waiting for my midnight plane to georgia

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Yes, I'm taking the redeye home tonight--my flight leaves for Atlanta at 11:56pm.

Happily, I'm not stuck in LAX right now, perched on an uncomfortable chair near an impossible-to-find-outlet, paying by the hour for wifi. Instead, I'm in a soft, comfy chair at the Westin near LAX, taking advantage of Simon Phipps' hospitality--we're sharing the network connection over his Airport Express, and I'm streaming Genius Loves Company over it to his portable speakers.

We had a lovely day today. First we went to the Apple Store at the Grove, and then had a nice brunch at a nearby restaurant and did some retail therapy at the Nordstroms next door.

From there, we drove south until we got to Long Beach (Allan, so sad you're not around this weekend!), which was more polluted and less picturesque than I'd hoped. It didn't satisfy my ocean craving very well, so we headed north to Santa Monica instead.

Arlington WestWhen we got to the beach near the pier, the first thing we saw was a memorial to soldiers killed in the Iraq War. It's a temporary memorial, put up every Sunday by volunteers.
Memorial Signs There's one cross (and some stars and crescents) for each soldier killed. There's also a posted list of all the names of those killed, and photos of each.

They provide pieces of paper and pens, as well as rubber bands and fresh flowers, and ask people to write the name of a soldier on the paper, and then use the rubberbands to attach the name and the flower to the crosses.

Boy at Memorial DCP_2881.JPGI wrote the name of one young man, and attached it to a white cross, along with a red flower. Then I watched as many other people did the same thing. It was clearly an emotional moment for many of them. It certainly was for me.

Santa Monica sunsetThe rest of the afternoon was more cheerful, however. We wandered the pier for a while, then had a nice dinner at a restaurant there, and watched the sun set over the beach--which wasn't spectacular, but was still quite pretty. Then we headed over the Westin, and I'll catch a shuttle to the airport soon.

Simon in Santa MonicaI'm so glad Simon and I ended up with a free day in the same place at the same time--it was a lovely way to spend a sunny Sunday, and I'm feeling relaxed, refreshed, and ready to head home (even if it is on the redeye).

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Ever get bored with the same round of blogs you read? I was feeling that way this lunchtime, so I decided to blog surf to seven blogs, starting with one on my list of links on the right (which I... Read More

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sad;

hope the flight to rochester is pleasant.

I hope you get some sleep.

pictures are very powerful. we got a nokia set up that can in real time moblog.

maybe we can show it to you before we let the template out. would have lots of human rights applications.

it also brings up complicated questions.

stef

stef

Some folks have all the fun, but PopTech! was over the top, and we needed you there. Next year, October 19-22!

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This page contains a single entry published on October 25, 2004 12:11 AM.

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