Left Coast Weekend

As of 7:11 AM today, the big travel weekend was officially over.  That’s when my redeye flight landed at JFK and I began my trek via AirTrain, subway and walk to my office on 49th and Madison.  Luckily, I was able to get close to 5 hours of sleep on the flight, so I made it through the work day unscathed.  Tired though I may have been by late afternoon, the trip to the Left Coast was definitely worth it.

The goal of the trip was pretty simple - just hang out with old college roomies Eller and Greg.  I’m proud to say we accomplished our goal in style, with copious amounts of reminiscing, football (both cheering on the Heels and a full fledged all you can eat Fantasy day yesterday, and catching up on life.  In addition to hanging out with the guys, I got to (finally) meet in person the respective significant others of my Overlook brethren.

We did make it to a few activities while in town.  On Saturday we made our way to the beach at Santa Monica.  After a great lunch we rented bikes and rode along the Pacific, through the one-of-a-kind Venice Beach.

After riding about 3 miles in one direction, we turned around to head back to the Santa Monica pier.  It was about this point when the left pedal on my bike completely broke off from the gear, rending the left side useless.  How did I make it back?  By pedaling on the right side and scraping my left foot like Fred Flintstone until my hamstring was a fiery ball of hurt. Awesome.

Saturday evening we made our way to Carson to see David Beckham, Landon Donovan and the LA Galaxy take on the FC Toronto at the Home Depot Center.  It was a fantastic game, with Beckham playing perhaps his best match of the season and notching a goal and an assist. There were quite a few empty seats at the stadium (disappointing), but the fans who came were in for a real treat and we all agreed it was a fantastic event for a Saturday night.

The best times, of course, were when Greg, Eller and I were just sitting around reliving old times and cracking jokes on each other.  At one point Greg came back from grabbing something in the kitchen and said, “man, it feels so normal to have you here…like it was just yesterday that we were all living together.”  So true.  I think that’s the sign of great friends - when you see each other only once or twice a year but you instantly start back right where you left off.  It’s a rare treat, but a sweet one for sure.

As much fun as I had in LA, I have to say it’s been good to get back to the familiar sights and sounds of NYC today.  That’s right, I said it - NYC feels cozy and comfortable.  My what a difference a year makes!