LA

11:09 PM, and the sound of the wind whipping rain against the windows has me wondering if it's late autumn outside or, worse, a December night of sleet and snow. Conrad's flight is due on the ground in a couple of hours, and I hope there aren't delays from the weather. It'll be a late enough night as it is.

I'm knackered, and though I should blog a whole bunch of the conference week, I'm not up to it. Travel, bad eating today, a 5 km timed swim when I got back to Chicago - all have taken their toll. Instead I'll simply finish this post I began at John Wayne International Airport this morning.

Last Friday was mostly an off day for me at the conference. I had had to go in for a Thursday orientation, and that left a day to catch up with CG, popping into LA to visit with her friend Kerry.

CG had a rental car, and I attempted to navigate. Between us we made it to Kerry's place, or so we thought. Good thing we were early - this was Kerry's workplace instead. That river? The Los Angeles River, I think.

We did make it to Brentwood after a phone call or two, and after pleasantries, we strolled in the neighbourhood while Kerry pointed out the sights normally seen in In Touch and Us Weekly. Cool. Never let it be said I'm above cheesy pop culture. Even cooler? Kerry, who works in television, has two real honest-to-goodness Emmy Awards. Wow.

The morning fog had burned off, so we got into a car and headed beachward, landing at Santa Monicawhere we roamed a little and wandered into the gorgeous Hotel Casa Del Mar. When I grow up, I want to afford staying there!





Westwood was our next stop, and more specifically, In-N-Out Burger. What is it with this place? It's THE thing in California, it seems. I grant you, it is a good, freshly made burger and fries. They only do that, and they do them well. Still, it's funny to hear people on my airport shuttle ask the driver if he can take them 20 miles out of our way to go get some burgers. The three of us ordered the double-double with grilled onions.



Dessert? Of course. Hey, I did the hotel treadmill/weights that morning (though after a week of conference eating and little real exercise, I'm really reluctant to weigh myself). Kerry took us around the corner to Diddy Riese for cookies. For a buck-fifty (!) I had two peanut butter cookies sandwiched with cookies-'n'-cream ice cream. It lasted the two block walk back to the parkade.
It is funny, though, that I spent a week in this same neighbourhood in 2005 when I attended a workshop at UCLA. I never found my way to either of these institutions. Shame on me!

Kerry had to get to work after that, so we retrieved the rental and all headed back to where CG and I first went to that morning. Kerry works for the CBS flagship in LA, at their studios. He gave us a tour around the news facilities and some of the studio lot, pointing out sound stages for shows, sets, and mementos. CG and I were a little agog: it's hard to conceive that real people actually work in these places and that we were there. Again, cool. And over in time to get us on the freeway back to Anaheim before rush hour kicked in.





Back in Anaheim, we caught up with a colleague from Penn over a drink at a hotel, then CG and I made our way to a simple meal of salad, pizza, and (wonderfully inexpensive) red wine over at California Pizza Kitchen. Satisfying, utterly, and whatever stresses of travel the day before were far from my mind after such a fine day with CG and Kerry.