Prior to my temporary loss of employment, Ben and I had planned on taking a mini vacation to Los Angeles. He had CPI training scheduled in San Bernadino and we decided a few days away from Phoenix would do us both good.
After last Wednesday however, we knew we'd have to cut our plans to conserve money. So while we still had to go, it was now a micro-vacation. Ben had to attend the training to maintain his CPI credentials, and we'd already volunteered to drive a friend's car over (she's moving to Encino at the end of the week to join her husband) so we were stuck doing the bare minimum. Three overnight stays were cut to one, and there would be no "fun" money available to spend, pretty much cutting out most everything we'd wanted to do in LA.
Monday morning we headed west from Phoenix.
Lots of memories tied to this route and the countless times I took it to and from San Francisco. I hadn't been back to California in any capacity since I left in 2002.
The trip was uneventful, taking the expected five and a half hours. We checked into our motel in (I'll link to my Yelp review at some point, but AVOID the Super 8 in Redlands at all cost), grabbed a bite to eat, and then headed west to Encino, neither of us realizing until we mapped it out how much longer we'd be on the road to deliver the car.
And speaking of mapping, how did anyone survive before GPS?!
Before I lost my job, of the things I originally wanted to do while we were there was to pay a visit to Amoeba Records. I hadn't visited it (or perhaps it was Tower I was thinking of—the memory's a little vague right now—since 1999). We'd pretty much axed all our previous plans of places to visit, but since it was actually only a brief detour on the way back to the motel, we made a quick visit and stopped for dinner. I loved Amoeba in San Francisco. I was not so impressed with the Hollywood location. I also remember it being on the northeast corner of an intersection, not the southwest, so I may actually be remembering a visit to Tower. It was nearly 20 years ago…
There was one record I wanted to buy, but I was an adult and didn't grab it: Grace Jones' Slave to the Rhythm 12" picture disk. It was only $7.98 and I should have thrown caution to the wind and grabbed it because the cheapest copy on Discogs I could find is going for over twice that—not including shipping.
Sadly, since we're in Redlands for the remainder of the day I'm not driving two hours back to get it.
I had one brief celebrity spotting: George Stults (@boraborageorge). Just as cute in person as his Instagram.
After finishing dinner we got back on the road.
Approximately two hours later, after stopping at Target to pick up some Febreze air/fabric freshener, we arrived back at our ashes-found-in-the-bathroom-sink "non-smoking" room. I actually slept pretty well, thankful that the place was at least quiet.
This morning we grabbed breakfast and I dropped Ben off at his training. We met up again for lunch and I'm currently sitting in the Redlands public libray waiting for his training to finish up so we can head home…
Apologies to any of my readers who live in LA or environs and love it, but I can't believe I ever wanted to live here.
For those of us who grew up here, we know the place for what it's worth, and tend to live in a particular part of the region, not having to travel millions of miles just to get to work.
Sorry to not get together, but realized that would be the case when last week's termination drove the conversation.
Glad you are home, safely, and with money in pocket.
Personally, I live in Sherman Oaks, and would NEVER live in Encino – know too much about it, and that is a bad sign for your friend.