Live from Starbucks

This might be the first weekend in months where I’ve been in town with no plans and no work. It’s kind of nice to have absolutely nothing on the agenda, a wide-open two days. But yes, I do miss Andrea. She called this morning, and sounds like she’s having a great time. She spent all day poolside getting back her Brazilian tan.

I saw LOTR: The Two Towers tonight at Mann’s Fox Theater in Westwood. Very nice, even better than the Pacific Crest. It has a huge screen, balcony seating and a classy art-deco interior that includes curtains that open when the movie starts. And you can actually feel the THX pre-film trailer. I don’t know what I’ll do if I ever have to move somewhere less cool.

The movie itself was really entertaining, and the audience was totally into it, clapping at all the right moments and making its opinion about the previews clear (the crowd loved X-Men 2 and Terminator 3 but hated everything else).

And now I’m at the Starbucks next door, which stays open until 1 a.m. I got a couple of magazines earlier from the newsstand and am reading them over a hot chocolate. I don’t know why, but I really like reading architecture and design magazines. I don’t know why, since nothing in my house (expect maybe some of my tech gear) is really well designed. I wish there wasn’t such a premium on well-designed furniture and accessories. Also, I wish I had my own house.

Speaking of architecture, a guy I’ll assume is in the field (he’s looking over a set of blueprints at the big table) just asked to borrow a pencil. Who carries a pencil?