Zeno's Weekend Prison: The Los Angeles Airport Marriott

[Zeno]

Feb 25-26. Company 'Professional Development & Technical Training Seminar’. Like a slobbering and crass fool, I signed up to go. 'They' want me there. The sessions start early and it is – Mandatory - that you attend everything from 8 in the morning until 8 at night at which point you are unshackled from your ball & chain long enough to run up to the hotel room and change your underwear - just before dinner. A Large Company Banquet at 8 pm on Saturday is also – Mandatory - with no doubt the customary limp jokes, pandering speeches, Company pep talk ballyhoo, and general idiocy. As a misanthrope, I balk at attending such proceedings; still I will endure and be charming.

But hope springs eternal, and Hollywood Park Casino is only a few inches away from LAX according to a map I checked out on the web. So with luck and a fast getaway, I hope to slink away on Friday night (and possibly on Saturday also, but at least one of those days) and get in some poker. Since the ‘Company’ made all arrangements, I fly out on Sunday at about 8 am or some ungodly hour so I may just stay up all night and then vomit streams of rotting bilge and undigested Mai Tai’s all over LAX as I desperately sprint to make my flight - My noble contribution to the cultural joie de vivre that is Los Angeles.

-Zeno