Letters From Hollywood

Because you asked, this week we’re going to talk about my typical week. I documented everything this past week. Here it is, uncut, uncensored, and unadulterated for your reading pleasure. 

Monday: I overslept. I felt like a jet engine had dropped out of the sky and landed on me. After work I headed over to Jess’s aunt and uncle’s for a family BBQ. It’s here where I normally spend my time educating her three West Coast raised sub-16-year-old cousins on the East Coast values of board games. And no, I don’t take it easy on them just because they’re younger than me.

Tuesday: At lunch, I went to this place called Road Runner to get new shoes. The appeal is the foot-scanning machine they use to recommend the best fitting shoes specific to you. After work, I set off on a run to test them out. I only planned on a few miles, but over an hour-and-a-half later I had run close to 15-miles. Best shoes ever.

Wednesday: Woke up at 5 a.m. and walked the surprisingly refreshing 2.5-miles into work. Then I ran 5 miles with the guys from work. The highlight of my workday was scoring tickets to a sold-out Chromeo concert off a guy on Criagslist. I’ve got a Benjamin that says you YouTube them and I start a new music trend back home. After work, I went to the gym briefly and got friendly with a good book on photography before crashing early.

Thursday: This is where things get interesting. “The Dark Knight” comes out at midnight. The workday is pretty much wasted to talk and speculation about the movie. An hour before the movie I met up with five close friends from work. While this is probably the number one anticipated movie of the summer, I was not a huge Batman fanboy. That changed quickly. I left excited to see the movie a second time. Which leads me to Friday.

Friday: I didn’t get home until after 3 in the morning. I was far too hyper after that movie to sleep. Just an hour and a half after I passed out, my alarm sounded like a nuclear bomb had gone off in my ear. Somehow I managed to I pick up my buddy to take him to the airport. Why do people insist on flights before the sun is up?

For obvious reasons, it was a Starbucks day. After, I went into work early. When I got there, my normal running crew was waiting for me. So … when in doubt, screw it, let’s do it. Amazingly, I managed to run 7 miles at an 8 minute pace on less than 2 hours of sleep. Go me.

After I got back to work and showered, the troops were already assembling. DreamWorks was treating our department to a morning screening of “The Dark Knight” at Universal City Walk as a thank you for some recent overtime. The only thing better than a good movie for free … is getting paid to watch it.

The rest of the workday was completely shot as everyone relentlessly talked about the movie. We’re all geeks. When I got home from work I decided to walk downtown and go shopping for new board shorts for my upcoming trip to Vegas. I don’t know how I managed to stay awake until after 11 that night.

Saturday: Saturday I spent the entire day with Jess. She had to work in the morning but I drove out with her and killed time in the local Starbucks. When she finished with her clients, she gave me the full spa treatment. I got a facial and had my eyebrows waxed. Not really my thing, but she was happy to finally show me what she does for a living.

Afterwards we headed to her aunt and uncle’s for her cousins 16th Birthday party. Everything was going great until we stopped to pick up drinks. Being the complete idiot that I am, I locked the keys in the trunk. As in, completely locked up trunk. Triple-A sent out a locksmith, but it cost me two hours, my dignity, a headache and $60.

At the party, the adults went a little (read: a lot) overboard with the alcohol. This left me sleeping in the motor home parked out front. I did learn that I’m a lot stronger when I drink than I would have thought. I managed to pick up and throw four people in the pool. I also learned that some pranks are better tried sober – particularly the ones that involve jumping over a fence. Ouch. I do love her crazy family though.

Sunday: The day of rest, the wrap to the week. Jess, her family and myself all traveled down to Santa Monica for the day. We window shopped, we ate, and we basked in the sun on the beach. It was a day spent at the pace of slow just relaxing and enjoying each other’s company. Tonight, I’m going to catch up on a few episodes of “24” and get ready to start the week again.

So to answer your question – what do Californians do when they’re not doing anything -- well, to be honest I really don’t get much of that time. I’m far from being a homebody. This life of ours is too short, and I want to take advantage of as much of it as I possibly can. If that means running myself into the ground to the point of exhaustion here and there … well, it’s a small price to pay for the great things life has to offer.

Until next time, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

Kemer

One question: Does anybody ever do any work out there? - Ed.