off to the House of Blues in Anaheim to meet with folks at 2 p.m. to eat an entrée, which would allow us early access into the theatre for the Styx concert. After standing outside, in the chill, on concrete, from about 3:30 or 4 until 7:30 or 8, we were the first ones in. Fantastic concert. Got home after midnight.

Sunday morning we went up to Beverly Hills to see the “Return of the King” displays in the Neiman Marcus windows. Awesome. They had costumes, furniture, banners, flooring, everything. All the stuff that was on the table in Théoden’s tent, for example. We got lots of pictures of Arwen’s bedroom banner, which I’m going to make to hang behind our bed (I noticed it the first time we saw “Fellowship” and I fell in love with it then).

We got home to discover that our friends had already arrived. Tracy and Patrick have been studying in Berkeley, but they’re from South Africa (where we met Tracy). We spent a few hours with them before dashing off to Styx concert #2 in Agoura.

Oh my oh my oh my. The stories I have to tell about that. Which will have to wait until it’s not after 2 a.m. and I’m holding an anxiety attack at bay about all the stuff that needs to be done before we leave on vacation. Of course, when I think about the concert and its aftermath, I have no anxiety. I have a goofy grin on my face. Anyway, we got home after midnight.

Tracy had requested to be “wowed”, so we took them to Hollywood today. Mann’s Chinese Theatre and the stars on Hollywood Blvd. Barney’s Beanery for a late lunch. Up to a close-up view of the Hollywood sign. Universal Citywalk. And then we all saw “Return of the King”, because they hadn’t seen it yet. (We wanted to see it on the Imax screen, but the only showing was too late). We got home at about 10 p.m., ate a late dinner, checked e-mail, drank wine, chatted for a bit.

Then I came in here, prepped a story to mail, got two packages ready to mail, answered about 20 e-mails…

Tomorrow we’ll cruise Mulholland, see Santa Monica and Venice Beach, and eat at Baja Fresh at some point.

Tracey and Patrick leave Thursday morning. We have a New Year’s Eve party (in Victorian/Edwardian garb) that night. We leave Friday afternoon. Ack! We have to undecortate the tree and house. I have to finish and mail another story, finish copy editing, pay bills, and we still haven’t found the box of travel books in the garage. Ack!

Okay, deep breath. Go to concert happy place…