At the Mermaid Shop

Got my highlights from JJ, my guy down the street, on Sunday. While I'm under the heat, he usually schedules in a short haircut. I couldn't hear in the fishbowl, but I observed, the guy got up urgently at one point and ran out of the shop. I looked over at JJ what happened? LOST HIS WALLET, JJ yelled over the air blasts to my head. I put bleach on my head every two months. This has gotta be something people in the future think is stupid. Anyway, JJ checked my foils, led me to the wash bowl. I love getting my hair washed in the wash bowl. I used to dread it, it hurt my neck. But JJ puts a soft towel down. He also designed the place, with dreamsicle walls and a blue fountain and puffy seafoam clouds. Partial list of things JJ has told me about over the past four years, when I first went blonde: leaving Armenia, wishing his kids weren't always on their phones but having nothing else for them to do, how he met his wife, his uncle who might haunt him, how our current president is a liar, how nice the new taco stand is, Easter traditions, preferring travel by boat.

Last appointment, two gals tentatively poked in. Does anyone here do curly hair? a gal asked. I said, Well JJ is great! He went to get something. This place makes me feel like a mermaid, I told the gals. One made an appointment. JJ came back smiling. Thank you, sweetheart, he said, because I don't have an instagram. It was the day of the Super Bowl and we talked about how we must not care since we were both there. He said, But what I should really do is say how important you are as a client, that I missed the Super Bowl for you. I laughed. As I was leaving with my new 'do all puffed up from the blowdryer, the next guy walked in. A beefcake. I turned around and said, loudly, Thank you so much for making time to see me, JJ! I know you really wanted to watch the game! The new client said, Oh wow thanks man! JJ winked at me, I winked back.

As JJ scrubbed my head Sunday he said, Oh I hope he finds his wallet. I agreed. Then the guy walked back in, holding said wallet high. We cheered. JJ said we'd been praying for him, er, hoping for him, he amended. JJ is very careful. He's a small business owner after all. Anyway, I hadn't realized, the very middle of the client's hair had already been buzzed. He was running around town looking like literal Bozo searching for the wallet. We all had a good chuckle. As I settled in for my blow dry, I noticed the guy staring at his reflection. Might be your next look! I joked. He said, It's just...my dad is bald down the middle. I look so much like him right now.

Kia His Car

The frog was the payment. $3000 to replace the car battery. But the walk over was pleasant, at least. ApplePay feels magical when you’re buying a little treat and evil when you’re dropping an entire paycheck. BEEP there goes the money.

Bopped to the coffee shop with the big windows. Promoted my book, promoted my essay, and then Beef showed up. She munched a small croissant as we gossiped, right until I had to rush away for a lunch, at the wooden patio with the exec who said she wanted to pay me five figures to develop an idea and then ghosted my manager for five months. Whatever, now she’s buying me a $20 sandwich. That’s showbiz. In line we see another exec and then we talk about Taylor Swift for most of the meeting.

At home I fire away business emails. I spent the week working on a climate PSA, a Toy Conglomerate script, and my newest play. Plus continued negotiations and a new project. I rush down to the pool by 4 to read and dip before throwing gold glitter on my eyelids and Ubering over to some friend of a friend’s house. It’s where we’re meeting up to carpool to Olivia Rodrigo at the Kia Forum. Buckle is a great concert seat mate. He really lets his emotions out. I don’t take many photos or videos, opting to remember things instead. I am impressed by how much more of a star Olivia has become since I saw her six months ago. She lets the crowd take over, she offers up commercial insights. She is doing a show in a show now. I like the part when we all scream, “LIKE A DAMN SOCIOPATH” and I love knowing whoever she wrote that song about assuredly has friends in attendance. I order mozzarella sticks on the way home. They’re sitting on the ground, waiting for me when I make it back.

I sleep in Saturday, do a dance workout, hustle to the same coffee shop by 11. I clock two hours on my new play. It’s way too long. I’m 2/3 done and it’s already 150 pages. This one is a beast, but I think about it all the time, now that I’ve slotted it into first position. Not a day goes by some line or new accent doesn’t pop into my head when I least expect it.

I eat vegan buffalo wings and carrots, watch part of the John Travolta movie Phenomenon with Puhg. It’s so boring, but I am curious how it will end. Drive to Trader Joe’s for a variety of snacks, read at the pool, hop in, get my hair done. My guy gently checks my political temperature then conspiratorially informs me he thinks 45 is the literal devil. I read Miranda July’s new book under the heater. The highlights look splotchy, which they always do, but who really cares? I like getting shampoo’d in a teal wonderland with a fountain and paying $90 cash.

I shove a hoodie and blanket into my backpack and grab a beach chair and head to the Hollywood Forever cemetery to watch Bring It On. The friends of friends had invited me and I think they’re all surprised when I show up. I talk about ceramics with one, camo pants with another, the ethics of using certain homophobic slurs cheekily with a third. Kirsten Dunst is there and knowing that does enhance the experience. The crowd keeps screaming when her teen character makes good choices. I munch brie and dried apricots and cotton candy grapes and about 20 cookies. Puhg picks me up a few blocks away. I stay up, listening to a YouTube video about changing your mindset and eat about 30 more cookies. In the middle of the night, Sweet Potato gets scooped, and I pet her nose.

At our traditional morning spot, Puhg and I do New York Times puzzles and chat with a barista about The Egyptian. I plot out my week’s goals. I have a deadline Wednesday and I am torn between working on it all day (to get ahead) or "enjoying the weekend." I decided on the second and go to the pool. Almost done with my feminist literature book, dive in, float around. Puhg has a lot of news, but it’s mostly good, I think. Buffalo wings and carrots and then I drive over to the friends of friends joint birthday. Tarp says, “Three days in a row!” And it’s true. We buy bingo cards, and a chicken is in a coop, and the sun is blazing. I pay for valet, drink half a watermelon slushie, am only a little in my head when I gab with my friend who became a gatekeeper who is maybe back to a friend.

Home just in time to Zoom with Cobra. She’s going to work on herself for the next six months, she declares. We laugh about the state of our industry. I wear my lavender romper and head to our Mexican restaurant for a double date. Everyone talks about who they were in high school, we eat four bowls of chips, a plane pens ‘SHERRY” across the blue sky. We walk down to the cabaret theatre to see ____’s work in progress solo show. It’s more heartfelt than I anticipate, a pleasant surprise. I enjoy seeing a dozen or so people from my past but I am relieved when I’ve said all the hellos and can walk home listening to Radiohead. I post photos to Instagram and after Puhg explains Sweet Potato is refusing to come out, I fall asleep.

Clara in AZ

This is when we were both slap happy sleepytown USA.


We climbed a mini mountain Saturday morning!

Clara's visit was SO MANY GREATS!

Highlights:
-Bringing her to my sketch show and improv rehearsal--getting to discuss comedy with her visually artistic brain
-So much good food: Ethiopian, pasties, award-winning macaroons, and more
-Going to a dramatic one-man show and decompressing decompressing
-Singing Celine Dion while running
-Poolside conversations about faith, friendship, trust
-Eating ice cream out of the carton while watching a documentary about eating disorders

Why I Love Clara (A Partial List):
-She is honest and forward about expectations/desires (important for visitors)
-We like junk food
-She disagrees in a compassionate and smart fashion
-She is an optimist big time
-Gratitude is the attitude
-Laughing, laughing, laughing
-Pick-up friends

Ideas Mulling:
-Does "it" matter? If it does, then is doing our best enough? If it doesn't, is doing our best futile?
-There are a lot of things that we expect others to do based on our own concepts of not being interested in the temptation they face
-Being frugal is something to celebrate
-Close your eyes and imagine what you really really want--then go after it

This is the big stuff for now.


We may not reach the ending,
but we can start--
slowly but truly mending,
brick by brick, heart by heart.
Now, even now
we'll start learning how.
We can build a beautiful city--
yes, we can. Yes, we can.