And the Winner is...

...me!

For riding my bike to work, therefore not having to deal with the traffic problems stemming from the recent Oscar® Preparations.

As others were slowly filing into the office one by one, complaining of the delays caused by the street closings and stepped-up security, I had already been at my desk for some time. The only extra thing I had to contend with was the guard stationed in the alley leading to our office entrance, but all I had to do was say "I work right there", pointing to the building approximately ten feet from where he stood, and had no problem at all. After a couple days, the guards recognized me and I could easily pass.

Meanwhile, those who chose to drive had to deal with various traffic jams stemming from road closings. Hollywood Blvd., in front of our office was closed the entire week, and as the day drew closer, more and more streets were being shut down. And if that were not enough, the already slow process of parking in the Hollywood & Highland complex, where most of my co-workers park, were hampered even further by the toughened security measures. They were subjected to the bottom of their vehicles being checked with mirrors, trunks needing to be opened, etc. Even on a normal day, just getting into the parking structure and descending deep into the dark bowels of the lot, where the employee parking is, then getting back up to street level and fighting your way through the labyrinthine shopping center, crossing the street, going around our building to the back alley where the entrance is located, then taking the elevator up to the office can easily add 15-20 minutes the commute time.

One recent day, I rode the Vespa to the office, having an appointment in the afternoon I needed to get to. After having to go through the whole parking process, with additional delays caused by not having a two-ton vehicle, I decided that taking a motorized vehicle will be for emergency situations only. One of the delays was caused when I pulled up to the entrance gate on my shiny red scooter, held the employee parking card up the the reader, and got the message on the readout "no car on sensor". As I jockyed around, trying to find the sweet spot, I continued getting the same message. I then looked at the driveway floor to see where the cut marks were where the coil was buried, I noticed they were a foot or two behind the rear of my Vespa, where the back section of a car would be. I then backed up the scooter so that it was over the sensor, scootched up to the very front of the seat, bent forward as far as I could, and clutching my entrance card with the very tips of my thumb and index finger, was able to hold my card close enough to the card reader to finally raise the gate.

After that, I realized it would have been quicker to take the bicycle anyway. It took slightly over an hour, from the time I walked out of the office to the time I reached my apartment door, while the bike usually takes 45-50 minutes.

One bright spot about this year's Oscar® festivities, was that I didn't need to go to the office to wait for the end of the broadcast, get the results into the ads and rush them to the L.A. Times in time to make the morning paper. For a while there, it was looking like I might have to go in, but as the day drew nearer, it turned out that our clients would not be running ads that day since the nominated movies had pretty much run their course by that time. I had not been looking forward to getting past security that day, bike or no bike.

As I write this, the Acadamy Awards are a couple weeks behind us, things are back to normal (by Hollywood standards), and it has been far too long since I have posted on this blog. A couple other things have been gong on that have caused me to temporarily put this blog on the back burner. As I have mentioned before, sometimes this whole blogging thing can be like having a second full-time job. And when something else comes up that I need to focus on, even though this might be more fun, I need to concentrate more on the job that actually pays the bills.

I think most of this extra stuff is behind me for the most part, and I will try to stay more current with the postings. My beer reviews are suffering.