What made you leave?  I want you back.

I don’t know what I did wrong, but just tell me what you want me to do and I’ll do it.

You see, it was such a wonderful time we had together.  I was able to break out some pants and long sleeved shirts!  I wore something on my feet called socks!  It was truly magical.

But now you’re gone, and I’m back to the same old clothes I seem to wear 80% of the time.  I need change, fall weather, and only you can give it to me.

So please think about it.  We’re great together, and you know it.

Sincerely,

A Lifelong SoCal Resident

Now, my views on this whole thing are pretty well known on this blog, and I don’t necessarily take pleasure in the fact that it’s now pretty official that nudity is no longer allowed at San Onofre.

But my point all along has never been a condemnation on nudists or nudity, but rather the fact they were doing it on public land, which is not the same as private property, and thus one cannot always do what one wants to do.

So, we will see if they go the route of civil disobedience or if they will simply choose to find a legal and more appropriate place in which to practice their preference.

But, it seems that everyone is talking about them, and the Republicans behind the Orange Curtain are ground zero for the “movement.” I put that in quotes because I’m not sure a bunch of insane people qualify as a movement of any kind.  More like an epidemic.

Sigh.

It seems that the leaders of the crazies, Orange County lawyer Orly Taitz and Pastor Wiley Drake of Buena Park are based right here, and have a lawsuit that is currently making its way through the court systemin Santa Ana.  However, it is encouraging that some of the judges are prone to giving Ms. Taitz a good smackdown.

So now comes along two more dubious examples of OC crazy.  Judy Ahrens and John  Briscoe want Maya Angelou’s fantastic autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” banned from school libraries.  Seriously?  Way to put OC back in the Dark Ages J & J!  Their objection is to one part of the book in which Ms. Angelou describes being raped as a child.

I’ve read the book many times, and I don’t think that one passage should mean that the entire book is banned.  The work as a whole is moving and powerful, and already the book is restricted to being checked out by 8th graders only.  And listen, with all the stuff kids today watch, the scene is not as traumatizing to the “innocent children” as J & J would like you to believe.

But again, book banning? Seriously?

Please, crazies, you are giving the rest of us a bad name!

Let me begin by saying I grew up as a Dodger fan.  I was born and raised in the LA area and my family had season tickets for about 15 years until Fox bought the team and jacked up the price and actually physically moved what were once fantastic seats.  Instead of being five rows from the field between the opposing team’s dugout and home plate, we somehow wound up much closer to first base and more like 30 rows from the field, and all for a bigger price.

When Fox took over the Dodgers, that sort of soured me on the team, and my loyalty has never managed to recover.  To go from the O’Malleys to soulless Fox was wrenching.  It also probably didn’t help that I had met my husband-to-be, who also hated the Dodgers, despite also having been born and raised in LA County.

Oh, you must be thinking, he was an Angels fan, right?

Wrong, he was an unabashed Yankees fan.  When he was a young lad of 12 or so, Don Mattingly of the Yankees was at his peak.  My young-version husband latched on to good old Donnie and has never let go of the Yankees.   Which is ironic because Don Mattingly is now a hitting coach for the Dodgers.

But, as you can see, my husband was no fair-weather Yankee fan.  They have always been his team, and by default, they became mine. 

So you’ll have to forgive me as I am gleefully watching Guerrero struggle at the plate, and thanking the stars that the Angels have made so many defensive errors.  I mean really, Angels fans, they’ve been especially horrible in the field so far this series. 

We are also fully aware that the Angels usually have the Yankees’ number, having a winning record against them that normally sends us home packing.

So, may the best team win.

I just so happen to LOVE the fire pits.

I don’t know that I’ve used the ones in Newport as often as the ones around Huntington Beach, but my memories of them stretch back to high school, where we would all gather around and, uh, innocently have a good time.

Really, we weren’t all that bad.

But the rings have always been magnets for partygoers, as there is something sort of hypnotizing about a huge flaming pile of wood blazing at sunset and beyond.

Now we use the fire pits as a family.  My son loves nothing more than to hang out, play in the sand, have a picnic, and help his dad build the fire.

I hope that Newport doesn’t ban the use of the rings, but instead beefs up enforcement. 

And let’s hope that Huntington Beach doesn’t get any bright ideas from Newport, either.

We visited on October 2, and luckily, it wasn’t too crowded and the weather was just right.  My son, dressed in his “most intimidating knight costume we were able to find on the internet” was of course, extremely excited to be there.

When we entered the park, we were handed some trick-or-treat bags and right away, Disney gets you into the ahem, spirit of things.  The giant sun wheel above the fountain had cool light projections on it, and it presided over a fun, DJ’d dance party.  Also entertaining were the whirling projections being cast on the ground, which all the kids were either sort of freaked out by, or jumping on.  There wasn’t really a whole lot of in-between. 

Treat stations were set up all over the park, and the lines for some were quite long, but the staff tried their best to keep the times down.  And to be sure, the candy and treats were first-rate.  Normally my son would sort of scoff at raisins as a Halloween treat, but they were packaged in some very cool Cars-themed boxes, so that made up for it.

It was great to see all the families dressed up in their costumes, many of them going as a theme.  There was a family of Incredibles, a father and son who were Woody and Buzz respectively, and even some caveparents with their kids as dinosaurs.  I really enjoyed seeing everyone being so happy and enthusiastic, seeing as how Halloween is pretty much my favorite holiday.

Even though the fireworks show is held in Disneyland, it’s still possible to see quite a bit of it from California Adventure if you’re in the right place.  Just as a heads up, some of the rides in the park are still being renovated.  But, the best one is of course operational, and that would be Toy Story Mania.

So, I recommend getting some advance tickets (save yourself some money!) and have a great time!

This time the honor goes to Huntington Beach councilman Devin Dwyer, who apparently is unable to move his car in time for street sweeping and thinks he should get a pass.

There seems to be no really good reason why Mr. Dwyer can’t move his car in time, he just thinks that because he comes storming out of his home after the street sweeper has already gone by, that the city should simply make the sweeper back  up, sweep the affected area, and not give him a ticket.

He claims that if the city will not rescind his (dozen or so) tickets, he will resign.

By all means, Mr. Dwyer, do the residents of Huntington Beach a favor and do just that.

Because if you were a councilman in my city, the fact that you have a dozen or so street-sweeping tickets would make me dubious as to your capabilities to run your district.  I mean, if you can’t move your own damn car in time, how can I trust you to fix those potholes in a timely manner?

Oh, and he also thinks that the sweepers should go down the street with a loud beeping noise emanating from them.  Because, you know, the signs posted everywhere and the fact you can already hear the sweepers from two steets away isn’t good enough.

Sigh.

Written by various employees and cast members, this is the new go-to place to find out what is going on at the Disney Parks.  And if that isn’t enough, they even have @DisneyParks Twitter account and the @DisneylandNews Twitter account to satisfy your Disney fix.

Hmmm, I’m guessing that Pittrollie will not become a subscriber…

Unless, of course, she decides to give Disneyland a shot and winds up actually liking it.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

My goodness, is the rather stodgy OCPAC becoming “edgy?”

This Saturday famed performer Alan Cumming brings his one-man show “I Bought a Blue Car Today” to Orange County for two performances.

I happen to think Alan is an interesting and brilliant performer, so go here to find out about tickets.