I was an extra as a party planner in this one movie. I really learned a lot from that experience.

As most of us were playing catch-up at work from the recent long weekend, I will now be playing catch-up in the blog. Sorry, folks, but this week was busy, so I'm forced to blog about last Monday on Sunday night.

The long weekend was much-needed, though. I know our blog doesn't always get this across, but most of the time, we're functioning through 14-hour days. Having an extra day to relax, especially with the truly gorgeous weather, felt wonderful.

The weather was perfect last weekend: bright sun and 80 degrees. I know you East-coasters are about ready to stab me through the computer screen, but if it's any consolation, we're told our current weather conditions are the worst California's seen in a long time; it's rained a lot, and hovers at around 60 degrees regularly. (That may not be consolation at all, but, hey, you signed up for winter when you decided to stay over there.) Anyway, the timing couldn't have been better, because we got to spend our Monday holiday at a beach--several of which are located about 20 minutes away from our apartment.

Well, spending the whole day at a beach was the original plan. We had decided Redondo Beach sounded really fun, and had enough to do to occupy an entire day--that is, until Jenn found an event where Colin Firth was speaking after a screening of A Single Man. We backtracked our planning, decided to save the activity-laden beach for another weekend, and found its neighbor, Hermosa Beach, a lot more plausible. Because it has less to do and to see (aside from the soft sand, summer sun, and cooling sea breeze), we could leave early and make the Colin Firth event on time.

So, basically...best day ever?

We were joined by Nick and Mapgar again--they're fast becoming our standard adventure buddies--and made it to the beach by about 11 AM. Traffic worried us for a short while (the beach was a popular plan), but by the time we set up our towels and flopped onto the ground, we didn't have any cares in the world.

Actually, that's an exaggeration; Mapgar was reading a god-awful script for his internship, and it provided him with quite a bit of frustration, though the rest of us got a lot of entertainment out of it.


When we started to warm up, we even ventured into the water to cool down.


...Not very far into the water, though. Apparently, because there's no Gulf Stream on the West Coast, the ocean is colder here. Noted. It was still fun frolicking in the Pacific, regardless.

After a few hours of sun, we decided to hop in the car, grab a quick bite to eat at the first place we saw, and head home to shower and change before the Colin Firth session.

The first place we saw was the Ocean Diner, which had a giant sign in the window advertising the healing powers of cake. How could we not stop?

We always find the strangest places to eat. The food was fantastic, Mexican-inspired diner food. The decor of choice for this particular restaurant was World War II themed--the reason for this was unclear. However, it did amuse us in a more innocuous way than Casa Jimenez (of the desert adventure). I especially enjoyed the small article on French robots.

Lunch took longer than anticipated, of course, so we had to high-tail it home, only to change clothes at lightning speed and jump right back into the car so we could make the movie.

I will refrain from commenting too much on the movie, so that I don't spoil it, or heavily influence anyone who wants to see it. We all gave it about the same review, however, which was: Colin Firth was good, the movie itself really...wasn't. It wasn't awful, but it didn't live up to expectations.

What did live up to expectations was the Q&A from Mr. Firth which immediately followed the screenings. He is incredibly charming in real life, and had some wonderful things to say. Highlights:

"When I first met [director] Tom Ford, he sort of smouldered at me from across the room."

"As an actor, you do what you're told. You feel what you're supposed to feel, be it happy, or sad, or disappointed, or whatever the script calls for. It's just that this script called for much more, allowing me to feel and explore many extremely different emotions."


And one woman's "question":
"Your performance was beautiful, but you'll always be my perfect Mr. Darcy."

After tweeting about these (and a few other) experiences, Amadeo responded with something that sums this day up quite nicely, I think: "Why are your LA lives so magical?"

The truth is, we've been trying to jump at a lot of opportunities. I, at least, don't want to have any "what-if"s. So...just wait 'til you hear what events transpired the following weekend!

--Lauren

Photo credit in this entry goes to Jenn.