El Jefe and I had a meeting with a LA city councilman and were
driving there after lunch with our 2 clients on Thursday. Traffic was
even more insane than usual off the 101 at 4th St. Took us 15 mins. to
go 3 blocks - turned out one of the studios was filming something -
and it looked like we were not going to make the appointment. We're,
what, at Pershing Square and City Hall is at 200 N. Main, so we did a
Chinese fire drill, the boss and clients jump out of the car, I run
around and jump into the driver's seat while they run like maniacs to
City Hall. I parked in the underground parking lot beneath LA Mall,
and started hoofing it across the street to City Hall. About a
block toward my goal, I realize some guy is following me. "How," you
ask yourself? He was on a cell phone and I heard him say, "She's a
redhead in a green dress." Well, gee, I seem to be the only redhead in
a green dress in sight, so I start making odd manuevers. I cut back
toward the LA Mall, zig zagged through a nest of homeless people
sitting under the shade trees there, and dove into a Quiznos (thereby
being somewhat tangentially OB). Meanwhile, the guy is still on my
tail and parks himself at a table and chairs outside the Quiznos. I
call my boss and tell him what's happened and I ain't movin' until he
comes to get me. Meanwhile, the place is swarming with cops - downtown
police HQ, the LAPD commission, you name it, is also across the
street, along with a myriad of Social Security offices and state
offices, the DEA, the US Attorney's office... I collared a cop and
explained what was going on. Presumably (b/c I'm deep inside the
Quiznos and can't see the guy) he spoke to the guy, but the cop didn't
come back in, so I sat there until my boss came to get me a freakin'
hour later.

Only thing I can figure is that I was better dressed than most of the
local denizens - Jimmy Choo purse, Tahari suit and Ferragamo heels -
and he was eyeballing the purse and contents.

Very nice ladies in the Quiznos. One of them must have noticed that I
looked distressed and asked if I was okay. I explained what was
happening. She brought me a cup of ice water and some napkins, then
kept me up to date, saying, "He's still there" over and over. I left
them a $20 tip when the boss and I left. The guy was still there and
either asleep or faking it.

<shrug> I f*cking hate LA.

Terry "Squeaks" Pulliam Burd
--
"If the soup had been as hot as the claret, if the claret had been as
old as the bird, and if the bird's breasts had been as full as the
waitress's, it would have been a very good dinner."

-- Duncan Hines

To reply, replace "meatloaf" with "cox"