On Monday I leave TRW to go to the airport and pick up Person G. I sneak around a few of the columns in baggage claim and get a surprise picture of Person G as he waits for his baggage to arrive. Person G has already had three drinks on the flight. We drive down to Manhattan Beach pier and watch the sunset and grab dinner. Person G has three more drinks with dinner. Finally, after Person G meets Nopey and drops his bags off at my house, we go to Fire Island (On a Monday night?) to see what's going on. There are ten people in the place - mostly playing pool. We hang out anyway as Person G has two glasses of white wine. There is no record of when we ended up back home.
On Tueday we do a lot of running around in Long Beach - walking by the ocean, trying (and failing) to rent rollerblades, and walking around downtown Long Beach. Person G has two glasses of wine with lunch. There is a Tuesday night resourcescout meeting where Person G meets Ruby and Joseph and we have a good business meeting. After the meeting we go shopping for supplies and groceries and Person G buys four single-serving wine bottles that are finished off before bedtime.
Is there a pattern here?
On Wednesday we go to Universal Studios (my first time) and mingle with the small crowd. There are some fun rides, the tour is actually informative, and we see a squirrel in the trees during the tour. Both Person G and I are impressed with the vertigo feeling in the Mummy's Tomb part of the tour (even if I knew it was an illusion and I knew how they made one feel as if they were rolling over) and the Terminator 2 3D film. Finally Person G has wound up enough courage to go into the "haunted house" walk through of the Mummy's Tomb. There is a lady behind us who keeps screaming at every turn whether there is something "to get her" or not. Person G screams very loud as each Mummy or monster tries to get him. I non-chalantly walk through as I intentionally lose touch with the guide in front and expect strange things to happen. We eventually get home and rent a very bizarre and funny video "Evil Dead 2" and do a lot of laughing at the scenes.
On Thursday we catch the blue line train to downtown Los Angeles. As we board the train we walk past a number of occupied rows and sitting with his legs across two seats is a young guy rolling a marijuana joint on his lap in full view of all train-goers. He looks up at me as I pass and we just smile at each other - there is nothing else to be done. I continue to point out to Person G the highlights - the beautifull architecture, the tall buildings in an earthquake zone, and the people. As we proceed from the 7th and Flower metro station towards Little Tokyo I ask Person G at each plateau, "Are you ready for another step down?" We stop in at the King Eddy and have wine and soda, we walk through skid row and talk about circumstances and luck, we walk past the Lorraine Hotel ($232 per month) even as it undergoes a renvovation, and we walk past junkies and hookers. We have a nice lunch in Little Tokyo as Person G has two more glasses of wine. Later on Thursday we catch up with a friend of Person G's and Person G has two more glasses of wine. After dinner we go to two clubs that are both dead on a rainy Thursday night. Person G adds a few more glasses of wine to his Thursday total. We are asleep by 2am on Friday morning.
On the rainy Friday and Saturday we do some driving to interesting places in Long Beach and Santa Monica and do a lot of browsing of bookstores, computer stores, and electronics stores. There are also a couple of Japanese Anime shops that we visit that have some neat stuff, some weird stuff, and some downright kooky stuff. At a toy store in Santa Monica we go to the action figure section (as that has provided interesting results in the past). The interesting action figures that we find (and cannot explain) are the Planet of the Apes action figures, a Jesus action figure, a Sigmund Freud action figure, a Charlie the Tuna (from Starkist tuna advertisements) action figure, and, of course, a set of Hogan's Heroes action figures with Hogan himself and Sargent Schultz. (A Sargent Schultz action figure?) There is also a Get Smart set of action figures with both Agent 99 (Maxwell Smart) as well as The Chief.
During one of the days Nopey plays one of our favorite tricks on Person G. When Person G walks into the kitchen Nopey is lying on the floor as still as he can be and barely breathing. Person G calls me and is very upset and is shaking/jumping up and down as he thinks that Nopey is dead. I come into the kitchen and tell Nopey, "Good dog", as I rub his belly. He looks up and now Person G can see that Nopey is still alive. But now I have another reason for giving Person G a hug and holding on tight as I comfort him from Nopester's "play dead" trick. Very good dog!
On the brightest and cleanest day of the year, Sunday, I take Person G back to the airport for his return flight. I stop in at work for a couple hours to arrange my new office in a different building. And I play an ice hockey game as our team tries to get back on track from the previous game where we lost to the last place, previous un-won team. We lose again as we play poorly. There are telephone conversations with Joe about Person G's visit as well as attempted telephone calls with Person M_C regarding his CPA exam and with Person J_VKPI. I am in bed before 10pm.
After a good 4+ mile run on Monday morning it feels good to be back on the motorcycle for the crisp ride to work. Unfortunately traffic prevents me from going more than 87 mph but I vow to make up for it on the ride home.