A journey from Los Angeles to Seattle on Highway 101, seeking out view spots for picnics… and old car junk for Clark.
Day 2
May 19, 2014
Redondo Beach
Parrots! Parrots in the tree outside our window, waking us up with their noise; I hesitate to call that ruckus a song. At home it’s robins that wake us, with a chirping melody that sounds vaguely like “Rawhide.” The parrots, they’re just loud. Susan tells us that they fly up from Mexico.
Clark went to Long Beach, to the Marriott, for a work meeting about the conference he organizes every year. I went for a walk along the waterfront with Harry and Susan, Blitz and Belle. Man, those dogs love to smell stuff.
Harry and Susan, Blitz and Belle walking along the waterfront of Redondo Beach.
After Clark returned, everyone sat at the kitchen island while I did a run-through of my “Beware of Scrumpy” pitch. Oy. So glad we did the run-through, as it revealed an intense need for me to narrow down which plot points I was going to hit. As it was, I must have talked for forty-five minutes or more, when I’m aiming for fifteen minutes. Terrible. Harry has pitched ideas to studios before, so was able to give me the benefit of his experience. Tomorrow we’ll work on getting the pitch condensed. Aie yai… I am so grateful for their help. I need it.
A mock-up of a cover concept for my kids’ book.
Afterwards, I acted as sous chef for Harry as he made larb for dinner; it’s a dish that requires a lot of chopping of herbs, galangal, shallots, etc. We ate while watching “The Thin Man” on DVD – and I, Susan, and Clark all fell asleep and missed whodunnit, as meanwhile Harry made a dessert of sticky rice, coconut milk, and mango. We woke up to eat, of course.
The dogs seem to like us better tonight… We’ll see if the effect lasts until morning, or if they wonder who we are when we emerge from the guest room.
