The Hazel Project

The Holdiays are in full swing here in L.A.

Lights everywhere. But I see more trees tied to cars than I see set up in windows. A very strange observation for me. Lots of places to buy Christmas Trees and lots of lights strung in windows but few trees decorated for display. The best display I saw was earlier this week near Marina Del Ray. A plam tree with rope lights wound all the way up the trunk. Seriously, this was one of the tallest Palms I’ve seen. 45′ easy!

As a person who is euphemistically Self Employed, I’m quite busy. Maybe my metabolism has slowed down because I figure I have more than enough time to get things done. So I procrastinate in those simple day to day things. Then, instead, take pictures of palm trees and vapor trails and the L.A. skyline. I have 3 or 4 favorite spots that I like to take pictures from.

I secretly wish I could be that guy in the movie “Smoke” who took a picture on the same street corner every week for twenty years. Then put them all in an album to show how the neighborhood has changed. Elizabeth Apartments would have been a great place to do this excercise. Especially since Glenwood Ave. is right around the corner.

There are a lot of pictoral moments I just miss for either lack of a camera being mounted on the VW or poor lighting.

My shcedule of self employment, other than full immersion in the liberal arts, has allowed me to attend the Ugly Sweater Christmas Party. The hosts made veggie pizza with organic pesto & homemade crusts. Their child was the guest greeter. She was wearing Reindeer Antlers with jingles on them. After greeting everyone hello, she hopped on the couch and tilted her head forward to shake them off. This reminded me of my dog. It’s exaclty the same manuever. Everytime. I miss my dog sometimes; and I hope she’s forgiven me for the years I thought a dog wearing a holday costume was a good idea.

This ‘Reindeer’ child was taken with the antlers and enjoyed shaking them with her hands rather than wearing them. AND she is the same 2 1/2 year old that inspired “ahh boogie doot doot doot”. Mostly because her father taught her the word’s to (I think) a Funkadelic song.

One day we had met up for lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen in Hollywood and this sweet demeanored child after being quiet for the entire meal broke out singing:

“get down- get down…bahdrump bahdrump.”

I choked with laughter.

I guess subliminally I thought of a chorus of Pre-K’s all singing in unison, “ahh boogie doot doot doot”. Maybe it sounded better in my head.

Betty has questioned the appropriateness of my lyrics for “ah boogie doot doot doot” but for now they are what they are. It may be scandalous amongst the baptist pre-K’s, but I mean it all, in a good fun way.

Thanks for checking in.

Stephen A. Thomas

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 16th, 2006 at 2:59 pm and is filed under on the path, posts & stories . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.