Pop That Lock

Jasmin has one item on her itinerary: get a tan. Yesterday, she followed the one-day tan plan by laying on the beach for 4 hours in the blazing sun. I sat with her for a little while (I forgot my bathing suit and towel and just sat in the sand - I guess I'm not very good at doing the beach). I left to run some errands and came back to her still lying there! Now she is like a crispy spring roll in a bikini. Frittata!

Leaving that morning, we locked ourselves out. As we stood there, holding all our bags, I closed the door of the apartment shut and immediately thought, "OMG!" I could picture the house keys on the kitchen counter. The only set of house keys. My hand was still on the doorknob but it was too late. I turned to Jasmin in near-panic. I don't even know who the landlord is here.

Jasmin said, "Ok, let's call around and if no one has an extra key we'll call a locksmith." In one short sentence, she put the fire out. I was impressed. See? Nothing's really an emergency.

I was emailing on my Blackberry with a new acquaintance who put together a website for me this weekend. I asked simply, "Locksmith?" and he shot me back instantaneously with 3 options. By the time we got in the car, Jasmin was dialing.

I drove to Santa Monica. Jasmin did the talking.

I'd brought this book to read at the beach because I figure, this information is out there - now I need to get it in my brain! Neil Strauss recommended it to me and if I'm going to take a book recommend on this topic from anyone, it's him. Anyway, as I listened to Jasmin dial locksmiths, it slowly dawned on me. I think she could have written this book.

For example, a small glimpse into how she works: When the person on the other end picked up, she said, "Hi, how are you?" before introducing herself. When you're calling a business, who asks "How are you?" I don't! So simple. Like I said, I was impressed. Such a pro. With a few, short calls, she comparison-shopped and got the nicest guy down to $75. Done!

We came back from the beach at 6 and met him out front with 30 seconds to spare. He picked the lock in another 30 seconds. And we were in!

I walked over to say hi to my website friend one street over and was knocked out, again, by how sweet our street smells. They must be blossoms that bloom at night. It's incredible. You want to drink the air. It's like a dream. So much of LA has this dreamy quality, but I know it's also a place where dreams get crushed. Not to be a downer or anything.