Bluejake

8am Woke up in a sweat after one of those math test dreams. First one of those in a little while, but probably not the last. Checked some sites and did a little work while I waited for K to wake up.

9am K ran in and told me they were shutting off the water in the building to do some work, so I jumped in the shower faster than I had planned. This conflicted with my new crunch exercise period, so I only ended up doing 50.

10am I drove us down to Boris' tailor shop on Barrington in Brentwood. I had given me a couple of his old B blazers, which just needed a little touching up. Boris is a classic- his routine would fit in fine in Bay Ridge. After, we walked to Coffee Bean up the block, and I had a jasmine tea while K got her caffiene fix.

11:30am K wanted to get a manicure to go with the ring, so we drove around until we found a place that could do it. I decided to get one too, but K wouldn't let me get the clear nail polish. On the whole it was a new and interesting experience- I liked the hand massage and cuticle trimming. My fingers usually looked like they just got pulled out of a lawn mower, so I definitely noticed an improvement.

1pm K and I got into an argument about going down to the beach. She said it was too windy, but I persisted. We drove down to Ocean via San Vincente, and parked near the wooden stairs. The wind was blowing at about 40mph off the ocean, so it felt more than a little cold. Once we got down on the beach the sand was kicking up pretty good. I walked down a little and took some pictures of the scene, but K refused to budge and we eventually walked back to the car. Our first post-engagement fight; we made up on the way back to the apartment.

2:30pm We met D at the Beverly Hills Hotel to look at the grounds and the ballroom. The place seemed a little overdone to me now, but I remembered being really impressed by the Polo Room when K took me there for a drink back in 1998. I walked out to see the pool while they were talking about china and took some more pictures.

4pm The three of us drove down to the Four Seasons and looked around. The sales presentation was very impressive- a long tour and lots of pictures and menus. The space was nicer- much more contained and appropriate for a medium sized wedding. Odd: all of the materials we were shown were clearly for Jewish weddings- lots of kepas in the pictures. How did they know?

5pm Drinks at the W in Westwood, looking at all the brochures. I had a cosmopolitan to settle my nerves, and talked to my parents on the phone while K and D made plans to see more hotels tomorrow. Planning a wedding is such an enormous job. After an hour or so we took off and made a few stops before going home. K bought some wedding mags at a newspaper stand, and we stopped at Whole Foods to get some dinner.

7pm Redesigned the Gothamist masthead for Jen in NYC.

8pm Dinner at the apartment- steak. Very good- Los Angeles is all about the BBQ. Afterwards, we watched Father of the Bride, which struck a little close to home for my taste. It was funny, but it left me feeling nervous: I can't help wondering if I'm a solid enough person to warrant all of this activity and expense. To say nothing of being solid enough to be married or have a family.

11:45am Despite the doubts, feeling alright. About to go to bed- stomach feeling a little steak-y.

Travelogue