we get a semi early start today. a quick stop at the apartment’s business center where we plan our trip and we’re off to our first point of interest—the Griffith park observatory. but this proves to be futile due to road closures and a lack of signage. so we change course to check out venice beach. the pier gives a nice view of the water and a few surfers. the beach is wide and the sand is nice. after lunch at a local bistro we walk down the strip to see the freak show that is venice beach. there are musical acts (don’t forget to tip them if you take a picture), street performers, artisans selling their wares, evangelists, hippies, beatniks, bums and mostly tourists. there are stores offering medical marijuana. no prescription? no worries. just proceed to the booth on the next block for a medical evaluation. muscle beach is here now but wasn’t seeing much action today.
we walk back to the car along the beach and drive down to santa monica. the boardwalk is rather shorter than i thought it would be. we stop to look at the trapeze class, which is reasonably priced, pass the rides and walk through the arcade and back to the car. and we paid $8 to park here?
driving on, we head towards Beverly hills. we drive down famed melrose, sunset and mulholland drive. we see the site of the manson murders and are sufficiently creeped out. a scenic route takes us up into the hills and we go back to sunset as dinner approaches. we choose le chateau marmont for drinks. it is very posh.
we pick up a wireless signal and read up on the history of the place. jim belushi overdosed in one of the bungalows, led zeppelin drove their motorcycles through the hotel lobby, jim morrison jumped from the rooftop to his balcony using up the eighth of his nine lives (according to him). and the place is as popular today as it was then. lindsey lohan stayed there after a stint in rehab and britney has been kicked off the premises. and on this particular night, ellen and portia de rossi eat dinner one table away from us with another couple. they talk about vacations, they both smoke and the hotel sends their table a bottle of what i am sure is their finest wine. but ellen and portia don’t drink any of it and on the way out knock it off the table. it’s a scene but they attempt to clean it up and stop right by our table on their way out. we play it cool though. matt and i agree that we were surprised to find out portia was gay. she’s too hot. plus, ellen’s 50.
i do most of the talking at dinner. do i regret getting married? am i optimistic for the future? what do i feel about him now? (short answers—no, yes, i want him to be happy). and what have i learned from it all? life sucks. fact. if it doesn’t suck for you now, one day it will. but i try to explain to matt that this realization hasn’t made me cynical. instead, i’ve determined that our response to the fact that life sucks shouldn’t be to hole up and avoid it or descend into a spiral of depression. no, we should remember that life is sucky for everyone and give each other a break. go out of our way to help people. be there for each other. be less selfish.
tonight we have another rehearsal when we get back to the apartment. we work on “wonderwall” and after arguing over the opening notes for matt’s original tune, we have that down, too. we go to bed looking forward to fresh hangovers.
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