Didn’t get discovered at the beach.
It took awhile for me to get functional. And I’m still seeing friends all over the place. But I finally got down to the beach. Unfortunately it was fairly late. I parked the car, got out and realized that the Santa Monica beach is very cold. I wandered through the pier a bit, and then noticed that south of it, the temperature was much nicer. So I went back to the car, changed, and started running to Venice Beach. Three miles away.
Venice Beach is much more of a destination than Santa Monica. If I had life to live over (and a better sense of how to commute in L.A.) I would have driven to Venice Beach and started the run there.
The area along the beach is full of kitsch stores. It’s like an army of hippies all descended on the place at once and made it their own. But a better mental image might be Whyte Avenue. Only more Whyte, in a non-supremacist way. And an outdoor weight training gym plunked in the middle. (Muscle Beach.)
It is nothing like Venice, Italy. Unless you replaced the road with canals, and upped the price and quality of everything by 1000. (Level of usefulness is about the same.) I found it more similar to Nice. But that was giving me flashbacks to my collision with bicycles there.
It wasn’t that nice to run in the shopping area. And I probably shouldn’t have, but the lane was separated into bicycle and pedestrian, and the pedestrian one went right into the mass of hippy shoppers. Still, I got the amount of the ambiance that I would care for. I am not that good at window shopping.
I did the run all the way out to the end of the pier. If this was a movie, inspirational music would have been playing. There was a nice view. I stopped and watched a surfer try to catch a wave. It took several minutes before he found one he liked, and then he wiped out in five seconds. Wasting my time.
On the way back, the sun set behind the clouds. I got a nice vibrant sunset. The Santa Monica pier lit up nicely, with the fairground on it. However, it was like running River Valley Road and seeing the High Level Bridge in the distance. It never seems to get closer.
But, as all things do, it came to an end. I wandered around Santa Monica pier. I was tempted to go into the Bubba Gump restaurant, but that is an event restaurant. And you can’t go there on your own. In the end, lunch (at 6:00 in the evening) was a hot dog.
This is why I would have preferred to start from the other end. Venice Beach looked like it had a lot nicer places to eat and things to look at.

Nope, not discovered.
I feel I haven’t been spending my time in L.A. as efficiently as possible. I haven’t been doing much of the really touristy stuff. But I have discovered that driving in this town is terrible. It takes forever to get anywhere by car. And the yin to that yang is that you need a car to get anywhere.
But I have been having a great time. I’m just spending it more with friends than civic monuments. I had thought about doing an official L.A. tour today, but I didn’t get back in time to make the start. On the other hand, you know you are having a wild and crazy time when you end up in the hospital. I wish I could say it was for an arm broken in a bar fight, but no, just a small ear problem. And the recovery is essentially to ignore it and it will go away.
I’ve been staying up way too late. Fun fun fun. I think I’m going on about 4-5 hours of sleep a night. It is a struggle to get up before 10:00 for the hotel’s free breakfast. I could splurge and go across the street and eat some of the local cuisine. But this isn’t Italy. This is California, and I don’t need to prove anything. Besides, the local cuisine is an IHOP.
Now I should figure what I am doing today. As mentioned, previous plans have failed.

Still not discovered.
Maybe I should change my hair?

It was like my sister was here.
We were out late partying. Then a bunch of us went to an afterparty. And someone asked how I could have this much energy this late. That is what my sister is always wondering.
Still, I left before everyone had gone. Stone cold sober, I drove back to the hotel. And this time I didn’t have a navigator with me. When I had gone to the bar, I had one, using a printout of Google maps to give directions.
I really wish I had a map of L.A.
It was a confusing trip back. I wasn’t sure if I was on the right highway, and so a bunch of U-turns were involved. Eventually I ended up right back where I had started from, just so I could try again from scratch. Obviously, in the end, everything worked out.
I am a very nervous driver. I am in a strange city, driving a strange car. I am supposedly covered from my auto insurance in Edmonton. But the Hertz representative put the fear of god in me. There will be deductibles to pay, and I would be so much better if I used their coverage. I didn’t, so I’m even more nervous.

Day two. Still not discovered.
Wandering down the street I saw a man walking by dressed in a full Spider-man costume. In the night his reflective eyes looked eerie. No idea why he was dressed that way.
At dinner I had the perfect stereotype. My waitress had come here from New York to be an actress.

I was tired. I really didn’t want to go out. I was halfway to sleep before I changed my mind. I pulled myself out of bed, got changed and went out to meet some friends at a bar.
It was Goth-er than I was led to believe.
Since I was wearing black I didn’t stick out too much.
There was a women on a pole playing a game of let’s-see-what-gravity-defying-position-I-can-pose-in. She was very good. And fairly high up. I always thought my legs were strong, but after seeing her do things, and then hold them for such a long time…
It was nice to see my friends. Especially one I hadn’t seen for over a year. She still remembered me, and was still thankful that I had sent her pictures from our vacation.
As near as I can tell, I’m only person in the world that send pictures to people.

I wandered along Hollywood Blvd., but as the sun went down, it became chilly. So I’ve retreated to my hotel to get some warmer clothes. I was expecting L.A. to be more pleasant. But then, it is winter.
The Walk of Fame is very long. And after awhile it gets sort of boring. Eventually, I stopped paying attention to it and just acted like a tourist. I wandered into any store that looked interesting. The high point was when a clerk asked if I was in the film industry.
Actually the stores on Hollywood Blvd are somewhat sketchy. The three main genres I saw were tattoo parlors, exotic dancer clothing, and Scientologists. The latter one was the oddest. Whereas in other places, the Church of Scientology is kept discreet, here there were three big Scientology places, with larger than life neon signs.
Creepy.

The plane was full of little children. I think they are heading to Disneyland. Maybe I should check that place out.
My first act in L.A. was to pick up my rental car. I splurged a bit and got a Mustang. Unfortunately, it isn’t a convertible. That would have cost a LOT more money. However, with all that power under the hood (relative to my Honda Civic) I am not treating it right. I’m going slow and nervous. I’m in a completely different city that I don’t know my way around. (I’m lucky I found the hotel.)
And yet I feel I recognize it. I am seeing so many names that I have heard before. I travelled along La Brea avenue (Which was weird. None of the “La Brea” marked businesses were mentioning tar pits, which is what I associate the name with.) I crossed Melrose and Santa Monica. My hotel is on Sunset Boulevard. (And I am not ready for my close up.)
It is weird having a hotel with a roof and walls in the hallway, and yet is still open to the elements. The people here do not have to deal with real weather.
But now, I feel the need to eat. Next door is an In-N-Out Burger place. Which I recall hearing very good things about, and only available in California. I haven’t had a greasy burger since last August, but I’m on vacation now. (Mind you, the only month I haven’t been on vacation since then was January, so that isn’t a solid argument.)

So, the Calgary Airport. We meet again. (I prefer the Edmonton airport; It has free Wi-Fi.)
My initial plan was to drive down from Edmonton this morning and then fly out. However, my parents really wanted Edmonton Farmer’s market eggs, so I drove down last night, slept over, then drove an hour to the airport this morning. This was all so I could avoid a 2-3 hour layover in Calgary if I left from Edmonton. But I’ve been wondering about that. Because it is an international flight, I am supposed to be here two hours before the flight. So maybe the long layover was necessary, and a flight would have been more efficient…
I got through all the rigamarole in less than half an hour. So now is the time when we wait.
This is why I hate flying. At least I don’t fear it; Just hate.
But this afternoon I will be spending Valentine’s day in Lala land. It beats the usual plan of going to a restaurant and glaring at the happy couples. But since I need to eat out anyway, I might just be doing that as well.
I am going for a vacation. I’ve got some friends there that I will see. I have no illusions about being “discovered”. But there is still a part of me that would think it would be cool.

I’ve been talking to two of my oldest friends, the ones I had while I was in high school. i.e. They are about the same age as me. The one thing I’ve noticed is that they are very ambitious. They both take charge of their occupation and are working to better themselves in it.
I’ve noticed that I am not that ambitious. I’d like to be, but it just doesn’t seem to be happening.
I saw a financial advisor today and she went over my portfolio. I’m ahead of a lot of people because my parents taught me to save for retirement at a very early age. I also have investments in non-retirement plans. But then she asked what I am saving for.
I couldn’t answer.
So far I’ve been saving money because I feel I should. But as near as I can tell, it is just a way to keep score. I own my home. I have all the toys I probably need. I don’t have a family, which both of the aforementioned friends have. (Maybe that is why they are ambitious? Future generations?) I have nothing I really want to spend money on. I’m financially secure.
Maybe I need to get some fear of god in me? That’ll perk me up.

Back at the end of November I went to the bank and paid out my credit line.
At least I thought I did. Actually I had just paid the current balance. A week later I had an interest charge. Today I called the bank about it to complain.
However, back then, the teller was somewhat new at the job and had made another mistake. When I did the paying out, at the same time I withdrew $60 from my chequing account. And while I did receive the cash in my hand, it seems $60 also got credited towards my credit line.
I called to complain about that too.
They appreciated my honesty. But in the end, their advice was to take the money and run. After this long they were going to write it off. The stinging remark was that the guy on the phone said, to justify this bounty, that I was a long time customer and that they had made a lot of money off of me.
I don’t like to think of banks making a lot of money off me.

For the third day in a row I worked at home. Cabin fever is starting to set in. I’ll go into work tomorrow just so I can get a bit of socialization in.
Well when you say it like that, it does sound bad.

I noticed that I never actually put my work laptop into my computer room. I put it on the dining table and worked from there. There is space in the computer room, but maybe I don’t want my home computers to get jealous of this new computer I’m spending all my time with.
It did take me two days to realize I could at least use the office chair.

I worked at home today. It was cold out. Let me check how cold…

Well, the high was -28 with a wind chill around -40. I suppose I could have gone to work; I have heated parking both here and there. I can avoid winter if I want.
If I was someone living in Miami right now, contemplating returning to Canada, I would have to give serious thought to the idea.
The downside of working at home is a complete lack of socialization. Yes, I’m aware a computer programmer doesn’t really get that anyway, but a little bit helps you get through it. After being alone all day I’ve gone a little squirrely. I walked to a local restaurant for a change of scenery. I nearly slipped twice on the snow (not the ice.)
Yeah, I’m glad I didn’t drive to work.
And now I will watch a movie.

This morning I tried my best to think of a reason not to go into work. It was -45 degrees out with the windchill, and there had been a lot of blowing snow. My best bet was a stomach ache brought about by my eating shrimp (minor allergy) last night. But the 4 Tums tablets I had slammed when I got home in the evening seemed to have done the trick.
With no good excuse I headed to work. I would like to give a shout out to the nice Puralator man that helped push me out of the snow drift 15 meters from my parkade. I arrived half an hour late. Surprisingly (or not) I was the first to arrive.
I don’t think anyone will be showing up for movie night tonight. Even if it wasn’t bitterly cold, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of interest in the straight action movie I’ve rented.

I have a policy that I don’t run if it is colder than -20 degrees. Lately I’ve been ignoring that, and I really don’t have a reason why. It sounds like a good theory.
Today the traction was hell, visibility is less than a kilometer, it is -21, but with the wind chill it is -35. And yet still I ran.
It is an interesting feeling: If I was going to cook myself for dinner, after feeling my butt, I would have to say I need to thaw out some more.

I just saw 16 blocks. I enjoyed it.
There was an alternate ending that was somewhat more depressing. I’m torn by it. Usually I like endings that aren’t Hollywood; Where the hero fails and/or dies. But still, I preferred the theatrical ending.
There was one revealing mistake I saw. Although the movie was set in New York, there was a sign indicating “Centre street” (note the spelling). That, and the bottle of Canadian Club, helped indicate a Toronto shooting location.

If I had known the condo board AGM would be over this quickly, I could have still had a movie night.

For eight years there has been something missing in my life. There is a checkmark I have not been able to put on my list of things to do. But now it has been done and realized.
I have finally seen American Pie.
I do realize that there are more epic accomplishments that one could have in their life, but just give me this. I have enough trouble getting around to seeing movies. If I don’t see them in the theatre, they frequently are never seen. When I do go out to rent a movie, I have given up on finding the one I want to see the most. I am so far behind in movie watching (eight years apparently) that there is too much selection. Instead I decide the genre and then go through alphabetically until I find a movie I haven’t seen that I have at least a vague interest in seeing. So last Thursday (on 2 for 1 night at the video store) I got 16 blocks in the action section. Technically, for my comedy choice, I should have gotten 50 First Dates, but I thought it was out.
I am pondering a change to how my Monday movie nights work. Actually, I am going to do a change. I’m through with the pondering.
Currently, I just list a movie I own and make a plan to watch it. The new method is going to require planning.
Eleven days before a movie night (that would be a Thursday), I will be in the video store and I will find a movie that I am interested in seeing. Probably using the previously mentioned method of movie selection. And then I will place it back on the shelf and ignore it.
That night I will go update my movie page with the details of this selection and the plan to see it in eleven days. I will also place the details of the backup movie; A movie I own that seems as close as possible to the plan. Action begets action. Romantic comedy begets romantic comedy. You get the idea.
Four days before a movie night (and conveniently eleven days before the next one) I will go to the video store and attempt to rent the planned movie. If I can’t, well, we always have the backup. But in any case, I will update the webpage with the finalized choice.
Don’t argue with the plan! The plan is sound.

There is a marathon in Disneyworld called the “Mickey”. The day before it there is a half-marathon called the “Donald.” Now, if you look at just that, it appears that Goofy has been kicked out of the triptych of Disney friends (I blame Minnie.)
But no! Goofy, in line with his sportsman like heritage, is actually the main man. To run the Goofy is to run the Donald one day, followed by the Mickey the next. So, Goofy reigns supreme and Donald is consigned to being the lame duck. (Pun very much intended.)
Now most people will say that you couldn’t pay them enough to do something like that. But I’m sure you can see where this is going.

At least I have a year to train.

I had a lazy day with my mother; We rented some movies to see. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End was not the best movie. It went on a little too long. My initial reaction was flavored by a comic I read half a year ago. Now that I’ve seen the movie, it seems to be right on the money.
The next movie was Live Free or Die Hard. Great movie! Mindless action right out of the eighties. On startup, the DVD asked whether we wanted to see the theatrical release or the unrated version. I looked at my mother and she told me that obviously we need to see the unrated version.
My mother is cool.

I went to West Edmonton Mall with my mother today. She doesn’t get to go shopping much in Edmonton, so I guess if you want to do it right, you go to this place.
It was nice to wander around the mall with no real point. Usually I go there with a plan in mind, and do my surgical strike shopping. This time I could mostly wander.
I went to Old Navy where they had a sale on. I found some corduroy pants that looked like a good deal. I tried them on in the change room and they fit, although they did feel a bit weird. I figured it out when I saw they were “Low-rise” pants. I got them because they were only $9. How can you go wrong with that.
But now I’m noticing they feel really weird. And I’m beginning to wonder if “Low-rise” is an indicator of being women’s pants. They were on the men’s side of the store, but still close to the nebulous area of the middle.
But $9. It’s not like they were a big investment. I think I’ll just get rid of them. I don’t like pants that make me question what gender they are for.

So I had the operation today. I went in without knowing much about what would happen. So I was a little surprised when I found out they would be completely knocking me out.
They injected me with the general anesthetic, and said I would be out in fifteen seconds. I didn’t feel a need to count it out, but I was more interested in an inventory of the sensations. After a few seconds my throat felt weird, maybe sore. Then my cheeks. I felt my eyes going next. I tried to fight it, but I was out. I may have dreamed, but I’m not sure. When I woke up, forty-five minutes later, I was cold. That was because they had an IV in me. It was at room temperature, which was colder than my body temperature. That was a weird feeling. The warm blankets felt nice though. The large thermometer/clock above me let me know the temperature was 31.5. Still, it felt cold. And my nose felt like it had been raped. They stuck a tube up there to go into my throat. I feel violated.
And nose bleedy.
There were two issues that they were looking at. The first, which actually got me there, is the bump on the roof of my mouth. They took care of that with a laser. Now when I look at my palate, it looks like someone shot me there.
The other issue was a persistent bump in my lip. That interested the dentist more. Since it was still there a month later, it came out to. That has been more traumatic. There are stitches in my mouth and my lip is turning a bit black. I need to apply pressure to it, via gauze. This has made typing a little hard. I should be using only one hand, but that would take forever.
I also need to apply cold. Things should be easier tomorrow. I am supposed to drink lots of fluids, specifically ones with sugar. The dentist actually told me that pop would be better for me than water. That is so cool.
And I’m not supposed to brush my teeth tonight. Weird.
Other than that I am alert, and in no pain. My mother thinks I should go to bed. Unfortunately I am a night owl. The Coke I had five hours ago is probably not helping.

It’s amazing how much food I have around this place.