The reason for this is that I'm going through a divorce. It wasn't my choice, but when one player in the marital ping-pong match puts down her paddle and walks away, the other player doesn't have a lot of say in the matter.

So anyway, the point is that I'm not finding life to be all that amusing lately, and it's hampering the dry, hilarious wit you all love me for. If you have the patience, stick with me because this, too, shall pass. Otherwise, I understand. It is what it is.

That said, I'm getting by and learning about life at an alarming rate. For instance, I'm amazed at the loyalty and compassion of friends I thought were merely drinking buddies. I also know that I'm not really cut out to pick up women in bars because my idea of a successful outing is dancing with a woman who looks a little like a shorter version of Heather Thomas and only stepping on her toes once, which sums up nicely my time last night at Naja's Place at the Redondo Beach Pier. 

After Heather announced that one song was all her toes could handle, my drinking buddies, Screenwriter Tom and Producer Omar, decided to move on to Old Tony's. Halfway there, Omar -- clearly inspired by the English soccer jersey he was wearing -- went hooligan on me and tried to start a fist fight. Normally, that's not my thing, but for some reason, the idea of beating the crap out of a friend suddenly seemed oddly appealing. We squared off, but no punches were thrown because Omar stumbled, fell and twisted his ankle. I picked him up as he yelled angrily to the world that the only thing to heal his pain was a plate of Chinese noodles and we soldiered on. 

After Omar got his chow mien, we went to Old Tony's, where I ordered us a round of "whatever that drink is that comes in the souvenir glass you can keep." Omar took one sip of his cocktail, announced loudly that it tasted like cough syrup and limped out. 

I sat in the bar for a while, marveling at how the Redondo Beach singles scene consists entirely of tubby, scruffy 20-something-year-old jack-asses in baseball caps successfully hitting on beautiful Asian women and blondes and how, as much as I don't want to be in this situation, I need to deal with it. I then collected our glasses, paid for our drinks and left. 

Down on the pier, Omar was sitting with Tom and Actress Gina, who had caught up with us after the premier of a new play she was doing. I wanted to go see the play, but she wouldn't let me come because she was too worried it would suck. This strikes me as odd, given when things suck, that's when you want your friends around you most. But that's my opinion, not Gina's and her show last night was about her, not me, so I respected that.

Technically, Omar's souvenir glass was mine because I paid for it -- and I'm currently restocking a kitchen so I need it more than he does -- but I gave it to him anyway.