The LBC, Part 2

Today was a double-plus good day for a man who's at home most of his day— I received visits and packages from both FedEx and UPS. What could be better? A few weeks ago I got an email from Dickies saying they had a lot of clothes on clearance at their website so I picked up some shirts and jackets and such at really good prices. Those arrived today in a heavy box. Don't be surprised if you see me in some new work gear.  :)

I left off describing my time in Long Beach at the end of Thursday night. Friday morning both Lee and I slept in. I have to admit that I didn't sleep great that first night. I was on an air mattress in the living room with three smallish blankets to keep me warm, and that combination would have been perfect except that Lee has a delightful cat whose litter box is on the balcony. Unsure whether or not she used the box at night, Lee asked me to keep one of the sliding glass doors open wide enough for the cat all night. In Summer that would have been just great. In Winter, at the shore, it was less than great. I was able to curl myself up and make sure that my feet were covered, but I'm a very active sleeper, so I was constantly shifting in and out of warm positions. Real sleep didn't come until the early morning hours.

Upon arising and completing our morning ablutions, we walked over to Pine Street to a restaurant called the Omelette Inn. I very much enjoyed my breakfast , but the heat was off in the restaurant and we froze the whole time we sat there.

After breakfast we dashed over to Jori's apartment. She has a delightful apartment that, to me, seems like it is straight out of Maupin's Tales of the City— a big open living room and kitchen with hard floors. There is a detached office as well, and a small backyard with a fire pit. All of this is located in the tight-knit community of Rose Park. I would absolutely love to live there!

Now, one of the reasons we went to see Jori was so that Lee could collect a big blanket of hers— a big warm blanket that I could use that night to get a better night's sleep. The blanket will come up again later in this travelogue.

Jori is one member of a very social and tight-knit group of people and one member of that circle is the lead singer and songwriter for a band named Crush. Crush has recently signed to the Hensley Record label and will be launching a tour soon. Their second album will be out within the next year. Lee played the first Crush CD for me on the way to the movie theatre, and I immediately liked it— a lot! If you're an 80's fan, you'll probably like it as well. There's a big Depeche Mode influence in the band, mixed with subtler influences of Talk Talk and Duran Duran. Anyway, check them out at: Crush.

From Jori's we drove to a near-dollar theatre in Redondo Beach to see Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Lee really wanted to see a movie while I was there, but several flips through the Calendar section of the L A Times left me appalled at our choices. Everything playing these days seems so damned depressing. Finally I spotted Zack and Miri in tiny print at one theatre. I wasn't sure Lee would be interested, but she either trusts me or she didn't want to put up with my finickiness. As it turned out, Zack and Miri was very funny, even if it really wasn't anything more than a romantic comedy. I wouldn't buy it, but I would watch it again with friends.

We pretty much struck out with the movies we rented to watch that night though. Both on my recommendation, we rented Lars and the Single Girl and Step Brothers. Lars is a quirky independent movie, amusing if not really funny. The script is solid but not too daring. To sum it up quickly, it's about a lonely guy who orders a life-like sex doll off the internet and then brings her into his life as if she were real. We watched this movie while my blanket for the evening was in the washing machine and then the dryer.

Step Brothers, on the other hand, was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Both Lee and I were interested because John C. Reilly is in it. Personally, I think he's a great actor, and I looked forward to seeing him have fun in a comedy. I can't begin to list all the reasons this movie was not funny at all. The central reason, however, was probably just the fact that Reilly and Will Ferrell just didn't click. They may have been funny together in Taladega Nights— I didn't see it— but the killed any momentum in this movie with every scene they had together.

Now, when we started Step Brothers, the blanket came out of the dryer. We were both sitting on Lee's bed since her only TV is in the bedroom. She threw it on me, and it was toasty and warm. I told her she had to get under it too because a freshly dried blanket is a gift of comfort that should not be wasted. So, on her side of the bed, Lee snuggled under the blanket as well. And then she fell asleep during the second movie. When the movie was over, she was so wrapped up in the blanket and so soundly asleep that I couldn't get the blanket from her. So, I ended up jostling for warm positions on the air mattress again a second night. I enjoyed the irony of the situation.

That's pretty much it for Long Beach. Lee brought me back home again Saturday morning after we got a delicious breakfast with Jori at a local restaurant. It was a nice getaway.

"When you're safe at home you wish you were having an adventure; when you're having an adventure you wish you were safe at home."— Thornton Wilder