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Wednesday 29 April 2009

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'

Ok this post is going to be so tough. I am either going to be typing for the next 3hrs or I will have to shorten stories and cut out some details...
Let me begin by saying GOD WE HAD A BLAST!!!!!!!! I think everyone should have a bff trip at least once. It's a must. I WILL go into detail recounting about the 1st day of travel because so many weird things happened, we could barely believe it.

1st DAY
Seth (Christine's hubby) drove us to the HSV airport and we were super excited. Ok I was super excited and Christine was super nervous to get on the plane. She had tried to tell me that she has flight phobia and that she is bad on planes. I guess I just hadn't realized HOW much so. Anyways, we went through security after having gotten our tickets and AFTERWARD Christine realizes that our seats on the 1st plane (from HSV to Dallas) were not together. So we immediately went back downstairs to "DEMAND TO HAVE THIS FIXED AT ALL COSTS", but of course our determination in this case did not work very well at all; the lady at the counter simply said to ask the ppl sitting next to us if we wanted to switch, and we settled for this pathetic answer. WHILST this, MY DAD shows up at the airport... dont ask me why, he felt bad, he needed to check on me... either way it was ridiculous... We then went back THROUGH security again, and at this point Christine was REALLY not happy about the thought of flying, as well as the thought of flying sitting next to a complete stranger. While waiting to board at our gate... Christine went to the bathroom and upon her return I gestured with my eyes for her to look in front of me, where a middle aged woman had fainted and they were doing the Heimlich maneuver on her. Nothing was working thought, they were waiting for the ambulance and must have executed the maneuver for about 25 min, with no results. The woman, as far as we know did not wake up. It was really sad, and after the ambulance came and picked her up, Christine said "This is not a good omen for me".

Ok so we finally managed to get on the plane to Dallas, asked the man next to me if he'd be willing to switch seats and of course ended up sitting to * THE WEIRDEST* dude on the plane. He stared at us, me in particular, inches away from my face for probably 2hrs and 30 min out of the 2hrs and 50 min flight. It was the strangest thing, he was obviously very comfortable being in my personal space and staring at us inches away from our faces. His staring MAY have had something to do with Christine's UTTER PANIC of take off. Because as the plane was taking off, her phobia was kicking in, tears were welling up, her face was reddening and the dude was still staring. After the take off she calmed down, and the trip seemed to settle for a while.

When we arrived in Dallas, the weather was AMAZING outside, 86 degrees or something like that, it was fantastic. On the way back through security, this time the xrays decided that my bag needed to be checked, when at the HSV airport they let it slide right through. Once arrived in San Diego, the trip had been going swell; we even managed to get our rental car, and Christine even drove us on the CA freeways beautifully and safely. We then arrived at our hotel, which was quaint and more than fine for what we needed it. Because we wanted to treat ourselves our 1st night in Cali, we asked the hotel worker what a nice seafood restaurant was, his answer was Joe's Crab Shack. We then got dresses and ready to have a nice dinner in Oceanside, quickly understood that apparently the hotel worker had not been to Joe's Crab Shack since the 70's, because he led us to the SHADIEST part of Oceanside, and also led us to believe that Oceanside was well, ugly. (We actually ended up LOVING Oceanside once the Image is Found team showed us around a bit).

We made the most of the night by splurging on crab legs, corn, potatoes and laughing AT the whole day.

After reviewing our day, we decided nothing else could have gone wrong and that we would be safe and sound until the seminar the next day. WE WERE WRONG. Because once back in our hotel room (yes this is still all that same 1st day), we decided to hang out on our precious balcony we so proudly requested at check-in. Let me preface this saying that it was about 12:00 at night.
We hung out on the balcony for about 30 min just chatting it up, and when it was time to go back inside, Christine slid the door unsuccessfully and announced that we were locked out; and you know how in these situation the other person (me) always needs to try in case the other person just "isn't strong enough" hahahahh well yeah, I couldn't get it opened either OF COURSE. The latch had freakishly fallen down and tightly secured us outside.

We paused to nervously and truthfully laugh at the situation and at the endless day.
We saw a light in the lobby of the hotel and I decided to scream "Excuse me???!!!" until the night shift worker, Daniel (yes we totally socialized) heard me and came to our rescue. EXCEPT he COULDN'T rescue us, because safe girls that we are we had of course put the deadbolt on our front door. So for about 10 minutes he tried to get through this deadbolt unsuccessfully. He came back around to speak to us via balcony and said that he was forced to call & wake up the maintenance guy to get us unlocked. After about 20 minutes of waiting and chatting wit Daniel about what was there to do in Oceanside and San Diego, the maintenance guy arrives with a ladder, just tall enough to reach the second story's balcony where we were trapped. He was also hauling a long & flat metal bar, used to literally "break in" and after about 10 minutes of jolting the lock, he DID IT!!! We announced good night to Daniel and the maintenance guy and enthusiastically went back inside. Christine went straight to bed, while I had to shower to unwind. After the shower, I dug through my luggage searching for the little bag I had packed all my underwear in, and could not find it. I thought this is the perfect way to end this crazy day. Christine heard my laughter/sobbs Im not sure what those sounds were and I told her that I had forgotten all my underwear. Thank goodness she had packed 14 pairs! :) When we did go to the San Diego mall I finally did buy some of my own.

There are more, YES MORE, adventures from the trip which I will blog about later :)

till soon

-V