Busy day: gym, IHOP, Amoeba, Hooters, Starbucks, Farmer's Market.

I'll elaborate.

I got back to the gym Monday morning after two and a half weeks off for annoyingly persistent headcold. I made it in there Tuesday and Wednesday too, then took Thrusday off because I had to work early in order to see the Sour 16 game. I didn't make it in Friday either, for no good reason at all, but I got up a 6 this morning and went right in.

Quick digression: until I left USC almost 2 years ago, I had been working with Omar, a personal trainer there, for close to two years. At our last session he gave me a copy of his training bible, the Governator's book. I've finally been reading it a bit this week, so this morning I tried some new exercises--specifically, Arnold presses and preacher curls. Suffice it to say I'm trying to type fast, because sometime soon my arms will be immobile for a day or two.

The IHOP/Amoeba/Hooters portion of the day came because Tom is in town for a wedding, so I played L.A. tour guide a bit today. We spent a good bit of time at the greatest record store anywhere, (TRASHionals attendees be very afraid--I did some prize shopping) and saw Hollywood, Koreatown, and Santa Monica a little more generally. After leaving Tom in Santa Monica, I popped my head into the new Hear Music Starbucks on the Promenade--an interesting idea, even though I didn't buy anything. Then I went to a normal Starbucks, where I pretty much read The Heat Is On cover-to-cover. I don't think it's happening right now, but I could easily go on a Chester Himes kick; I've been wanting to pick up some of his mysteries ever since I first encountered Grave Digger and Coffin Ed in the film Cotton Comes To Harlem.

Finally, I just came back from the first LA Blogs get together for Angeleno bloggers. Good times. I got to meet some interesting people such as Cybele, wildbell, and Jay, and got to hear Farmer's Market karaoke ranging from not good to not bad. Other than the 20 miserable minutes spent trying to park, it was a fun outing, and hopefully it will fulfill my primary purpose in going--being inspired to start writing more frequently again.