Thursday: Vacation roundup

Okay okay, time to quit fucking around with cheap Mexican beer and pixelated television on the internet (Wife Swap is my current guilty pleasure) - my vacation is over and it's time to get back to work!

So last week I took a beautiful vacation to Nowhere. I promised myself I would sleep a lot, but a certain house guest made everyday like Christmas morning for me.

Let's rewind to when I got hit by a car. Prior to my accident, I had purchased tickets to all three days of Coachella. After my accident it was unclear whether or not I would require a new wheelset after my rear wheel was declared irreparable (And my vanity would require new matching wheels). So I sold my tickets to fund my purchase, but a second opinion trued the wheel for a mere fifteen dollars. Which left me with some extra bones to spend and three days of paid vacation.

A languishing crush has blossomed into something sweet and fulfilling, and I spent my unexpected vacation with an unexpected person.

On the first night of my vacation, we made a harrowing journey out to the Hammer Museum for their Bike Night, which included bicycle valet by the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition and a screening of Breaking Away. I somehow got us lost on a West Side straight shot and we made the ill choice of backtracking on Wilshire during rush hour.

But we made it alive!



Breaking Away was tremendously charming, and the audience couldn't help but cheer on our bicycle-obsessed hero out loud. Prior to the screening, my likewise bicycle-obsessed father had insisted I see the film, and now I feel I understand something about him a little bit better than I used to.

The next day we took the bike path to Marina Del Rey? Long Beach? I know we ended up in Long Beach eventually, because we took the Blue Line home, but not without getting lost first (He would argue that we weren't lost, just "not there yet").



Saturday was C.R.A.N.K. Mob and though the theme of Redcoats versus Continentals was not exactly accessible, I went for the gold and rented a costume. Fortunately historical accuracy was not important.



On Sunday we decided to pay three dollars each to check out the Broad Contemporary Art Museum with a moment at the La Brea Tar Pits.

Monday was one of the only two holidays that I celebrate (The other is my birthday), and we celebrated with a lovely ride out to Venice Beach where we learned that it's almost impossible to carry ice cream cones and a soda while navigating two bicycles. We finally found a patch of grass to sit on and it was a gorgeous day out on the beach.



But like any Holidaze, it would not be complete without some sort of weird incident (Last year we witnessed a car accident). Our search for alcohol found us at the edge of a boardwalk, where we saw a man floating lifelessly in the water. There was some confusion over whether or not we were witnessing death or some sort of rescue practice, but nothing could prepare us for the body suddenly coming to violent life as a patrol boat approached and one of its passengers jumped out to wrestle the man from the water. The man struggled and screamed, and I began to feel some terrible vibrations, so we got out of there.



We found refuge in a couple of drinks and a snack.



We rounded out our Holiblaze with a free show at The Echo featuring one of my favorite bands ever, The Pleasure Circus Band, and discovered Fool's Gold. It was the best gift I could have found under my Christmas Tree.



Tuesday was the new Sunday and on the New Monday I slipped back into work with sand still in my shoes.