L.A. Trip, Day 03:

Yesterday got started out with a pre-workout snack of cold, leftover mushroom and spinach calzone, a healthy dose of Cellucor D4 Thermo Shock and a nice shot of Osteo Bi-Flex.  This was followed by a fierce 45 minute weight training and cardio workout.  Starting on the treadmill for a while, moving to weights and finishing on the bike, I felt like I was really accomplishing something.  Just glad no one was in there with me, else they may have crucified me for my TV choice.  See, the treadmills and bicycles have their own TV one can tune into with headphones (I didn’t use headphones…just watched the silent pictures on TV).  While the other gentleman on another treadmill watched FOX News and the weights gym broadcast the oil spill from whatever channel it was on…I was in the middle of my hardcore cardio while watching some kind of claymation cartoon made available to those in the Golden State only, apparently.  I have no idea what was happening, but watching the mad scientist twist and shiver in the same patters in his laboratory over and over again made my workout go by much faster and got my heart rate up to a nice fat burning rate.

Stop one was Encino with a gentleman in a private practice.  Very nice office, very nice staff, very nice equipment and a very nice day of shooting there.  The security guy didn’t like us being there with cameras, and gave us guff when we tried to tell him why we were there.  It may have been because no one informed him of our presence or it may have been because he caught me videoing the janitor at one point, but either way he cooled down and left us alone for the remainder of the afternoon.  Lunch was at a place called California Chicken Cafe and consisted of a three piece rotisserie chicken and squash casserole.  You Californians and your cool food…

A 30 minute trip took us then to UCLA Medical Center, where we filmed a professor, doctor and embryo donation / adoption enthusiast (all the same guy).  Once again, given guff by security, forcing us to bring media relations with us to tag around the rest of the day.  With a cramped office, nearly dead batteries and approaching full SD cards, we were still able to get an awesome interview with the guy that looked incredible and sounded just as great.

We were informed yesterday that when we get back home we need to refer to the interstate as “The 40” as apparently it’s the cool thing to do in California to call the interstate “The 405”.  “The 405” was backed up almost all the way to hell that morning due to a terrible accident involving a car much like my own, a cop on a motorcycle and some dude who decided to drive down the shoulder and plow through them both.  Luckily for us, the traffic cooled off by the time it was time to hit “the 405” again and the trip back to the hotel only took 45 minutes (was supposed to be 20) so all was well and we were settled at a decent time last evening.

A “Hula” Burger and large Newcastle capped my night at a joint called “Islands” where I couldn’t tell if the waitress was hitting on me or just checking to make sure my ID was valid.  As lame as this may sound to some of you, I opted to think she was just testing my knowledge of the info on my ID because I miss my little lady so much that the idea of someone flirting with me isn’t even taken into consideration or at least used as a compliment.  Whipped, I know, but I love it. :-)

Add a spicy ale from Ladyface Ale House and Brasserie and you’ve got an end to my Wednesday night.  The time difference between here and home is starting to make sense to me now, but I still haven’t gotten it totally figured out.  Give me until Friday when we make it home, then I’ll be fully on California time.

Enjoy today’s haiku:
One more day of work
HalloweenTown, here I come!
To spend lots o’ dough…