My trip... the second day!

There are very few rules when you visit Standing Room Only headquarters so you feel pretty free to be yourself.
Rule #1: Make yourself at home. If you want something, go get it.
(I love this rule because it is so like the way things are at my house)
Rule #2: Don’t gripe about stuff or you will get someone rolling their eyes at you.
Rule #3: Know that Polly is the queen. Act accordingly.
Rule #4: You can wake up early, but don’t wake anyone else up till 9 a.m. (which is 11 a.m. my time!)

So Monday night we finally got to sleep at midnight, which happened to be 2 my time, so I figured I would be able to sleep pretty late the next day. Wrong!!! I woke up at 6 California time and was wide awake. I laid in the bed for what seemed like forever and finally decided to get up, trying very hard to be as quiet as possible. As I worked my way off of the air mattress, I knocked over a few things… sending books flying every which way, and in the process, breaking a beautiful (and very expensive looking) dish. OH crap.
Now I had flooded the bathroom AND broken something in the apartment and my visit hadn’t really started yet. Ugh.

And to top it off, in breaking the dish, I woke Hugh up! I broke rule #4!
It didn’t take long though, for him to go back to sleep and for Polly to come over and hang out with me, making me feel a lot better.
Later that morning, we got ourselves up and around and ready to go to breakfast.

The Breakfast place is conveniently just around the corner from where Hugh lives and is a nice, short walk full of awesome people and things to see. First, we walked past a nursery with the coolest plants I have ever seen. People come and go across the street just to visit the nursery, from what I could tell. Then, there is the newsstand where Hugh gets his paper to do the crosswords. The man and woman there are just darling and they love Hugh and Polly. They give Polly treats and tease Hugh lovingly. They are great. I loved them instantly!

I have to admit that I was a little nervous about the breakfast place. I mean, it IS famous! It IS the hang out of David Spade, but most importantly, it is the place where some of Hugh’s friends are. So I wanted to make a good impression.
Polly led us to our table and sat down in the booth, as if she was ready to order her meal.
The waitress there was lovely. She knew exactly what Hugh wanted and brought it out as soon as she saw him come in.
Polly got a bowl of water and she and I shared a delicious breakfast.
I secretly wished I had a breakfast place down the street from my house too.

OH, and then there was the dog park in the afternoon.
We drove up rolling hills on one of the most beautiful drives I have ever been on.
We sang Leela James songs and danced as we drove, with the windows down and the breeze running through our hair. Well, my hair, at least. Hee hee.

The Dog Park is a huge place, surrounded by a fence with a separate place for little dogs to hang out. There are benches and trees and lots and lots of dogs running around. The people I was hoping to see weren’t there, and we were forced to make small talk with random strangers. Poor poor us.
Finally, the puppies came in the gate and they all ran to Hugh like a kid running to their favorite parent at the end of the day. They love Hugh and they all fight to sit on his lap. He called them over and I was impressed with how well he could remember their names and distinguish one from the other. Pearl, the diva of the group, hopped on Hugh’s lap and growled at him for what seemed like forever. I knew when she hopped on my lap, I would be in trouble, but she didn’t growl at me at all. I guess a diva knows another diva.
Polly sat in the sun and enjoyed her friends from afar…too cool join in the running and playing, but not soo cool to totally keep her distance. It was cute really, the queen and diva, even at the dog park.

The evening was filled with Italian Food and singing and dancing and crazy talks.
We talked and talked and talked and joked and laughed and laughed and laughed.

We called BT and he wondered what kind of trouble we were getting into.
And then, there were the talks in the dark. I love love those talks in the dark, when the world is still and the city begins to sleep.