Daily Candy

SDH called on my way out the door this morning. He talked me in the way to work, entertaining me with a hilarious tale about cleaning out his parents basement and discovering his elementary school autobiography.

What a terrific idea - I want to assign it to my unborn children. Not that I am thinking of a list of tasks to assign my future spawn, but this idea is grand. I wish everyone I knew had one - an autobiography from one of their super-goofy years- hopefully including pictures of their wardrobe, maybe their coolest outfit and their bedroom.

It's not that I had an unhappy childhood, just confused I guess. I delight in hearing about childish perceptions of self and what little we noticed around us. Most everyone I know (myself most certainly included) was such a ding-dong. I love the mistaken song lyrics and turns of phrase. I like knowing who sucked their thumb and who wet their bed. There is something so comfortable about how far away in years and development everyone's childhood is from them and at the same time how often current habits of my adult friends help you peek into unhealed childhood wounds. Mostly, I love the fashion.

SDH was a jeans pegger for sure- this is because he was a bad ass. He BMXed and listened to hip-hop and thought he had a great shot at going pro because of his skills on the basketball court. I wanted to be an interior designer or architect. I had tons of graph paper note books. I used them to sketch out floor plan after floor plan of dreamy 80s palaces as well as more modest homes.

My favorite home I drew over and over again was one which had two separate homes with a swimming pool in between. The top floor was connected with an enclosed bridge in the style of Frida & Diego (although I'd not yet discovered either of them). The floor of the bridge would be glass bottom so you could see people swimming in the pool. This design was inspired at least in part by my 5 year old stay at the fanciest hotel I'd ever been to- the Mauna Loa in Hawaii. I was so impressed there was a phone in the bathroom. There was also a beautiful coy pond in the lobby with a bridge over it for serenity more than necessity.

My blueprint also included a section of hallway like pool which also connected the two sides of my home. Each side opened inside the house and there was a shallow square pool you could step into from inside.
I was NOT very fashionable but I aspired to be. I wore primarily Florence Eismann dresses with a bib collar and embroidery on the front. The other girls got to wear GUESS jeans and elastic waisted bubble skirts and jelly bracelets - Mom thought they were tacky so I didn't. She was right actually. Except for the GUESS jeans- I still think they are cool.

I did not have long hair because I chewed on the ends when I was little and it was promptly decided we'd transition abruptly to a bowl cut...for the next three years. I never thought I was pretty. I wasn't actually. I was right. BUT I was good at drawing and making friends and I was funny. That I knew.

I've always kept a journal so I have some hideously revealing thoughts from when I was in second and third grade, tucked inside some fabric covered diaries and shoved deep into storage.

Back to now, I love listening to the way people talk about themselves and how desperately everyone still tries to be cool.

At morning break, I held court with a group of fabulous smokers. We compared outfits and complimented, traded styling tips and stories and then hustled back in as soon as we stubbed out our butts. I learned I should experiment more with belts and should try a fan brush for a more natural bronzing application. I love my job.

In the afternoon, my shoes were photographed by one of our teams, naturally I felt like a rockstar.

Daily Candy advertised a foot reflexology massage place I decided to try out. What a debacle. More on that later, but here is what lured me in.

July 9, 2008

No Easy Feet

Sunset Foot Spa Opens

Most reflexologists love to test your reflexes: Digging a nail into your sole makes you pull away; paying for torture makes you wince.

But at Sunset Foot Spa, a new hole-in-the-wall massage joint in Hollywood, they actually know what they’re doing.

Inside the clean, simple space, relax in one of the eight white towel-covered recliners, soak your peds in a wooden tub filled with purifying herbs, then let a totally pleasant attendant give your footsies a systematic and thorough rubdown using traditional Chinese techniques.

A standard 40-minute session will set you back $20 — $15 if you download the coupon on the website’s pricing page. A full hour is only $5 more. On bend to spend? Shell out $40 for the Nirvana Experience, 70 minutes of body massage and reflexology.

No wonder you’ve already got one foot out the door.

Sunset Foot Spa, 5419 West Sunset Boulevard, between Western and Serrano Avenues, suite 3, Hollywood (323-898-4220 or sunsetfootspa.com).



To be continued later - out of juice.