a musing julius…

steph and i went into laguna beach for a weekend soiree at the montage resort and spa, for my buddy’s wedding. aside from the montage being ridiculous awesome, with a wedding ceremony on the lawn just 20 feet from a cliff face which lead down to the pacific, every single detail of the wedding was immaculately planned. hell, even the “lay people”, those who paid the $700+ a night to actually have a room at the resort were asked to leave to area where the cermony was being held. it’s not every day you ask the people that are paying stupid amounts of cash to step away from the outdoor fire pit.

anyway, aside from feeling like a guest at a celebrity wedding, i enjoyed laughed at laguna beach for its extreme and over the top “i have more money/faster car/bigger boobs/better abs” than you. no shortage of lambos, ferraris, bentleys, astons, shelby gt-h (rental!) and porches (for those not blessed with 8 figure incomes) the aire around laguna beach was just absolutely insane. while steph and i were waiting for our lunch to arrive on the patio of a supremely cute french cafe, the conversations going on around us were absent minded “jibber jabber” with little value to society. one table of two men, their girlfriends, and what looked like their mother’s sat talking about their “pecs, bi’s and tri’s” and “just blasting [their] arms” when they’re at the gym. sometimes they just run 7 miles in 45 minutes when they don’t have enough time staring at themselves in the mirror. all 4 woman at that table were all wearing the same coach sunglasses.

another table asked for an additional chair to avoid putting their purses on the ground. the woman behind us made her waitress cry because her daughter asked for a warm croissant, and it was cold so she couldn’t eat it and was hungry because she couldn’t eat the cold croissant. god forbid your croissant is cold. as an apology, the waitresses comped their breakfast, to which the women replied, “don’t cry, we like you now.” the same women likely paid in the 5 figures to get their faces and asses reshaped. twice.

anyway, i’ll go back to visit brad in socal, but in general, it was icky people, pretty shops, views and restaurants and sick cars. i’ll take a lambo lp640 and a ferrari please.

travelling on business has been an extraordinary experience, mainly because i learn how business between companies gets done. when i entered the business world, my dad joked with me that i better start learning how to golf and eating nice dinners. well, up until i started travelling on business, i never experienced anything my dad talked about.

well, business happened over the dinner table yesterday. one company took another company out to dinner, a nice dinner. i suppose a company looking for contracts worth millions of dollars, can afford to spend just about 4 digits on dinner. now, decisions weren’t made over the dinner table, but discussions were rampant, and nothing was finalized, but in a way, everything was decided.

i’m likely am a lowly peon when it comes to these types of “meetings” but i’m certainly gleaning a ton of information about how business gets done in the real world. and i can assure you, it’s not via email or a board room.

so i’ve seen this this aveeno commercial on the tv nearly a dozen times. it starts of showing some woman (she’s probably 25 acting like she’s 55 and has wrinkles) and how she’s got “lines” on her face and she needs something to help her out.

so the commercial starts to tout the benefits of natural botanicals, wheat and shiitake. never paid much attention to that until this morning. then i thought, why in the hell would a woman put FUNGUS on her face. i mean, fungus is pretty delicious in some forms. i like mushrooms; they’re tasty to eat. but NOT to put on my face!

that got me thinking, of all the other ridiculous things that women are willing to put on their faces just for a reduction in the “appearance of wrinkles.” seriously, if aveeno has its way, we’re gonna start seeing avocado-lemongrass face lotion with cashew shell exfoliant. or crocodile skin extract with spinach leaf and coriander seed.

come to think of it, i bet i could make boatloads of money creating and selling this stuff.

i roamed the detroit autoshow yesterday, as i do each and every year…examining not my current employer’s line-up of vehicles, but more of the competition’s line-up.

the luxury marque brands, like maserati, lamborghini, bentley, rolls-royce, etc. usually hire tall leggy models in very skimpy dresses that stand next to their vehicles, doing nothing but smiling for the camera, and tilting their heads in a robotic blonde-like manner. these stands attract only the finest of male specimens, with fancy abercrombie shirts, collar popped, backwards baseball cap, and a set of jeans that came with a $25 “worn-look” option. some wore flip-flops, even though it was 7 degrees in detroit yesterday.

lamborghini’s stand was surrounded by these 20-something males, cameras extended at arms length above their heads, straining to take a picture of this car, with the model. frankly, i’m not interested in these cars. chances are, i’ll never be able to afford one, but i’ve sat in some, and driven others. they’re great machines…i wouldn’t mind a alfa romeo 8c competizione. but other than that, i don’t really care for a picture of these cars. i don’t understand why some men desire these photos. frankly, if you actually went to a dealer, they’ll (gasp!) let you sit in them.

if i want a picture, it’s of the CAR, not of the GIRL. i actually saw some guys asking for pictures with just the models at these stands, posing with these women they’ll never date, behind a car they’ll never own.

i guess the autoshow presents a fantasy for some of these guys. i suppose i’m not that interested in these cars, cause i read about or see them everyday. but if i really really wanted a picture of these cars, because they’re unique or rare, i’d ask the model to step away. she’s ruining the photo.