Lalaland with Kate

Kate has been my bestie since we met in 1992. I am grateful for her laugh, her grump, her wisdom and advice in all things (except record players) and her love and loyalty.

LA is exactly what I thought it would be and also different. All the typical places I visited seemed so familiar. Rodeo Drive and Beverly Hills 90210 looked and felt exactly as seen on TV. I asked Kate, "do movie stars live in Beverly Hills?" She said, "I don't think so."

What was different were the places I hadn't seen on TV, like where Kate, Alex and Andrew lived- a section of LA called Los Feliz. It's a little modest/upscale neighborhood in the middle of Hollywood. It has a little intersection of trendy but not ostentatious restaurants like Mexico City, and Messhall and Little Dom's. The people all look fabulous, but all wear athletic and leisure wear. Random celebrities, like Tim Roth, eat along side of you.

The day after I arrived Alex, Hope and little Gio joined Kate and I for a neighborhood hike up to a scenic view with a panorama of all places in LA and the snow capped mountains that line its outskirts. The observatory from Lalaland was right there! And the skyscraper from Die Hard was there in the distance. Gio was more interested in a crack in the pavement that yielded some dirt that he could throw.

We brunched at the Four Seasons (!!) and saw a favorite character from Game of Thrones and a few other celebs. We took a long drive out to Santa Monica so that I could very ceremoniously dip my toe in the frigid waters of the left coast. It was wonderful and oh so California, with people working out on the beach, including a group performing some sort of aerial gymnastics.  At each stop we sipped another glass of wine or a cocktail, as one does in Lalaland.

Kate hosted a little soirée with her friends on Saturday night and we drank bottle after bottle from her recently procured Napa run. We tried to keep the evening indulgent, but kept slipping into politics. Lots of questions and fear, just like everywhere else. The typical echo chamber of lamentation, anger and paralysis.

It's this weird feeling: spoiling myself with food and drink and me-time and, best of all, Kate-time, while knowing things in the US may be irrevocably damaged. Knowing that suffering around the world and in this country will grow exponentially, that my own privilege and standing in life will soon be under direct threat while those so underprivileged bear the onslaught already.

We missed a Hollywood moms resistance session we planned to attend. My friend Jessi, who started the group and who is freaking out as much as the rest of us, was particularly dogmatic about physical presence. "We need to get off the internet and be together in person!" She's right.

It was time for my Lalaland bubble to deflate and return to my boys and to the resistance. But jeez, what a town to escape to every now and again!

Thanks for a great visit to Lalaland. Now back to our regularly scheduled resistance. Stay gold kategrodd!