5:26 AM
such a tourist. Went into LA today via Metrolink for the first time today. With the exception of the Sparks game and Britney concert at the Forum recently, I haven't been to LA for about five years. Just before I moved to San Francisco, I did all the Southern California stuff I could, since I had no idea when I'd be back.

What I love about the ticket is how it has film cameras as the background image. These trains run all over Southern California, but how L.A. is the ticket?

I'm a big fan of trains, I love to stare out the windows and daydream. I read, write and sleep on them easily. The cars are very clean and the seats high enough not to cut into my back. Overall, the train and even the stations, reminded me of Cal Train up in the San Francisco bay area. Some sets of seats even had tables, so I wrote a note in reply to Rosie, my best friend from 7th grade and read further into Harry Potter 3.

I sat on the second floor, as I always do on Cal Train, and took in the view. The foothills and wild flowers are marvelous. It's been so hot, I haven't wandered around nearly enough to take in the area. Sunflowers grow wild here, I saw some in the middle of a junkyard and was reminded of how I fell in love with them when I took botany in college. They are so beautiful and strong. I also think it's amazing that they are not one flower, but formed from hundreds of tiny flowers. What we perceive as "petals" are actually individual, ray flowers growing out of the base. They always remind me of Eric, because he was one of my field trip partners in that class and because they just fit his personality.

It was all very easy, with the exception of getting to the station. There are only two trains into LA on Saturday, one at 7:30 and one in the late afternoon. That meant getting up at the butt crack of dawn and taking a cab because city buses weren't yet running. They really need to coordinate that better. Still, it was very comfy and clean. I even managed to switch to the subway (Metrolink is regional, the subway is just LA County) with no calamities. It's the strangest thing in the world to come out of the subway and find myself in LA, instead of SF or NY. It will take some getting used to, though I'm glad I can get around. I'm not sure I'll ever adapt to driving. Despite the alleged convenience, you can't read, write, daydream or sleep while driving. I've been spoiled by great train systems.

I spent the day with my longtime friend Tracey. We met in 1987, shortly after our names were next to each others on a Dramarama album. Fittingly enough, we met at a Duran Duran show that same summer when I literally bumped into one of the boys from Dramarama after the show. She always jogs my memory of Duran and Dramarama-related incidents. Between the two of us, we can tell the whole story. I'm glad, because with her help, That Book will get written.
...
We originally planned to see Margaret Cho's concert film I'm the One That I Want. I missed it when she was in New York last year. When I called the NuArt on Thursday, it was no longer playing until the 14th, as it said on Cho's site, but ending that very night. I obviously couldn't go in to the city on a week night. The trains don't run late enough, for one thing. We decided to check the newspaper for movies and events over breakfast. Care to guess where we ate?

Man, was it good! Both the chicken and the waffles were golden, crispy and tasty. I thought I'd have the Carol C., one chicken breast and one waffle. Instead, we had the 'Scoe's special, with the chicken smothered in gravy and onions. We ate nearly all of it and were properly stuffed. Although it was breakfast, it ended up covering lunch, too. Overall, I'd reccomend it for the unique combination and execution of the food with a caveat about the service. It's the kind of joint where you don't see the server again until it's time for the check. I would've liked some milk with my waffles and I desperately needed water, since I dropped my bottle behind my wall unit this morning and hadn't yet had any.

As it turns out, the Margaret Cho film was still playing, but at another theatre in the chain. Then Tracey came up with the idea of a movie marathon, which originally started as the result of an LA Times article I read about the current popularity of Peter Pan Syndrome movies. We were going to see Autumn in New York, Chuck and Buck and Tao of Steve. Because Margaret Cho was still in the picture, we decided to see her movie and the last two bad boy movies.

The movie was great, funny and touching. I had no idea how badly the network had treated Cho during the short run of her series, All-American Girl. I knew they'd hassled her about her weight, but I didn't realize how far it had gone. Imagine being told you're not thin enough to play yourself. Christ. It was filmed at the Warfield in San Francisco. When the marquee appeared, Tracey said, "I've been there." Not to be outdone, I replied, "I saw Danzig there." Long story.

We drove all over: the Sunset Strip, Walk of Fame, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. It was all so different from how I remembered it, and yet so familiar. I came of age on the Sunset Strip, you must realize. Backstage at the Roxy and Hollywood Palladium were home for me as a teenager. I thank my lucky stars that Dramarama were the sweetest of men, taking me under their collective wing as a little sister, instead of being seedy and taking advantage of my trust. Only I could befriend a bunch of rock bands and have it be entirely innocent.

Next, we bought our tickets for Tao of Steve and stopped in the Virgin Megastore. I picked up the The Glamorous Life: Live . Not, it's not by Sheila E., but the New York Dolls...trying to fill in my '70s rock vaccum. Also snagged The Monkees' Greatest Hits because all of mine are on vinyl and in storage in San Francisco. Finally, Tracey highly reccomended Bye Bye Baby by Caroline Sullivan. It's about her obsession with the Bay City Rollers. I'm sure I'll be able to relate.

I predict Tao of Steve will be met by the following response from women my age: "Oh. My. Gawd. I dated that guy!" There are many men in my past that I never give a second thought to, but there are a couple I'll always wonder about. One thing I wonder is how much was real and how much were complicated tactics to get laid. Really, just come out with it, I say.

We had planned on seeing the similarly-themed Chuck and Buck, but hunger and the subway schedule conspired against us. We had dinner at a Wolfgang Puck cafe. At first, I thought Trace was jiving me, because I didn't realize he had several cafes in addition to Spago, which is too rich for my blood. The food was reasonably priced, the decor bright and eclectic, the service superb and the view of Sunset (or was it Hollywood?) Boulevard divine. I almost ordered fettucine Wolf-fredo, but since I make that all the time at home, I decided at the last minute to have the salmon on a bed of spinach. It was incredible. I also needed to eat something extra-healthy, because I was still dehydrated and feeling crappy. It fit the bill perfectly.

On the way out, we saw Conchata Ferrell in the elevator and I complimented her Volkswagen wagon. I almost bought one in high school, but the woman wanted $2k for it and it was all rusted out. Afterward, in the car, Trace kept repeating, "Bite me, Krispy Kreme!" Julia Roberts' character's insult to Ferrell's character in Erin Brockovich. I joked that people probably tell her, "Oh, I just love you on 'The Practice!'" (That's not her, by the way, it's Camryn Manheim, raucous fat woman of the moment.) Confidential to Tracey: I was right, she was on "E/R," the mid-80s comedy. What are the odds that George Clooney would be on two entirely different series called "E/R?"

Afterward, we went to Aron's Records and picked up some used CDs. Sadly, I saw at least 15 used copies (more than there were new, btw) of Duran Duran's latest, Pop Trash, which just came out in mid-June. Even sadder, I picked up both promo and commercial copies of it. Also picked up some belated CDs, because I'm at least 10 years behind the times. These were: Pre-History, The Jackson 5; Yes I am, Melissa Etheridge; and No Alternative. God, I've just got to reunite my entire CD and vinyl collection. I'm strewn all about, it's just not right.

Never thought I'd see a subway station at Hollywood and Vine.

I can neither believe how much cool stuff we did, nor how fast the time went. I originally planned to take the 5:45 train back home, but discovered there was another train on a line I hadn't even checked because I didn't know it came to my city. That bought me almost 3 hours, but in the end I was rushing around Union Station. Unfortunately for me, the bathrooms were on the other side of the train tracks so that I passed my train and had to run back. On this particular route, however, it took me 2 hours to get home, instead of one, so I knew I'd never last that long.

It's way past my bed time...

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