Santa Monica

  So Dave won this trip to Hollywood a few months back. We flew out of the Pocatello Airport at 7am on February 6th and arrived at the Loews Santa Monica Hotel by noon. We were originally booked for a room on the 8th floor but it didn't have an ocean view, and because I cracked a joke about not being able to see the ocean when I woke up, the front desk put us on the 2nd floor, facing the ocean. We got things put away and then took off to the Santa Monica Pier to explore. We walked the beach, looked around the pier and then walked to the 3rd St. Promenade/mall for lunch. I discovered the Disney Store where I started up my Stuffed Animal collection and got a little "taste" of Totem that Cirque De Solei put on. We were interested in seeing it but didn't want to spend $100 per person to get in, so we passed. When we got back to the Hotel, we ran into a problem. Dave opened the bar to get the water out that we got from our driver, but it wasn't there. When he talked to the Front Desk about it, they said that he'd checked out and they took care of the items in there that were ours.
   After about an hour, we got it straightened out, though we STILL don't know why we got checked out the same day we were checked in. They moved us from the 2nd floor back to the room we were originally booked, and then given 2 complimentary bottles of water to replace the ones we had brought with us. After resting for a while, and letting a friend know we made it safe, we went to the Pier once again to calm myself down. We made it over to the Aquarium, and though it was tiny, enjoyed ourselves. After the Aquarium, it was time for a cocktail party at the Hotel, so we headed back over there. We mingled briefly while our friend drove up to meet us from Westminster. Though we didn't get to talk much to anyone, we thanked the Starz Reps for inviting us, explained that we had to take off to see a friend we hadn't seen in almost 10yrs. It ended up that we had to walk about 4 blocks in the rain to meet up with Mike and his family but it was well worth it. We had a nice dinner and conversation at the mall with them, and then walked in the rain back to the hotel.
  We walked the pier, yet again, until we were too cold and tired to do much of anything else, and headed back to our room. As soon as I lied down, I passed out cold and slept like a rock until the alarm went of at 6am. We got up, got ready for the day and then headed downstairs to catch our Limo to Sony Pictures Studios for our tour. It was a nice tour, we learned a few things, I got some good laughs at a woman in our group every time she realized that EVERYTHING in movies are fake.  They took us past Adam Sandler's office, Happy Madison, and YES, he was there, just didn't come out to say hi. They took us to the set of The Goldburgs, and Rake, then off to the set of Jeopardy. After our tour, they took us to Wolfgang Puck's restaurants located on the lot, in the commissary. Apparently while we were there, Seth Rogan decided to eat there too, but we didn't see him. Can I just say, that the chicken sandwich I had was the best one I've had, EVER! After we finished our stuff up at the Sony Studios, we were driven back to the Hotel and went our separate ways. Dave and I  got a bike ride to Venice Beach, wasn't impressed with it and walked back to the pier. Once again, went walking around the Pier, along the beach, and then back to our room to relax. The following morning, we took a long walk after we had breakfast. Dave wanted to eat at El Polo Loco and we walked to it just to see how far we had to go for lunch/dinner. After we got back from the LONG walk, we waited in our room until it was time to check in to our flight, and then walked the Pier shopping for souveniers. We then flagged down a free ride to the Disney Store at the mall, and then El Polo Loco. While at the mall, we saw Ken Jeong but didn't talk to or get a picture of him. Dave didn't agree that it was him, but I knew it was.  I can honestly say that I'd eat at El Polo Loco again.
  Leaving Santa Monica was not what I wanted to do. I was able to be myself, extremely happy and wasn't saddled with kids that weren't mine. When we boarded the plane for SLC, I joked with Dave about 3 men in front of us telling him that they were Boyz II Men, when in fact, they were Jagged Edge. Our flight home wasn't bad, and it was nice to be home,  but I've noticed that taking on everyone's kids and not being able to do things that I want and NEED to do, is a life sucker, and I'm instantly reminded of how miserable I really am. At times, YES, I do feel like a slave, that I have no say in my life and I'm only put here to do what others want me to do. If I try to stand up for myself, I get the kids used against me, and it really sucks. I just pray that Dave wins this other trip to Miami, and I can get a little bit more of the real "Jess" back.