A box full of Friends and Strangers

I've been in Palm Desert for the last few days, to visit my Aunt and Uncle, but also as a kind of last vacation for myself before I go in search of a crap job that probably pays $10 an hour. It has come to the point where money is tight and a shit, retail job might be the answer/quick fix to some of my problems. But hopefully it won't come to this just yet as I just got finished shooting a pilot tv show for Mark Ebner, one of the boys from my show, Still Single, and from the show, I met Julien, who passed my name along to the Producers at Intervention, a brilliant documentaries series on A&E. I'm keep my fingers crossed for an interview this week and then hopefully the best two words in the world..."You're Hired!!!". (Fingers Crossed)

Anyhow, this pity trip I just took you on is not the filler of this blog excerpt, nope, I wouldn't do that to you folks. My blogs are about the weird and interesting people I meet and more importantly, the stupid shit I do or get myself into. So, I decided to come to Palm Desert for vacation, but little did I know, my ex-roommate (and good friend), Nina, also decided, after carefully reviewing the weather channel, to head to the desert for sun and heat. She's been living in Benicia, Ca for the last year (she's originally from Los Angeles) and she hates the storm and gloom of the Bay Area. She missed sunshine and the happiness it seems to invoke in her, so even though she is staying at my house this weekend, she needs sunshine before heading to rainy LA for the weekend. She found a good deal online for a hotel in Palm Springs and then casually throws in our conversation of coming for the weekend that, "I'm driving down to Palm Springs right now. I'll be there for about two days before I head to your house." "What? I'm driving to Palm Desert," I exclaim. "Oh yeah, I vaguely remember you saying something about heading somewhere." "I'll call you when I arrive and maybe we can grab dinner or go hiking," I respond. Little did I know that it would be about 100 degrees and hiking, unless at 6 am, was not going to be an option.

Friday day, my sister (who was already in Palm Desert for a CSI - the real CSI's, not the show - conference), my aunt, Nina, and myself decided to go on the Palm Desert Tramway, an 80 person glass box that travels about 5000 feet upwards, on 3 small copper wires to the mountain top of San Jacinto National Park. Along the journey to the top of the mountain, you get to take lovely pictures of the desert valley below and the unique colors of the sun bleached rocks dotting the hillside, while the tram floor moves you in a slow clockwise circle. There are three main towers that the Tram passes on its journey, all causing a mild swing effect to the Tram and a little roller coaster feel to the occupants.


Mini waterfall shot inside the Glass box on the way to the top of the mountain.


You can see the wire that the Tram rides on, and how far we are above the rocks below.

Me, being a crazy, evil bastard, thought it would be fun to jump up and down every time the Tram passed a tower, as it caused the other passengers, along with Nina and my Aunt, to get nervous and send slanted glances in my direction as the tram swung a little higher then before. If you're going to be riding in a glass box, where the employees make you take a body identification photo (in case the tram falls and they need to figured out one mangled body from another) disguised as a tourist picture before you enter the Tram, then you might as well enjoy yourself, and roll with the swing of a glass coffin.

15 minutes later, we made it to the top of the mountain and were greeted with a wonderful view of the wind energy propellers littering the valley floor; the hideously designed tower of the Morongo Casino to the left; the great expanse of the desert floor stretching for 100's of miles, the northern part ending at the Sultan Sea; and the gorgeous sight of light purple hues mixing with the dark yellow of the sinking, evening sun, spreading across the white cloud sprinkled sky. It was a beautiful sight to behold, my camera, happily clicking away.


View of the Valley floor below.


Mounatin view at the Top - San Jacinto National Park.

We walked to the highest part of the view site, meeting up with a lovely pair of ladies that had taken the tram numerous times in the past and still enjoyed the view. Out of all the things that random strangers could say on top of that mountain: maybe mention the beautiful desert view or the lush green woods spreading behind the back end of the Tram depot, shoes were not on the list of my expectations. One of the women had on a shiny pair of water proof sneakers that she bought last year and wears as everyday shoes. All of us seemed to notice them right away, probably because of their bright orange color, but they soon became the topic of discussion for the next 10 minutes. After we realized the ridiculousness of the situation, being in nature and talking about shoes, of all things, the Nina exclaims, "No matter where you go in the world, women will end up talking about fashion and shopping."

So true and so sad all at the same time. Beauty, desert, woods, and shoes...a journey in a glass box with friends and strangers.


Creative spin picture I took of the "river" on top the mountain.