April 11, 2004 - 1:41 PM

Triad: Root-To the Beach

(note: this is the first of 3 entries leading up to #100 [already!])

The past two Mondays, I've spent time at the beach. I think that, with all the free time with which I'm now burdened, I should try to spend more late morning/early afternoons during the week at the beach. Brazen sunshine, comfortable heat with a touch of cool (it's still early enough in the spring that the heat isn't debilitating [I apologize to my East Coast readers for tantalizing you with my blithe attitude towards the wondrous L.A. weather]), underpopulated sands and water. It's a luxury, and one I shouldn't waste.

Nick usually has Mondays off (so he has no excuse to sing the song "Manic Monday"), and we sometimes get together for righteous shenanigans such as watching TV or eating dinner. Well, two Mondays ago, the typically gorgeous weather had me feeling frisky, so I called him up and said "why don't we go to the beach?" Actually, that's not quite right. The conversation went more like this;

*ring*
Nick answers his phone: Mr. Kim.
Me: Wassup?
N: I dunno.
Me: How you doin'?
N: Alright.

-pause-

Me: Wanna do something today?
N: Sure.

-pause-

N: Like what?
Me: I dunno. Got any suggestions?
N: Mmm? (the equivalent of an aural shrug)

-long pause-

Me: C'mon, think of something.
N: You're the one who brought it up, dinglebutt.
Me: Ummmmmm...(very long pause as we wait for the moon to go through it's various phases)...wanna go to the beach?
N: Sure. Sounds like a plan.
Me: I gotta eat breakfast first.
N: Me too.
Me: I'll pick you up in an hour.

True to form, I showed up an hour and a half later and off we went. This was the first time Nick's been in the ocean since he had laser eye surgery a month ago, and I think he really dug cutting through the surf without goggles or contacts. We sunned and funned for a couple hours and then drove back to his apartment to try out the new MVP 2004 baseball game on the Playstation.

Have you ever noticed how just hanging out at the beach, not even swimming, just lazing about on a blanket, can leave you so tired? Nick took a nap while I was figuring out the game, and I got drowsy pretty early in the evening, so we called it an early night.

The following week, Nick, LDBL, and Mer all left for Italy. They'll be gone for 2 weeks in total, leaving me to fend for myself and take care of their plants. For some strange reason, they each left on separate days: Nick on Sunday, LDBL on Monday, and Mer on Wednesday. Nick's departure occured without a hitch.

If you've been reading carefully, you might realize that something caused me to head to the beach on Monday. And you also realize that LDBL left on Monday. Here's what happened.

I received a call around 10:30 AM from LDBL. He had barely missed his 7 AM flight to NYC because there was so much pedestrian traffic from the Monday morning flying commuters; after standing in various lines, waiting to rebook a flight, he finally got the word that the next available flight for him was at 8 PM that night, and he would have to suffer through a 12 hour layover in NYC before he could get another flight to Italy. Basically, he was going to be 24 hours late, and there was no way for him to get in contact with Nick to warn him not to wait around at the train station to pick him up.

Since LDBL now had half a day to kill, and he didn't want to be stuck in the terminal for all that time, he asked if I wanted to hang out for a little while. Not having anything else pressing on my agenda, I was all over that cupcake like chocolate icing. When I picked him up, we juggled some options, and settled on brunch by the ocean. After eating, we walked up and down the beach, discussing baseball and teaching, and saw a seal carcass by the tideline. Even though the smell and sight were quite awful, there seemed to be a greater concentration of beachgoers in that vicinity than anywhere else. Very strange.

With a couple more hours to go before I had to head to the studio to record Brendon, we thought we might try to catch a matinee of Jersey Girl or The Ladykillers; just our luck, we showed up just in time to miss all of the showings by 15 minutes or so. However, we happened upon a golf driving range on our way back to the airport and eagerly partook in the smacking of a bucket of balls.

That was about enough to amuse us, so I dropped LDBL back at the airport and headed to the studio. All that intoxicating sunshine energizing the seratonin throughout my body was splendid. Perhaps I shall do it again this week.

Now Listening To : Jonatha Brooke-Steady Pull
Random Thought : Nick called me Tuesday morning all worried, asking for Mer's cell #. I explained what happened with LDBL to his relief.

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