Day 2 of SoCal trip

I got up rather early today - 7:30am - which to me is early for someone who is on a vacation. Why did I wake up so early, you ask? I wanted to check out the free continental breakfast the hotel offers! FREE?! Oh yeah. So I showered and dressed and all of those "I'm getting ready for the day" type things and went to check out the breakfast. There were two old ladies who mistook the butter for coffee cream.... and then there was a cute girl working behind the counter. Then there was me, who had problems opening the door to get into the place. Women like that, I hear. Haha.

They had bagels and eggos and a couple toasters available for use. They had coffee, juice, and fruit. They also had four different selections of cereal. I decided to go with some Raisin Bran (which is funny because I hardly ever eat cereal at home) and a cup of coffee.

Will I be waking up this early tomorrow? Probably not.

I came back to my room for a bit and realized that the cup of coffee with breakfast wasn't going to cut it... my dear friend, RikkiAnn, had told me that Coffee Bean was the place to check out in SoCal for coffee. So I took a walk down the street - and realized it was already pretty hot outside at 9:30am - and went to the nearest Coffee Bean. Check out my review of the Coffee Bean by clicking here.

I came back to the hotel with coffee in hand and discovered that room service had already cleaned my room. (I had only been gone about 20 minutes!)

Later on in the day, around 2:30pm, I headed toward 3rd St. Promenade which is one of happening spots in Santa Monica. The street has a lot of eating places as well as shops. I met a longtime friend from my days playing Little League Baseball, Matt Mackowski. He also went to the same high school as me though he graduated a year earlier. For lunch, Matt recommended, Barney's Beanerey. So we had lunch and talked. We were there from about 3pm to 4:30pm. Read my review of Barney's Beanerey by clicking here.

I came back to the hotel after lunch... what is about a 5 mile drive back took me 30+ minutes... thank you LA traffic! It was then time to get ready for the show at O'Brien's in Santa Monica.

I got to O'Brien's around 8pm and met up with Matt again - as he stuck around in the area to see the comedy show. Then I just waited my turn on stage. After a couple comedians had done their sets, someone taps my back. I turn around and it is Chris Valenti! In case you don't know who Chris Valenti is, he is probably best known for being the driver in this popular car commercial from years ago. Chris had performed at O'Brien's a week ago on May 6th and I had sent him a note that I had missed him by a week. My note led him to come by O'Brien's again this week. Chris has also performed a couple times at my show that I produce in Morgan Hill.

I ended up being the last comedian to go on stage. I didn't expect to be the one closing out the show. Unfortunately, they ran out of time too as I had to wrap up my set sooner than I anticipated. Not everyone in the place was paying attention either so it was tough to get a good read of things.

After the show, Chris, Matt, and I all had a drink and chatted for a while about comedy, writing, and the ladies. If you know Chris and his music then you know he has a lot of stories/songs about dealing with ladies...

So even though I felt my set was somewhat rushed due to time and just so-so overall, it was really cool to hang out and chat with Chris and Matt afterwards. (I took pictures this time too - which will be up sometime shortly after I get back home).

That's all for now... until next time...