A Visit From Lydia

Today I finally finished my next MASH podcast which I started last week. Took a few hours but I think it turned out pretty good. This one will be released on May 1st.

The big plan for today was hanging out with my friend Lydia who is visiting from Switzerland. She arrived around 11 and we sat around and chatted for an hour or so before heading out for some lunch. I was going to introduce her to Outback Steakhouse, but forgot that the one out in Palmdale is only open during dinner hours so we went next door to El Torito (which happen to be her first time as well). Had a really good talk with her about where we were in our lives. I got to talk to her about wanting to be a father as she is a mother of two.

Afterwards we went back to my place and watched some of my screeners. First was ParaNorman, which neither of us had seen. I liked the animation as it was all stop animation but the story was just okay. It's not a movie I need to watch over and over. But out second movie is one of my favorites from last year.. Cloud Atlas. I've seen this movie four or fives times already and I love it more each time I watched it. Lydia had never seen it but her daughter loved it and told her she had to see it.

Now it's always tough watching this movie with friends as it's not a very easy movie to follow and it's hard to judge if the person is liking it or not. I was a bit worried that Lydia might not understand some of the speech of the future future scenes as English isn't her first language and when I saw it for the first time I had hard time understanding what they were saying and English is my first language.

But when the movie ended, I turned to her and asked what she thought.. and she loved it and couldn't wait to watch it again. This made me happy. This movie unfortunately bombed at the theater and I'm hoping it finds new life on DVD/Bluray... btw it comes out on May 14th.. so be sure to buy it.

It was around 7:30pm now and time for dinner. Lydia mentioned earlier when we were trying to figure out where to go for lunch that she had never done In-n-Out Burger.. so guess where we went for dinner. I don't eat In-n-Out that often, it was so hyped up to me that when I finally had for the first time in my 20's it was just an eh kind of experience. But tonight I realized that the burgers do have their own unique taste, same with the fries. I think both Lydia and I agreed.. they are pretty good but not the best burgers in the world.

It was around 8:30pm and we said out goodbyes in the parking lot of In-n-Out. It's always great getting to hangout with her and sharing a bunch of firsts with her (El Torito, ParaNorman, Cloud Atlas and In-n-Out). I can't wait to see her again at SDCC in July.