This Life

Times are hard. I don't know a living soul that hasn't been impacted in one way or another by this economic mess, (I'm not about to refer to it as a downturn, or a recession, because it's a mess, plain and simple.) I decided to focus on what I do have, to turn my attention to the little things: an economical spaghetti dinner that I prepare and share with my sweet husband, viewing a spectacular sunset from my backyard free of charge, and enjoying a favorite spot in the living room where I relax, read, or contemplate this life.

I imagine life as a room. I am a designer and this exercise works for me. I realize, after examining my experiences, that I have been the youngest in the room and I have been the oldest. I have been the poorest and I have been the richest. I have been the quietest and I have been the loudest. I have been the ugliest and I have been the prettiest. I have been the healthiest and I have been the sickest. I have been the dumbest and I have been the smartest. I have been the narrowest and I have been the deepest.

This is one of the benefits of aging--perspective. And that perspective comes in handy, if you intend to write. I will do my best to use the insight I have gained after experiencing one polar opposite position to another. One such example would be going from being a childless daughter to being a child mother. It occurs to me, as we age the polarization increases in size and scope. Surely that is where wisdom comes from. And every single time some wonderful someone (you) visits this blog to read my words, I am blessed. For that, and sunsets, and spaghetti dinners with my wonderful husband, and quiet time for introspection, I am thankful.

All Rights Reserved. © 2009 by Elizabeth Bradley.

Our Little House Guest

Meet Lita, she's my oldest daughter's dog, but she's staying with us right now. I don't know how much she weighs but it can't be more than four pounds. She's just brought this rock into the house, and she won't let my dogs (I have three) touch it. This is her rock now, to go with the twigs, bark, and leaves that she keeps dragging in from outside.

A couple of years ago, my son and I were driving and I spotted a small critter running down the middle of the road, upon closer inspection I saw that it was a tiny (and I mean tiny) puppy. He got out to save the puppy from certain death, as it was headed towards the main highway, when it saw him it made a quick detour, tumbling into the gutter and trying in vain to scale the curb. He caught her. She fit in the palm of his hand. "Knock on that door, see if she belongs to them." My son knocked on the door of the closest house. Nobody answered. We drove back home.

My oldest daughter already had a chihuahua, Salsa, and she had been making noise about getting another. When we got a good look at the little puppy we could see that it was very young, probably too young to be taken away from her mama, and it was a girl. She was filthy and splattered with orange paint, and literally starving, you could make out her tiny vertebrae and ribs distictly. I called my daughter and asked her if she wanted the puppy, if she didn't I would have to take it to the animal shelter. We were living in the country at the time and our huge yard would have been a hazardous environment for such a tiny creature. My daughter said yes, she wanted the puppy.

We immediately took her into the vet. He said that she was not yet six weeks old. He cleaned her up, and gave us special food to feed her and instructions on how to feed her, as she was starving. My daughter drove out to pick her up and her husband named the puppy Lolita, Lita for short. Salsa and Lita are quite a team. Salsa is black, (see picture above), she's what they call a deer-head, and as you can see, Lita is brown and white and has an apple-head.

I won't go into why Lita is with us in this post, I'll tell you later. I intend to post the story about Oliver and Lita later. That, as they say, is another story.

All Rights Reserved. © 2009 by Elizabeth Bradley.

The Book

Ha! An author thinks the darn thing's done, but it ain't done!

I'm busy going over the proof of my book, Boomer Tales, Please Stand By. Yes, I edited my brains out previously. Impartial editors went at it, but still...there's something about seeing the words lined up on the page in book form. Mistakes and typos rear their ugly little heads. You realize how to make things better, much tighter, more succinct. I was up last night working. There's my favorite teapot, full of Sleepytime, (in hopes that once I go to bed I'll fall asleep and not lie there with words running through my wired mind.) I shot the pic with my trusty cell phone.

Okay, back to work.

All Rights Reserved. © 2009 by Elizabeth Bradley.

Hollywood Gets it Wrong, Again

So, I mentioned that we moved here to Temecula a couple of months ago. There’s a movie out, claiming that it was filmed here in Temecula. Read this short article and my comments will follow:

By JEFF HORSEMAN
The Press-Enterprise

Sal Rosales is a car salesman in Temecula. But that's about all he has in common with Don Ready, the fictional protagonist of "The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard."

At The Movie Experience in Temecula, Rosales and Scott Messier took in the crude comedy, which opened Friday. Afterward, the two said they enjoyed the film, which more than earned it’s R-rating with enough profanity, sex jokes and just plain sex to fill an auto mall.

"The movie (took) any type of stereotype of a car salesman and ... put it in a movie," said Rosales, who works at Toyota of Temecula Valley with Messier, a sales manager.


While Temecula was the setting for a plot about traveling car sellers hired to save a sinking dealership, the city took a back seat to characters played by a group of familiar actors, led by Jeremy Piven of "Entourage" fame.
The movie actually was filmed in Alhambra, not that "The Goods" aimed for accuracy. There are references to "downtown Temecula" -- whatever that means -- and a scene at a strip club. Temecula doesn't have any.
At one point, an "angel" says Temecula is "not even (expletive) Fresno." No one from the movie or its distributor, Paramount Vantage, was available for comment.
Dan Taylor, deputy director of the Inland Empire Film Commission, said Alhambra was likely the filming location because it's within 30 miles of Hollywood. Unionized crewmembers get daily per diems and lodging for films outside the 30-mile zone, he said.
In the real Temecula, most auto dealerships line a stretch of Ynez Road. Auto sales comprise 16 to 18 percent of Temecula's sales tax base, and dealers donated nearly $700,000 in 2007 to local charities and school sports teams, according to city figures.
When asked about "The Goods," Temecula Mayor Maryann Edwards started rattling off Temecula's goods -- selected as one of the top 100 places to live in America by a national real estate Web site; low crime rate; top-notch schools and Wine Country and attractions aplenty.
"If (the movie) doesn't fit with those guidelines, I'd say it's not a fair representation of Temecula," said Edwards, adding she avoids R-rated movies and catches a flick "maybe once a year."
Reach Jeff Horseman at 951-375-3727 or jhorseman@PE.com



MY TAKE:
Okay. My husband works in Hollywood off and on, my oldest son and youngest daughter work in Hollywood, so you could say that I know a little about the town and the attitude of some of the people, (I’ll just say this, most of the people that work there), believe that L.A. is the center of the damn universe. And, (this is coming from somebody that does not think there’s a there there), I’m tired of hearing the Hollywood machine make fun of anyone and anything that does not fit into their narrow view of the world.

Given the choice, and we did have the choice…when we made our move, we considered several options in and around L.A., and we chose Temecula. Why? It’s still somewhat rural out here, but there’s a lot to do. Lots of restaurants, wine country, the weather is pleasant, and the real estate is super-affordable. For what it costs to live in a nice house here in the Temecula Valley, you would have to settle for a hovel in L.A. The sense of community is very strong out here. It’s a family oriented area. My husband has noted, many, many times over the years, people in the Hollywood community tend to think that residing in The Inland Empire, and Orange County is akin to choosing to live on Mars. “You live where?” They like to ask, with a frown on their face. (Even when we lived in L.A. County, not thirty miles away, they would act as if he’d chosen to live in Nome, Alaska.)

In the article above, a line from the movie is quoted saying that Temecula isn’t even f#*&ing Fresno. Fresno is a farming town located in Central California. Hollywood LOVES ragging on poor Fresno. I’m sure the citizens of Fresno are sick and tired of being picked on. They’re accustomed to being picked on. But Temecula?

What’s so great about L.A./Hollywood, anyway? Maybe it’s the freeway gridlock? The Botox/martini parties? The smog? The high ratio of plastic surgeons to the general population? The gangs? The homeless that flock downtown and piss on the streets and in doorways? The flash-in-the-pan starlets that like to climb in and out of cars in front of flash-in-the-pan nightclubs, flashing the paparazzi with their private parts? The over-crowded beaches with sewage pollution?

Chalk it up to ignorance; Hollywood gets it wrong, again.


All Rights Reserved. © 2009 by Elizabeth Bradley.