I Need Sleep

I rolled into San Diego this morning around 3:30. I guess you'd like to hear about the night. Maybe you don't. But if so, then keep reading.

The drive to LA from home proved to be easy enough, but when it came to parking at LA Live!, the shit hit the fan. Not too badly, but I ended up circling around for about 20 or 30 minutes trying to find a parking location that wouldn't ensure the theft of my vehicle or its contents and one that would accept a credit card. That's my fault for not withdrawing any cash prior to leaving home. Anyways, after some slightly faulty directions from a parking attendant, I was finally directed to a lot that would accept card. Problem being I had to park valet. I hate valet. Especially since Marionette is a bit touchy and the emergency brake handle was broken off. And why pay someone else for something I could do myself? But again, I wasn't really in any position to decline since it was my only option. There went $25 ($28 with the guilt tip, despite the fact that they ruined my E-brake even more after I alerted them to the fragility of the cord).

While waiting for the ever-so-lovely Marina to arrive, I checked out this new-fangled "LA Live!" thing that the venue was located in. It was pretty much a mall of restaurants (most of which were under construction) with a trendy bowling alley (that we didn't go to since the line was too long) and two music venues (both owned by Nokia) right across from Staples Center. Not really worth the $25 parking, but a neat place.

Around 7:30 we met for dinner at a snazzy restaurant called "the Farm" where our waitress didn't introduce herself to us, barely paid attention to us and gave us what seemed to be menacing glares and exasperated eye-rolls in our direction while being friendly and attentive to the diners next to us. Two floors above us awaited Tom Jones.

Roundabout 8:45 we ascended two escalators to meet with greatness. The first course of action was to have our picture taken with their fancy picture machine (a cell phone). If you ever go to Nokia Club, look up the Tom Jones show for March 6th, 2009 and you'll find a photo of the two of us on some jumbo screen. Kinda creepy to see my face on a giant screen, but still fun. Next came two beers (which were outrageously expensive), then came Tom (Tommy!). The man's in his 60's and still going strong. Women all over the place were launching their underpants at the guy! His powers of seduction were so strong that a woman behind us even fainted! He's quite the entertainer, that one. Screeches of "I love you, Tom!" were heard throughout the night. We even initiated in the "Tom Jones High Five," which is just a regular high five but with "Tom Jones High Five" said aloud when doing so.

After the show we went in search of a bar that seemed like a neat place to go, but with all metered parking taken and people around the area still charging outrageous prices for parking in shady areas, we opted to grab some coffee and dessert at Mel's Diner, a 24 hour diner with a 50's/60's motif. So for a good while after the show Marina and I sat talking with apple pie, chocolate cake and a few cups of coffee.

At 1:30 we decided to go our separate ways and said our "see you soon"s. As we drove off I couldn't help but feel an all too familiar burning sensation in my chest. I knew it wasn't the coffee. That just goes straight to my bladder and I'd just used the restroom. The next two hours were spent ruminating on this sensation and trying to keep myself awake until arriving home in San Diego. A "made it home safe" text and five hours of sleep later, I'm here at work writing all this to you. So if you ask how it was, I'll tell you that the night was one of a kind and I had the right person to share it with. And now I just want to get back home to take a nice, long nap.