How I Spent My Sunday

So Trix and I found ourselves in Los Angeles, Sunday, with an entire day spread out before us with nothing whatsoever to do. Its kind of a glorious feeling -- destination unknown, as the song says.*

We decided to have ourselves the Most Decadent Day Either Of Us Have Ever Had. That's kind of a tall order -- you're talking to a guy who spent most of 1992 stoned out of his mind on one thing or another, and Trix and I have, in various relationship permutations, spent many an evening highly inebriate together or in groups. But I felt like since we'd both spent months being "good" (i.e. drinking not much, eating fairly healthily, and *mostly* not smoking, though I took up the habit again recently and hopefully VERY BRIEFLY) we were owed a bit of a splurge, you know? We decided to drink our way through the entire city of West Hollywood in one afternoon -- and started plenty early, leaving the house at 9:00 AM.

We started our pub crawl at Barney's Beanery, a Hollywood-slash-Route-66 institution, famous for both its chili and its formerly anti-homosexual stance (a sign reading something like "No queers" used to sit above the bar; of course, its long since been removed). Tally thus far: 1 bloody mary, plus delicious French Toast and omelets.

From there, we walked up the giant La Cienega hill to Sunset and made our way down to the Standard Hotel, my favorite Entourage-style trashy Los Angeles hotel pool, where we had 'tinis and sat across from a couple producer-types who kept staring at us in our loud and drunken exclamations. Tally thus far: 2 very strong martinis (I had the "rockstar") for a total of two drinks each.

As we passed Whatever Hotel Was Next To The Standard, we saw Sean Penn copping a smoke. Our one celebrity sighting for the day.

Across the street to the Chateau Marmont next. Note: we were dressed in our slobbiest Rock and Roll finery (jeans, t-shirts, sunglasses) so it was under some rather suspicious stares from the other patrons and snobby waitstaff that we enjoyed cocktails in the Marmont lobby. Later that night Courtney Love would host a party in the selfsame lobby, but 'twas all but quiet around noon. Tally thus far: one French martini and one Manhattan. Three drinks each. Best Manhattan I've ever had.

From there we made our way down to the famous Hyatt on Sunset, aka the Riot House. If you've seen "Almost Famous", you KNOW the Riot House -- that's where, like, It's All Happening, isn't it? Or was for several years in the 1970s -- though today it was rather quiet, even with the festivities. Their lobby bar is now called the Riot House, and our amused and rather awesome bartender enjoyed some drunken Oscar prediction banter with us while he mixed our drinks. An assistant to the costume designer who did "Across The Universe" joined us for a few drinks and chatted about his film's chance for winning (pretty good, apparently). Tally thus far: two more martinis/manhattans. Five drinks each.

At this point we felt like we needed a bit of a break, so we headed back to my apartment.

Then I proposed to her, and she accepted.

Here's the ring:





No, I'm not joking. Jewelry fans: that's a yellow sapphire in the center, surrounded by diamonds. (That's our cat Bayswater in that last one. Isn't he a cutie?)

After a bit of a break, and some crying etc., we continued our crawl, having dinner at the Village Idiot, my favorite neighborhood watering hole / industry schmooze-fest. Tally thus far: one beer each, for a total of six drinks.

Post-Idiot, we decided to hit Canters' for dessert and a re-proposal -- see, its always been Trix' secret desire to be proposed to at Canters' Deli, because its our favorite restaurant in LA and has become a bit of a tradition for us. Every time she's in town, we hit Canters' first, and usually several times during the week as well. I actually did the whole "down on my knees" thingy, but the Russian couple across from us couldn't honestly have cared less. They didn't even pause their Dinner of Total Angry Silence to look twice at us. Tally thus far: one martini and one cosmopolitan, for a total of seven drinks.

At this point I was just about ready to collapse in a drunken heap, so we literally stumbled back to my place, where I passed out. Time: 9:00 PM or thereabouts.

Legendary!!! Absolutely legendary. We are blissfully in luuuuuv.

* Missing Persons -- you should own something by them, if not everything.