2003-05-22 10:05 a.m.

Tuesday night was awesome! Traffic wasn't that bad on the 5, just slow at the usual places: Solona Beach exits; the "border stop" leaving San Diego (and I'm not sure why they have a border stop 45 miles north of the border, but whatever); the Los Angeles county line; and the Los Angeles city limits line. But Mapquest did good and the venue was easy to find. I have to say though, Sunset Blvd is so yucky. Bad pavement, scary looking buildings and tons of homeless guys. I didn't think to go to the ATM before leaving San Diego, so I used the BoA ATM on the corner of Hollywood and Vine. Thank God it was still daylight.

While waiting in line for the doors to open I started chatting with these two people from NYC. The guy's name was Shane, I didn't get the lady's name, but they were both cool & Shane was un-spoiled, so I ended up hanging with them for the night. I didn't run into Angela :-( I guess I forgot how hard finding someone in a crowd of 200 or so can be.

Around 6:30ish, they showed some cool videos of Buffy Clips set to "Tonight Tonight" - Smashing Pumpkins; "Silence" - Sarah McLaughlan; and a pop-up video focusing on the hotness that is James Marsters to "I Touch Myself" by the Divinyls. I think a couple more, but I don't remember the who - maybe The Cure... But still, very cool. At 7 Herc made some announcements then they showed some "season montages" but only got through season 5 when 8pm hit.

Being a creature of habit and not the most social person in the world, I was really torn watching the episode. For so many years it's been me, a Mt. Dew & my smokes watching Buffy from the couch. Here I am with 200 strangers and when 200 people laugh at Buffy saying to Angel "What are you 12? Are you just going to come to town and go all Dawson on me everytime I have a boyfriend?" well, it's loud and it lasts too long so I missed other dialogue. And part of Buffy's charm is in the little stuff. But then it was cool too because when you're a diehard over something that a small number of people also love (compared to the masses of people for a show like Friends), it is kind of affirming to know that there are others who get it. Plus I have it on tape to rewatch later. And the huge cheer that everyone gave when we got a Scooby moment from the fist show & the huge gasp when Buffy got stabbed, well, it was just super cool.

Post show I got to meet Amber Benson & James Leary, the guy who plays Clem. Amber is so tiny. It makes me wonder how tiny Ally has to be in real life, because Amber always looked taller & a little heavier than Allison. But AB was beyond cute and so sweet. James Leary was kinda cute without the clem makeup & very funny.

I didn't win anything in the raffle, although I didn't stick around for the full thing. I waited until after they gave away the season 4 dvds (which I guess I'll just have to buy in 19 days - darnit ;-). But around 10:30 I was wiped from the heat on the 5, the crying at the finale & just the fact that I'd been awake since 5 am, so I headed for Santa Clarita :-)

Driving into and out of LA is the strangest thing. From San Diego it's just beautiful until around San Clemente, then the further you go through Orange County, the less beautiful it is. Buy the time you hit LA proper, it's just depressingly ugly (on the 5 - not slamming on the other parts which may be all kinds of wonderful). But when you're going back out on the north side gets ok again around Burbank. But then, when ever I hit the part where I'm about 15 miles from Santa Clarita, the mountains are just breath taking. I really like the SC Valley.

Spending time with David was fun as always. He was pretty worried because his A/C in his apartment had picked the first hot day of the season to die. But he'd been there during the day when it'd been super hot. I reminded him that he lives in a valley & it was 11 at night so I'm sure it'd be fine. And it was. I've gotten acustomed to not needing A/C here in San Diego . But he insisted on asking me 50 times if I'd be cool enough. Finally I just said "David, what would you do if I said 'No'? Can you control the weather & make it magicly 15 degress cooler?" He then saw the logic & calmed down. But part of it was also his nervousness of Shannon's impending visit - which I'm sure I'll mull over at some point here in Diaryland. But for any readers who know my history with David let me just say it's still cool & still getting better.

Yesterday morning started with a big breakfast at IHOP. They really don't skimp on the food, although I will never think breakfast is breakfast without grits. Stupid hashbrowns. *insert eye roll here* But the food was enmasse and I wasn't hungry again until about 8pm last night.

I braved the heatwave to drive home, and as soon as I got in the door I turned on my A/C for the first time. Remember when I was complaining that it never gets hot here in SD? Well, I guess God tired of the complaining and said "I'll show you!" And he did. And I know compaired to the 31 summers I went through in NC, 83 degrees with 66% humidity should be a walk in the park, but I'm acclimated now. Where ever I move next, I hope I acclimate as quickly as I did to the weather here.

Yesterday afternoon was nice. I napped, got up in time to run to the post office and get my care-package from Matt in NYC, (that man is so the coolest :-), then chilled on the couch for a couple hours until I went to bed quite early. I did get phone calls from Dusti & Maria making sure I was taking The End of Buffy ok. And I'm actually surprised that I really really am cool with it. I'm quite happy with the whole thing.

Mario called also, and I had to give him hell for being engaged since February & not telling me. He replied with "and the last time you called me was....?" touche. But he seems happy. What I don't understand is why when people get engaged, they then think that everyone they know also needs to be in a relationship. I tried to explain to him that I'm very happy sans boyfriend, but he just couldn't seem the grasp the concept. Mario being Pro-Settling-Down? What's the world coming to? ;-)

So now it's Thursday & I'm back at work. Yay? I think not. I have a meeting at Solona Beach in 2 and 1/2 hours so I should get my butt in gear getting their packet ready. And then just keep reminding myself there's only one more day until a 3 day weekend :-)