My delicious weekend.

Yep, feeling better, alive, enjoying my life.  Still, I keep hearing from my friends that I "should" be dating.  I agree that it would be pretty cool to have a great guy for company, in and out of the bedroom, but it's just not happening lately, so I thought I'd share what an attractive and eligible single girl over 50 does in LA to have fun on a weekend.

I do admit that it wasn't such a terrible week at work.  My boss was relaxed and even cracked some jokes and, drumroll, ended the week by saying good-bye to me and asked, "we had a good week, didn't we?"  I was speechless, this coming from a doctor who rarely if ever notices our needs or what goes on around him.  And then I had the pleasure of meeting a good friend, the one who works in another doctor's office and totally understands my work-day angst, for a yummy dinner (and marguerita for me and dirty martini for her). Really, there's this bond we women friends have that cannot be matched by even the coolest guy.  We just "get" each other and that kind of understanding and support is priceless.

And Saturday?  A 90 minute hike with my 7-year-old twin grandchildren in Aliso Canyon, an amazingly natural land hidden in the midst of our big suburb north of Hollywood.  Up and down we walked on the hills of the trail in surprisingly cool weather after a week of 100+ temperatures, stopping for the kids to swing on ropes across a   now dry creek or to check out horse poop and figure out who matches the animal tracks.  We're walking and walking and the little girl is way ahead and the little boy behind me, enjoying his newly found branch that he uses as a hiking stick and we're having this discussion about what is the difference between a bunny and a rabbit when, really I'm not kidding, a cotton-tail bunny scampers across our path. Never saw another one the whole time, but heard a great variety of bird calls and saw lots of wildflowers tucked between the blackened tree limbs from last winter's fire. A change of clothes and a big drink of cold water and then we're off to lunch with another very dear friend who enjoys the children and clearly they adore her.  Plus I get the pleasure of watching them have conversations with her about their week, the girl's first sleepover at a friend's house, and the little boy taking his role as brother very seriously by gently poking and pushing her while she talks, giggles, and then ignores him.  Aaaaaahhhh, there are no troubles in the world when in the company of those wonderful little people and a girlfriend I love and appreciate more than words can say.

And Saturday night?  Karaoke!  Without any of my usual single girlfriends, I met up with a new and struggling singles group and formed a singing group I named "The Girls" so any of the ladies in the crowd could join in.  And we sang for two hours!  Picture Motown and Neil Sedaka and Broadway tunes with four or five or six of us "girls" moving and grooving and singing to the music.  Oh, no, I'm not a singer, nor have I ever participated in Karaoke, but this was really a blast.  Me and my new friends finished our evening after Karaoke by sitting on the restaurant patio, listening to a live band sing songs from the 60s to the present.  Brave me, I went up to the guys during the break to tell them how much we enjoyed them and found out that one guitar player was older than me and the singer was my daughter's age and together they were grand.  Need a really cool band for a party?  Call "Last X" at 323-360-2469 or email them at lastexit1@live.com.

And there's more!!!  Slept in until 7am on Sunday morning, leisurely did some household chores and made my favorite hot cereal for breakfast and then drove to Burbank to usher with three friends at the Colony, a wonderful little theater tucked into the Burbank mall near an Ikea.  It may be a small theater, but the plays are professional and full of heart and this one is no exception.  Titled "Free Man of Color" from the theater's website, "A stirring drama about one of the first freed slaves to graduate from an American university — and he did it almost 40 years before the Emancipation Proclamation. Based on a true story, Free Man of Color explores the life of John Newton Templeton, a fascinating but forgotten figure in our history. A young African-American scholar, he learns in the course of the play that with freedom comes great responsibility and that his future is not as obvious as the color of his skin. Winner of the Joseph Jefferson Award for Outstanding New Work in Chicago, Free Man of Color speaks to the humanity in us all and reminds us that true freedom is derived not from the law but from determining our own destiny."   Then, a walk through the mall and dinner at Pasta Pomodoro, a little but amazingly good Italian restaurant where I ate butternut squash stuffed ravioli with the most delicious sweet topping and a side order of spinach grilled in virgin olive oil and garlic. It hardly gets tastier than that.  A walk back through the mall with a quick stop for a free See's candy for dessert and then a twenty minute drive back home to feed the cat, get into my jammies, tidy up the house a bit, and then crash in front of the TV to watch Drop Dead Diva.  Pretty cool Sunday, huh?  Oh, I almost forgot that I started a thread on my facebook page, saying "I want (need) to take a vacation - anyone want to go?" and surprisingly I got quite a few responses already, saying plan it and we will go!


So would a great guy fit in?  I'd make the room for him, I promise.  But I'd sure not give up those totally memorable moments with my grandchildren and my women friends.  Never!