I woke up pretty late on Tuesday morning, and just got myself organized when Brett came to pick me up. What a shocker. It may sound stupid, but his long hair was what I totally associated him with - he cut it all off several weeks ago, and it was just so weird to see him without his locks. It was great to see him, though, and we went down to Venice. He had brought some bikes with him, so it was a great coming together of sorts. It was here, on Venice Beach, that he had taught me how to ride a bike over 2 years ago.
We rode down to Cow's End and got some brekkie then went up to Wilshire - it felt great to be on a bike again. We talked about photo and writing and different pursuits and politics and it just fit like an old glove. Afterwards, we went boogie boarding for a bit, then went to La Playita for some yummy burritos. Hung out at Novel Cafe until I went to yoga.
The strange thing was that it was so familiar it didn't even feel out of place; yet, it was completely different than how it used to be. He used to live 50m from the boardwalk; now, it was a 45 minute drive. Whereas we used to get bikes from his house, drop them off, and go boogie boarding and change in his house, we were going back and forth to the car and using the public change rooms. And of course, I don't live here anymore and hanging out on Venice Beach isn't a daily activity for me anymore. I don't think I'm putting it into words very well, but it was very...surreal.
My foot has been bothering me for a few days now, and it started to really be sore in yoga, so I ended up leaving a few minutes early. I went over to Sarah's and found out that John would be coming over soon too. I was really excited, since I hadn't talked to or seen John since 2005. He came over, and we had a great cooking fest - it was awesome. Sarah prepared an artichoke with a delicious dipping sauce, and John and I made the stuffed portabello mushrooms - garlic, onion, tomato, and mushrooms with bread crumbs and parmesan cheese overflowed. Mmmm. We also had a tasty spinach salad with heirloom tomatoes from the Venice Farmers Market. Ahh how I miss these meals. Amy was able to stop by which was nice, and it was one of those warm and fuzzy feeling nights. Ahh. Sarah took me back up to Santa Monica where I'm staying and we talked for a long time. Thanks Sarah.
Wednesday morning I forced myself to go to yoga - I REALLY wasn't feeling like it but I thought it might be good for me if I went. Indeed it was; it just clicked again, and I really got into it. After class I went to the spa and waited for Tiffany to arrive. When she got here, we went to Real Food Daily for some vegan yummies. Went to REI to look around at the Labor Day Sale and then down to Washington Pier, to the Whaler. This used to be one of my favorite happy hours so it was nice to be there again. Their quesadilla is fabulous.
We headed to Venice to get some coffee, and right as we parked and got out, I saw Brett coming down the street. How weird. It seems like something that used to happen, to randomly run into each other in Venice, but like I've said, now that we both live nowhere near the area, it was kind of spooky.
Novel Cafe was great as usual, I really love that place - it's great for people watching, as all different types of people come there; yuppies, yoga people, homeless people, writers, intellectuals, revolutionaries. I love it.
On the way back to Tiffany's car, a van drove by with someone who was strangely familiar sticking his head out at me. It was...Jason Crutchfield - I worked with him at MLS teaching English in Tokyo in Spring 2006. How crazy! Both run-ins happened at the corner of Main and Rose - something was up today.
We went to House of Blues to watch Tiffany's friend's band play. Loud but pretty good, and then we stopped by La Playita so I could remember, again, why I love food in California. And that was today ;)
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