food, fun, gotta run

i was totally excited to be joining a few of the SFAMs for sunday brunch at the kitchen in silverlake. i love how i get to try out all sorts of fun places to eat whenever i meet up with them - i'm so not a worldly kinda girl. if it's not within 25 miles of home, or reported in us weekly as a celeb hangout, i've most likely not heard of it. heh.

so after church was over, i left the hub and the bean (who were attending a luncheon at the church with his africa teammates), dropped off the kid at her BFF's house (which was, of course, in the exact opposite direction, but she'd rather poke her eyeballs out than come to lunch with her old hag mom and friends), and hopped back onto the freeway. since the car seat is in my car, i was driving the hub's big ass boat. okay, it's just a tahoe, and it's not that big, but whenever i drive it, i always feel like i'm steering the friggin' queen mary around.

and what does that mean? i was driving with no navigation system.

but before i left the house, i printed up a yahoo map via the restaurant's website. so i was driving merrily along, running a little late, but not TOO much so. i texted WeeMo to let her know and drove my happy ass through the 210, the 134, and down the 2.

and then i somehow managed to miss my turn, and ended up in freakin' downtown. oy vey. i got all the way to wilshire before i realized i was way too far. i cursed yahoo maps, the lack of navigation in the boat, and then realized that the hub always has current thomas guides in there. whee! i pulled over, reached behind me, and pulled out...the thomas guide for san bernardino and riverside counties. fucking great.

but then i reached into the pocket of the passenger seat and hit the jackpot. i found my way to the map page showing where i was, flipped over to find where i needed to be, and after laughing at and kicking myself over my lack of direction, i made a couple of u-turns, sent WeeMo another text message, and finally found the damn restaurant. finding no street parking and the rear lot completely full, i took a chance and parked in the mcdonald's lot right next door.

as i flung the door open and walked in, i noted a sign that said "don't park in the strip mall parking lot OR mcdonald's - they will tow!" shit. but i was hungry and 45 minutes late, so i pushed the thought aside and joined the girls, seated at a great table right in front. they'd been sharing an order of garlic mac 'n cheese and i was pretty damn excited when the monkey slid over the plate - they'd saved me some! so sweet. and it was yummy. yay!

as i perused the menu, their orders came and i eyeballed what they'd all chosen - pear pancakes for tater, breakfast sandwich for the monkey, and scrambles for lilcee and jane. having already had a bagel earlier that morning, i decided to forego sweet for savory and ordered herbed baked eggs with bacon (of course) and potatoes.

i was pleasantly surprised when i was served really quickly - like 5 minutes after the others! yay for me! and then we all laughed when the server set my plate down and remarked "ah, it's nice to see you were able to join the joy luck club. ooh, that wasn't offensive, was it?" too damn funny. the monkey made a comment about mah jongg and we all cracked up again (including the server).

after we'd all shared our entrees with each other and were stuffed, we sat around chatting for a while about jane's upcoming wedding (this coming saturday!), the marathon training, and the monkey's shopping trip with her grandma (and she held up her fabulous new marc jacobs bag for us to ooh and ahh over). she also mentioned that she and lilcee were heading over to a running shop in pasadena to check out the gear, plus she wanted to get fitted for shoes. this was something i wanted to do as well, and it was on the way home, so i invited myself to their party. yup. that's just the way i roll.

outside, we said goodbye to jane (and wished her luck for the following weekend) and tater and then split up to make our way to pasadena. as i left, i noticed this sign:

ooohhhh, pioneer chicken! talk about a blast from the past. i thought they'd all closed down! i remember stopping at pioneer chicken after school to pick up a late lunch and flirt with my crush, who worked there in his quest for a new car. damn. too bad i was full.

i checked the trusty map again for the quickest route back to the freeway and ended up winding through several residential streets before finally finding that there was no on-ramp for the freeway via the route i'd taken. fucking hell. i cursed my lack of direction yet again, consulted the guide, and managed to find my way back to the 2. i picked up the pace a bit, figuring i'd be late yet again, and as i got off the freeway, i totally cut off a red SUV - and then i clapped my hand to my mouth in horror - was that the monkey?? aw, hell.

as i sheepishly passed the SUV, i peeked over and sighed with relief when i realized it was just some random dude in a replica of big red. i grinned, waved "sorry!" (i'm such a bitch) and went on my merry way. i swung into a spot on the bottom level of the paseo colorado parking structure and trotted my ass up to the shop, called "a snail's pace." cute.

and guess what? i was the first one to arrive! i wandered around aimlessly for a few minutes, drawn like a magnet to the pink shorts and tees, before i was finally approached by the guy who'd been standing at the cash register. "do you need some help?" indeed.

and as i was pulling some socks over my janky, haven't-had-a-pedicure-in-months toes, lilcee walked in. "did you run yet?" she asked. and dammit, i sure hadn't. i was dreading this part - where i got to run from one end of the store to the other, so that the shoe guru could observe me in an effort to determine the best shoes for me. oh, well. i gamely put the trial shoes on, noticed how light and comfy they were, jumped up and down a little, and did my run - feeling like such a fool.


anyway, it turns out that my feet turn slightly inward when i run, which meant i needed shoes that offered a bit of correction. i'd never known there was such a thing, and the guy showed me that when you turn a shoe to the side and there's a gray-colored area on the arch, that signifies a shoe with correction. eeeeeeeenteresting.

the monkey got there as i was about to try on my second pair of shoes, and after a potty run she was ready to be fitted. shoe guru had us put our purses in a super secret compartment for storage (um, in the chairs, yup) and led us back to the corridor through a door in the rear of the store. this is where the monkey got to do her trial run (courtesy of lilcee, as i'd left my damn camera in the car):




hee!

i laughed at these socks with a silly ass name:


and here's the scariest picture of the monkey i've ever seen, with a pair of running shorts we had to talk her out of buying ;)


so anyway, i, of course, gravitated toward the most expensive pair of shoes that i had to choose from. damn. i handed over my card quite hesitantly, thinking of how the hub was going to KILL me for this, considering we've got a trip to new york coming up, not to mention that the kid's decided to throw her hat in the ring for a chance at a school trip this summer to tokyo.

he still doesn't know about 'em. they're in a bag in the closet. i'm debating returning them and finding another pair elsewhere for cheaper. shhhhhh.