Apr.13.04

We survived the wedding trip to Los Angeles.

The flight out on Friday was hard for E. I think it takes about five hours to fly from Chicago to LA, which is way too long for an 18-month-old to be sitting in one place. He squirmed and fussed for about the last hour of the flight, and then cried in pain during descent because his ears were hurting. I felt so terrible for him. He wouldn't take drinks, food, toys. Ah well. We made it to LA nonetheless.

Per the bride and groom's suggestion, we stayed atThe Georgian in Santa Monica. The hotel was really cute and comfy, at least until we realized that our room was located immediately next to the quaint little old elevator, that swooshed and clunked loudly all night long. Seems like C. and I always have spotty luck with hotels. We asked for a different room after the first night, but all they could offer us was one across the hall from the elevator and on the smoking floor. We decided to stay where we were, and actually, the next two nights were much, much quieter. On the plus side, a gorgeous view of the Pacific Ocean could be seen from our window if you craned your neck slightly. And they put yummy dark chocolate squares on our pillows each day.

When we got unpacked, the first thing we did was change E.'s diaper. Before we could put a clean one on him, he ran away from us and managed to pee on the bed and floor. What a rock star.

The wedding was scheduled for Saturday at 6PM, so we had a large part of the day to kill. We opted for The Museum of Jurassic Technology. It was amazing and spooky and hilarious. If you are ever in LA, you MUST go. C. and I both loved it, and both of us agreed that we could have spent much more time there if given the chance. We went in with separate groups of friends so that E. could nap in the car. Then we had a yummy Indian lunch at the stand just up the street.

Then it was time to go see D. and L. get hitched. We frantically dressed (this is always the way, no matter how much planning I put into this stuff, we always run around like chickens at the last minute) and zipped up Pacific Coast Highway to the fancy-schmancy Bel-Air Bay Club. The wedding planner--a stone-faced woman with no visible sense of humor, wearing an ugly poncho/sweater-thingy--informed us that the babysitter the groom promised us was nonexistent and that we needed to get our stupid breeding asses down to the ceremony site, as things were about to start. For a second, I lost my shit. We were promised there would be a babysitter. I was counting on it, looking forward to it. The groom had mentioned the matter to me three separate times, even once saying, "You shouldn't be punished just because you have a cute little kid, I'll be happy to get you guys a sitter!" And you know, if he had not offered a sitter, I would not have thought about it at all, but HE PROMISED US and didn't come through. That's just wrong!

Only thing more I can say about this is just wait 'til D. and L. have a kid. Then they will understand.

The wedding was held outdoors on a grassy overlook with an awesome view. It was unseasonably cold and gray, unfortunately. We all shivered and threw unsightly coats and sweaters over our nice clothes. The ceremony was the sweetest and funniest I have ever seen. It was charming and touching, and really showed how much the two of them care about each other. I gave it two thumbs up.

The rest of the night was basically filled with drive-by conversations with friends as C. and I chased our boy around the club. Oh, and did I mention that by the end of the night E. had enchanted pretty much every single person there? He was famous!

The next day and a half we spent in LA were low-key. We had breakfast near Venice Beach and surveyed the knock-off Louis Vuitton bags and "tobacco smoking accessories" while we got a little sunburned.

The morning before we left, we took E. to Santa Monica Pier and down to the beach. We played in the water and sand a little and saw a small crab. Neato. Then it was back to the hotel to pack and go.

The flight back was picture-perfect, despite LAX being a nightmare. This morning I figured out why--there had been a power outage right before we arrived. Crazy. I guess we are lucky we flew out on time.

Now we're home (YAAAAYYYYY!!!!) and things are almost normal. Well, except that E. has a raging fever and we don't know why, but we're guessing he's run down from the trip. We really pushed him to the limit a few times, poor little guy.

I'm so glad we are back. I don't want to go anywhere for a long while.

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