Lovely Long Beach

I had a few days off after Tear Down on Sunday night, and now I'm firmly entrenched in Long Beach.

Monday was spent waiting to see if we would have to reload a couple of our 18-wheeler trucks to make sure that the loads were axel-balanced OK. After expecting a 10AM call, we never heard until about 1PM, but the news was good and the anticipated reload didn't happen. Yippee! And that night, nearly our entire department went out for a much-deserved big-ass dinner, followed by some booze and drinking games. It was a great way to end our run in San Diego.

I got to Long Beach on Tuesday afternoon and putted around a bit that night. Wednesday, I went into LA and did some driving around, getting familiar with a few places. Today, I went to site to check things out and meet with my fellow managers in anticipation of a big Set Up over the course of the next week. In fact, one week from tonight is our Premiere here in Long Beach, and it should be a doozy!

This place seems like it will be a good home for the next 6-1/2 weeks. Lots of fun places, it seems. But off the main area, it's nothin' but industrial port stuff. Ugly ugly ugly. Luckily that ain't gonna be where I'm hangin' out, as our site is directly beside the Queen Mary, permanently moored at the south end of highway 710.

I'm staying at the Hilton Hotel on Ocean Boulevard, which is OK. While it's nice to have my own room like in Hong Kong, I'll certainly miss the amenities that we enjoyed in San Diego, like a patio, a kitchen with full fridge, and -- most importantly -- laundry facilities. But I've got wireless internet, I've got lots of my friends staying in the same property, and it will be a good home for the next while.

Tomorrow the unloading of our trucks takes place. It'll be a long day, but that's part and parcel of the Set Up Fitness Plan. Luckily I've arranged to have Lucky and Tower Girl be on my team for tomorrow, so that will make it lots of fun. Bring on Long Beach!