Saturday, November 05, 2011

Thursday in L.A.


Thursday was a really great day…although by the end of it, we had been up for nearly 24 hours. It began with various loud, obnoxious alarms which were set a few minutes apart from one another in an effort to ensure we woke up at or around 2:30 AM. At one point I struggled to find the off switch to Molly’s cell phone when suddenly, the TV turned on full blast and then my blackberry starting buzzing, vibrating and every-all-else. It was a bit of a freak show there for a minute. But at any rate, we made it out the door and promptly to Kwik Trip where I began my vacation with a calorie-laden sausage, egg and cheese croissant slathered with not one but two packets of mayo. 

(I resisted the cappuccino however, and opted for a cinnfully cinnamon roast with a spash of cream.) 

We drove to Milwaukee and boarded the plane to Minneapolis where we had a short layover.  After a long 2nd flight we finally arrived in LA. We took a shuttle to Avis and got our car, and in pure James Kocian style, got a free upgrade to a Jeep Liberty with leather interior. 

Nice. 
We checked into the Westin and immediately got in a what seemed at the time to be a long line for registration.  Man, I felt like I had been awake for half the day, and it was only 10:30 AM. I mean I realize there is a 2 hour time difference but still....



So we ended up meeting a few cool characters while waiting in line.
We even met this seriously goofy looking fella who had an infectious song-writing style and played a mean guitar. He was old, fat and had the craziest way of twisting his mouth around when he sang, but it was engaging and fun to listen to him. I never would have expected to hear such a great sound and cool songs coming out of a guy like him. He insisted James sing a song, and he did. He sang “The S Word” and when he was done, the guy says, “if you don’t hear anything else this week, here this; we need to hear your music. We need to hear your songs.” It was awesome. 


After a few hours of being in line, I strolled across the street to Taco Bell to continue my pattern of lousy eating. We registered (finally) and James got signed up for the mentoring that he wanted, and after all was said and done, we got out of the hotel early enough to head to Venice Beach. On the way out to our car, we saw that the line for registration was so freaking long that it snaked through the room where we had been, out into the hotel foyer and all the way into the parking ramp. So what seemed like a longish line to me a few hours earlier was actually very close to registration! Whew I was so glad we were not stuck in that line. I very much enjoyed the looks of envy from the sorry suckers stuck in line as we headed out to Venice Beach. 

There we shopped and people watched and had dinner at our favorite place. Best pizza on earth.  I ended my day much the same way as I had began it....with a mega-calorie plate of fettuccine Alfredo. (I mention food because we have been so careful about food lately! I decided to take a foodcation, James did not). 
I mean it's not like he's turned into a tree hugger or anything....err...what?
At some point in every vacation, one person always believes the other has the room key,right? 
But when it was all said and done, it was an exhausting and fanfrickintastic day. 


3 comments:

  1. you guys look so cute. have fun!

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  2. so did you actually get locked out of your room?

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  3. yeah...this is me waiting for James to come back from the front desk with a key LOL

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