An LA [Extended] Weekend

Oh what a weekend… one of the best though. I drove out to LA to see friends but also to get away from Las Vegas. I wanted something different to do rather than just go to Krave. So here’s how it went:

Friday:

Left Las Vegas at 12.30p and headed down I-15. I was zooming along until I hit traffic. “Great!” I thought. All the signs say “Construction Ahead” but wouldn’t say how far ahead… so after 40 minutes of stop-go traffic… I finally get past the first construction zone. I say “first” because I ran into four more after that. Needless to say… it took me just about 5 hours, as opposed to the 3.5-4 hours I was planning.

Drove into El Segundo at about quarter ’til 5p and called the customer I had set up a coffee meeting with. If she wasn’t as much of a workaholic as I am and stays late on Fridays, then I would have felt really bad for her coming to meet me at Starbucks; but that wasn’t the case and we chatted for two hours about her account, job, my job, my experience, etc. Very valuable time spent building the customer rapport.

After coffee, I met up with Chris and his friend (name escapes me at the moment… Bridget maybe?) at The Grove for a movie. We saw Rendition; which, wasn’t so much my taste, but still good nonetheless. Movie got out around 10p and I headed over to meet Justin at his place where I was crashing for the weekend.

Saturday:

Saturday, I met up with Chris and Chuck to help Chris find his Halloween costume. Went to a few thrift stores and found a great outfit for him. Headed over to Sky’s Gourmet Taco’s and had lunch; afterwards I relaxed at Justin’s and watched some TV while I waited for him to get back from his errands. Later that night we went to a fund raiser party for the AIDS LifeCycle to support David, Chris’ roommate and friend. Didn’t stay out too late though as I didn’t know really anyone besides Chris and Chuck so we left pretty early.

Sunday:

Sunday morning Justin and I had breakfast at Joey’s - a great little place right down the street from his place. We had decided to do yoga at the studio he goes to so we drove out to Santa Monica and did some shopping. I got some new shorts that are great for yoga and we had some coffee to pass some time. We walked out to the beach and laid out for about an hour and finally went to do yoga where I got my ass handed to me. Not only was it 100x harder than the yoga at my gym, but it was twice as long! I had to take two breaks to keep myself from passing out! LOL!

After yoga we went and had dinner and then headed back to LA. I originally had planned to leave Sunday night (and in hindsight should have) but I really didn’t want to leave and Justin offered to let me stay if I wanted to. Plus I had my laptop with me so I could still work and not call out or take time off. So I decided to stay. :)

Monday:

Worked from Justin’s place on Monday and had lunch with Chris. Got a frickin’ parking ticket because I misread one of the signs. $50!!!! And I was only there for like 10 minutes! Who does street cleaning between 12p and 3p?! Anyway… after lunch I picked up some flowers for Justin as a thank you for his hospitality and took a little nap while I waited for him to get done with work so we could go to the gym. Again, he kicks my ass just like he did at yoga and I’m totally beat afterwards. We went and had dinner at this Brazilian place which was surprisingly really good. Afterwards, stopped to get coffee before my drive home.

Needless to say - I didn’t go home that night. Mandy called and told me about the wild fires and that I-15 was closed. Great. So I can either sit in 12 hours of traffic, or just stay another day and hope I can get through tomorrow… Justin totally said it was ok if I stayed another night - but I knew he had plans and he ended up canceling them which made me feel horrible.

Tuesday:

Tuesday rolls around and I work from Justin’s place again. He doesn’t end up getting home from work until about 7p and had plans at 7.30p so our goodbye was rather quick… didn’t get to tell him some stuff, but I suppose everything happens, or doesn’t happen, for a reason. I pull out of his place and head towards Nevada around 7.05p and hit Barstow at around 9.30p. Another two hours and I’m home. I stop and meet up with Mychael to say hi since I hadn’t seen him in almost three weeks. Chatted for a few and then off to home and bed.

All in all - a GREAT weekend. So glad I can run out to LA pretty much anytime and visit friends and the beach. :)