Safe and Sound in L.A., part 2

Back on June 22, this "...rest of the story" was forwarded by frostystitcher. There is no other connection to anything quilting. Sarah is frosty's oldest daughter and mother of her only grandchild—Rafe—a 5 year old boy. Frostystitcher is an Alaskan DQ of the first order—end of quilting connection.

Sarah Grossmann—Leaving Fairbanks, Alaska
On June 8, Sarah Grossmann and her father, Bruce left Fairbanks, Alaska to drive to Los Angeles. After 6 rather long days they arrived in L.A. on June 14.


After surprising her dad—Bruce
According to frosty, "All of us were surprised when she invited her dad to come along after he was laid off from Ft Greely. She and he have gotten along okay since she left her teenage years but it isn't like they spend too much time together." Frosty continued, "It had been a long time, since her young childhood, that they did a road trip together. I was proud of them both for showing such self constraint."

Here is Sarah's story

Los Angeles, Calif., June 22... And now for the rest of the story...

For those of you who know my dad, you know that he's a nice, bumbling guy with an amazing aptitude for retaining every bit of knowledge that ever enters his head. But it's hard to have a real conversation with him. It's not a conversation at all, it's more like tuning into a talk radio station that has a 45 second topic limit. Or, putting your iPod on shuffle, but only listening to the first 10 seconds of each song. His topics are jumbled and mixed together like a tossed salad. He may get to the point eventually, but more than likely, he won't. And somewhere, in his head, the 20 or so seemingly random topics are connected somehow and the progression makes perfect sense to him.

I love him dearly, but he's my dad, and no father and daughter should be subjected to a 6-day roadtrip together anywhere. Ever.

The following is a list of things that I, proudly, did NOT do to my dad on this trip:
• Leave him in Canada at a gas station
• Shove him out of the car while driving
• Strangle him with my bare hands
• Cram dirty socks down his throat to get him to stop talking
• Cuss him out . . . much.

I wonder what kind of list my dad has about me . . .?

Okay, enough about my dad. I'm here, I made it, everything is fine and no one got hurt. So I'm here in L.A. and I'm working on my demo reel. Actually, I'm slacking on working on my demo reel, writing this email. But the point is that I'm excited. I'm glad to be starting a new career, and moving to a new place.

The trip down the Alcan wasn't that bad. We saw no less than 8 bears. Mostly black bears, a dozen or so elk, 2 mountain (dall?) sheep, a porcupine, several bald and one golden eagle, a red fox, a bobcat and one moose. The weather was great, the Canadians were friendly and I got great gas mileage (dad kept track). And just in case you were wondering, Dad gets better gas mileage than me.

Dad kept a journal throughout the trip, recording what towns we drove through, what animals we saw, people we talked to and lots of other stuff. I drove the majority of the trip, I would guess that Dad drove about 500 to 800 out of the 3,500 miles trip. Dad's journal could tell you for sure, of course. When Dad did drive, I used that time to write in his journal too, but I continued to write from his "perspective". Let's put it this way, I just put into writing all those wonderful things he wanted to say about me, but never could.

I visited some of my friends in Portland. Some of you may know Melissa, most recent Fairbanks employment being at Steve Neumuth Advertising. She moved to Portland the same time I came to L.A. the first time, and I was able to spend the night at her house, visit with her the next day and meet her charming new boyfriend. (Way to go, Melissa!) Then another friend of mine from Colorado, Danica, was visiting her father who lives right outside Portland, so I was able to spend the next night at her place the next night. We hadn't seen each other in about 4 years, so it was great to catch up. We had a few margaritas and stayed up late chatting and reconnecting with each other. Good times.

The next night I stayed with my Great-Aunt Ginny in Anderson, California, near Redding. She busted out the old photographs of her and my Grandma when they were young. I never knew I came from a family of such hotties! I learned a lot about the family. Grandma is the oldest of 14 kids and Ginny is the youngest, only 7 (?) years older than Dad. I also got a recipe for a tofu cheesecake from her that I can't wait to try out.

Then we drove on to Stanford University to hang with my "in-laws", Rafe's other grandparents. Dad and Dick toured the campus a bit and visited while I hung out with Mary and had a great time catching up with her. It was my birthday, and they gave me the most delicious carrot cake I'd ever eaten. Really. . . the best carrot cake ever!

We left that evening around 8pm heading down I-5 South. There were millions of semi trucks and also an accident, so we lost a good hour and a half of time. At one point we were going about 35mph and I had to go the bathroom really bad, we were about 50 miles from the nearest rest stop and Dad was yakking my ear off, so I pulled into a campground exit thinking there surely had to be a bathroom somewhere.

It turned out that the campground was like 10 miles away up this weaving, unlit road. I was cranky, having missed my personal goal of reaching L.A. by my birthday and Dad was complaining that I wouldn't let him listen to talk radio.

Zoe called me to wish me happy birthday and right at that moment I hit a skunk. Oh yeah, I should have added a skunk to that previous list of wildlife . . . The car started stinking and Dad started complaining about what a reckless driver I was. I lost it a bit and snapped at him, but then I found a portapotty (try using that in the dark!) and I felt much better.

After all that, the rest of the trip went a little easier. Dad fell asleep. After awhile I got tired and pulled off into a trucker's stop about 150 miles north of L.A. to take a snooze. I slept for a few hours, then got back on the road. We made it into Venice at 5am that morning.

Now it's been over a week since we pulled into town and I just put my dad on a plane this morning heading to Wisconsin to visit his folks. Ahhhh, now I can have a little peace and quiet before the real work begins.

No job yet, hasn't been looking. I'm getting started on my demo reel and once that's done, I'll be in the market for work. Piece of cake.

Sorry for talking your ear off, but these emails from me tend to come few and far between, so you'll have to forgive me.

Summary Quote: "Driving to LA with my dad was a once in a lifetime experience."

Translation: "Once in a lifetime was just enough for me. . . and him too, no doubt."

Until next time,
Sarah

And to anyone who might forward this email on to my dad . . . I love you dad, come visit again next year!

Sarah is one of four—Final bit of background
Frosty (and Bruce) are parents of 4 children. Sarah is second oldest at 27. She is in L.A. to do graphics things for movies.

Ben Grossmann—VFX Supervisor
She is apparently going to get some help in that crazy business from her older brother, Benjamin. He is, at the ripe age of 29, visual effects supervisor, sequence supervisor, compositing supervisor, digital compositor, and many other titles, on many recent movies. He's a neat young person too.

Eli Grossmann—WHL Seattle Thunderbird Defenseman
Benjamin is oldest, Sarah second, then comes Eli. Elias is a Alaskan trapper, a deep sea fisherman, a tough hockey defenseman, and has eaten caribou nose at an Athabaskan (Alaskan native) potlatch in Tanacross, Alaska. He's only 18 and has said he wants to be an Alaska State Trooper. Taking photos of his Alaskan animal friends is another of his talents. See the Photo of the Day – June 22 on DeltaNewsWeb.com.

Annie Grossmann—Crabby, but tough on da ice
Last, but not least is Annie. Only 16 going on 24, she's sells Alaskan king crab (red) to raise money for her hockey team trips. That's right she plays hockey and is reputed to be tough on the boys. Her team is girl/boy. She is a neat young lady. See her photo on ACQC's web site. She is in the small photo down on the right.

Yep, she quilts. Heck, even Eli took quilting classes back in the day when ACQC was open in Delta Junction in the '90's. Frosty, was Sarah a quilter at ACQC?

Mom and Dad done well
BTW all these nice young people were home schooled. Good job "frosty"-teach and Bruce.