Monday, February 19, 2007

Pants Party

Did I mention that our girls (from the last post - the ones who left on Monday afternoon) came back on Wednesday night? It seems we are such *lovely hosts and the cats are sooo cute** that they just couldn't wait to come back - which was great fun, if not the optimal way in which to get work done in a timely manner. The fact we have a friend who looks more than a bit like this
The image “http://image.listen.com/img/356x237/4/2/7/0/590724_356x237.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.surely, had nothing to do with it. Right?
(Usher, for those of you who may have been in, say, Ulan Bator lately)

*Hardly - the extent of lovely host-ism went only as far as bedding, towels, bathroom basket, vague gestures made towards fridge, facilities, and reminders to jiggle the @)#*@# handle after flushing (so much more fun than fixing the commode, no?), etc.
**True, despite one half of the duo having allergies.

Thursday, I took them on my 'Santa Barbara highlights' tour -
through Coast Village Road, up the back ridge of the Montecito hills for the views and to gawp at all the mansions, down and through Summerland, and along Cabrillo Boulevard (look kids! the Zoo! the Bird Refuge!) and up State Street for some shopping. Tourism is big here for reasons I sometimes forget as we zoom from hither to yon on our little track of daily life. We stopped by Pierre Lafond for a late lunch and...bam!...I'm in direct violation of Maggie's #1 rule. (By the way, stop over and say congratulations to Maggie, if you haven't already. She's got a new man in her life - he's short and pink and Mighty cute, if you'll pardon the pun.)


We meandered through downtown for hours, savoring the luxury of an unusually warm February night and each other's company. Somewhere in the evening, we hit up Reference (Official home of the $2.00, two-wear tank top and those pants that looked cute, one time, from the right angle. Sort of.) because, well, because it was there, beckoning to us with pulsating music, bright lights and $10.00 pants.

I grabbed a few things and headed for the dressing rooms, not intending to actually purchase anything in my eternal(ly thwarted) quest to buy higher-quality items, less often. In the dressing room, I discovered that my favorite (good) jeans had somehow ripped in a bad place - not the seam, rendering them both unrepairable and dangerous to continue wearing. There may have been muttered curses - Scott bought these, my favorite nice jeans, only a few months ago. I've not jumped on the skinny pants bandwagon primarily because in order to wear skinny pants without looking absurdly large-bottomed in them, one should have skinny legs and narrow hips, not square/sturdy "birthin'" hips and thighs that while strong, are far to large for the leg below them. Happily, I ended up with some great black (what else?) wide-leg linen pants for and a couple of cute long t-shirts for just over thirty bucks. Helluva way to end up with a new outfit.

We ended up back at our house, where Scott started working his dj mojo and a shower calmed my frazzled nerve endings. By the time I got out of the shower and dressed, a plan had hatched. I rang up a couple of friends and sat back to watch what happened - we don't watch reality tv* so I decided to make our own entertainment. Note that Helen had specifically requested to meet someone who, 'looks like Usha' (Usher with a cute Brit accent) and that our friends' name had come up in conversation several times.
*No judgement there, there's plenty to ridicule in the list of the regular shows we watch - I confess to 24, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy and Lost plus the Lakers. The others are just to embarassing to admit (think Dr. 90210). Thank goodness we have the ti-faux and don't have tv on 24/7.

Scott and Alisha were in the living room, working out music and lyrics (no, haven't seen it, waiting for the dvd so I can fast-forward when Hugh starts dancing) to some song out on guitar when we got a tap on the door. She pulled the edge of my door curtain aside, saw who it was and, according to Scott, used Roy Sheiders' tone from Jaws, "Usher's here", backed slowly away from the door, and dashed to our bedroom to tell Helen and I the news. Suffice it to say that things went swimmingly well from there till, well, early in the morning. A little party- and I had just the new pants to wear to it.

7 comments:

Kay Cooke said...

You do live in a beautiful part of the planet don't you? Sounds like you know how to have fun with it too.

Janet said...

you sound like a fabulous hostess. I wish I could visit a friend's house and request a celebrity lookalike date for the party...and then get it!

Maya said...

CB - We're just dying to get down under - I've been wanting to go for over a decade (since my Kiwi boyfriend in high school went back for college and even before) We do have a good time when we get a chance.

Janet - It's all fun and games till someone slips on the too-long hem of their pant leg and falls over (cough, blush). I don't have too many celeb look alike friends, but this one fits the bill - actually I think he's a bit better looking, but prob. b/c he's such a sweetie.

Am good hostess so long as you don't look in our office or ...open any closet doors. Or expect me to make food...I don't do much beyond tacos and things like that, but make a mean cuppa and a nice cheese plate. Thank goodness there are loads of good places for not to much $$ around here- we'd starve!

Unknown said...

Oh, she's all humble and coy... puhleeze, you make the GREATEST tacos and masala chicken.

Anyways, I looove the "Usha!" with English accent bit. I can totally hear it. Sounds like a blast! ( think YOUR site should have been called My Oh-So Color Full Life) ;)

Anonymous said...

Hey Maya, Tim and I did get in touch. His prices are above most of my clients' budgets but it was lovely to see his beautiful work. Thanks for hooking us up!

Bones said...

Usher? I dont even KNOW her.

Maya said...

Bones: U funny!

G&D: Tim rocks!