1999 NPC USA (Intro)
By -jabber


Great show, but...

Best laid plans of mice and men - thrown in the garbage.  This show was held
in the "nearby" suburb of Los Angeles, Santa Monica (meaning by car in
traffic, LAX airport is an hour away :-) ).  Anyway, feeling much better
than I did at the Jan Tana (I'm back between 85-95% of my former self and
climbing), I arrived from one client site in Calgary, Alberta, Canada Friday
morning (a young Oriental gentleman kept falling asleep next to me and
resting his head on my shoulder - needless to say I woke him up and wished
his sister was in that seat instead :-) ), and had to make an emergency stop
at my company's office in Irvine (don't ask).  So that shot my Friday plans
to hell.

In LA I kept thinking why can't they schedule this in either San Francisco
or San Diego (both cities I've not been to); I don't want to see LA again!
But I did get a chance to enjoy an extended tour of Santa Monica (the
Promenade and the Pier), and drove around Topanga Canyon and Palos Verdes
(two parts of Southern California I actually like).  

Nope, no time for Gold's Gym in Venice, maybe next time (October 9th, same
venue for the Ms. Olympia), back when -jabber's at his fighting weight and
condition. :-)

Before leaving on Sunday for another client site in Albuquerque, New Mexico,
I got a chance to see a great bodybuilding contest, nevertheless.  On with
the review, that I've broken down into smaller pieces than usual (just for
the helluvit)...

-jabber