January 14, 2000: Day OneI anxiously sat thru two of my three classes today. How could I concentrate on anything else? And of course the two classes were sections, which rely on class participation. I had my response all prepared: "I'm going to Los Angeles in X hours, do you think I can concentrate?" Well, the response wasn't all that mean, and luckily I didn't get called on.I went home at 12.30, after we all met for lunch, which was goo. Lar came home in a bit and we laid around. I was good the night before and packed everything I would need. All we had to do was put them in the car and leave. Packing took way too long. I knew I took too many things with me, but it's better to be overprepared, than under, eh? Especially since I'm really picky about what I want to wear and such. :P I was taking my sister's suitcase with the wheels and a large duffel bag. Both could be taken on the plane as carry-on luggage, but I didn't want to deal with the suitcase since it was stuffed. My flight was scheduled to leave at 3pm. We arrived approximately an hour beforehand to check in at the front counter, where we were informed the flight was about thirty minutes late already. The lady told me they would page me at the podium to give me my seating assignment. I felt a bit shifty about not knowing where I was to sit, but as promised, they paged me: "Jenny May, please come to the podium! Jenny May!" It took a while to get my seat, but that's because the woman there placed me at a window since I was travelling alone. S'coo. Lar and I sat and waited. He was pretty tired because the night before he was busy working on his school stuff. The plane I'd be riding on would came from Chicago. It came later than the 30mins, about an hour. And then they said they would be checking the engine since some red light went off. More waiting, but without Lar. He left a few minutes after the Chicago plane arrived to go home and sleep. He was that tired. I suppose I should have wanted to kill him because 15mins after he left, they told us that the plane was down and that we were scheduled to leave at 9pm!!!! So now what was I supposed to do? First I stood in line to get on stand-by, which I knew wouldn't happen since they were already full to begin with. Then I made a series of calls letting everyone know what happened to me. It was particularly difficult because no one was home!! I called Lar and had him call me back since it was a local call and we talked about an hour. It was a nice distraction. After we hung up, I redeemed my $7 at the food court and had Burger King for dinner. I told Lar I would be sitting next to this pay phone so he could call back at any time and I would answer, but I ended up forgetting that. Yeah, I know how could I forget? Well, it made sense to sit at the new gate, which was on the other side. Earlier, I considered calling Jim since he would be leaving for home around 6pm and we could hang out or something. But I didn't because I had ridden that mini-train to get to the N gates. (The others were A, B, C, and D.) Eh. I ended up putting on another coat of nail polish, reading my magazines, and listening to my CDs. It wasn't all that bad. And I felt a little better seeing many people from my flight still hanging around. I kept seeing this large Samoan guy everywhere I went! I went to the new podium and got a new seating assignment. Then I sat and waited for the plane to arrive. And it came late once again. Is this a trend? But I called over to Nan's and got people! I told Ellen that I would be arriving around 11.30pm. After I hung up with her, I notice the take-off time ticked forward another 15mins. Argh! Was I never gonna leave?! Somehow I ended up on the plane, which was largely empty. But it was coo cuz everyone got to sit alone, if they wanted to. I was seated on the aisle next to some guy at the window. We both noticed people moving around to different seats, but I was just too tired to really care to move. He ended up making a polite exit: "I think I'll try to get some sleep three rows back." So I took his seat, which was in front of a little kid who kept kicking the back of my seat. *grrr* We got snack boxes, which were fun for me cuz I like little boxed lunches. And I got a mini water bottle which I kept afterwards. They had something playing on the TV, and I was waiting for a movie, but it was like, little mini shows of the real thing. Shows like ESPN, Dateline, Hollywood Extra...all made specially to be shown on planes. So I was annoyed about that. I just tuned everything out and concentrated on Filter. I sat over the wing of the plane so there wasn't much to look at, since it was dark and only lights were on. The flight was quick, just around two hours and I liked sitting by myself too. The plane landed and rolled to the gate. I walked this round-about way to the airport. The little corridor thingies leading to the planes in Seattle just go straight and then one turn and you're on the plane. But this one went all twisty turny and I was like: "Where the hell am I?" When I was finally IN the airport I looked around. Cuz you see, I had only seen a few pictures of everyone. I wasn't sure if I could recognize them if I saw them first, so I was hoping someone would see me. *L* But I saw Ellen first, and why the hell was she standing over by the windows?! Sheeesha! *LOL* Patrick followed and he is that big. (See his page) I was pretty dazed so they talked between the both of them, while I took everything in. Nancy didn't come with them because she lost her voice! And we were actually on our way to get her some stuffs for it. I had some deja vu though, I remember flying in here a few years ago and just that feeling...was there. We went to some ghetto 24hr grocery and bought stuff and ended up at USC at Nan's place. They called her down and then we all went up. I was still very out of it, so I wasn't very talkative that night. But I do remember Nancy wanting to see my tongue pierce right away. *LOL* Patrick made her this concoction of warm Jello and red wine in a big ass cup. Ellen was off doing dishes around the corner and we just kind of sat. I dunno..what can I say, I'm bad with first impressions. *chuckle* Nan let me call Lar from her place @ 2.30am. Everyone got a chance to talka heem and then I said goo nie and it was nice. My arrival here was all goo and stuff, but I was annoyed that I came so friggin late. That's why I scheduled my flight to leave so early, so that we would have almost a whole day to get accustomed to everyone. But now we were basically off to bed. So around 3am, Ellen took me to her home and showed me my bed. *LOL* The apartment was nice, after all the renovations and stuff. :D She took out some of her photo albums and I looked through them (Michael Jackson Auditorium). I also gave her her Christmas present, a wind-up toy that goes along grooves in these connecting panels. She gave me a bunch of stuff: journal, octopus massager, Sevendust, anklets/chokers, and of horse candy canes! (*hmmm* Where are those...) January 15, 2000: Day TwoI woke up pretty early, before 9am because it was just really bright in the room. I put on my headphones and fell asleep some more. Her mom came in and told us Nancy was on the phone, so plans were made and we were out the door.Nan and Patrick were still getting ready so we didn't actually leave until later that afternoon. We didn't have any real solid plans, all I knew was that Patrick really wanted to go to Guitar Center. *oh joy!* (No offense, Patrick, it's something Lar started in me. ;)) El Nan and I sat around talking in the practice room until a blue-haired girl came in to play. We were there for about an hour, some guy really thought Patrick would buy a $2000 guitar. Haw! Then we drove around looking at various sites. Ellen took us to the newstand and bought me a Cosmo, even though I subscribe to it at home. *chuckle* It was getting late and we knew it would be a while until dinner, so we got a snack at McDonald's. I had supersize fries. *chuckles* We went to her apartment, where I got to meet her dad. I gave Nancy her gift, a barking dog. We all laid around and read from the Cosmo, but went out in the living room because Patrick was talka to El's dad about her new puta! We were gonna get Vivian at 7pm but didn't leave until later because they just kept talking and talking! *chuckle* Ellen, Nan, and I had to get her mom to tell her dad to quit talking. *heh* So we were off to get Vivian, and she lives up in the winding hills. Very winding. Made our way to the Cheezcake Factory and parked in a garage, but they were closing in two hours and we weren't sure if we'd get out in time. So that made us all anxious since they already told us the wait was an hour. But luckily, while we were waiting outside a parking spot opened across the street! Vivian and Patrick ran out there and stood in it while El and I ran to her car. In the few minutes it took us to get to them, I guess they shooed away a lot of cars and even the cops drove by. Eesh! But at least we had more time. YAY! We were finally seated and it was all goo. I sat next to Vivien, Nancy and Patrick were on the other side, and Ellen had the shaft. *chuckle* But she got in on two different group pictures. Here's El with Viv and me and there she is with Nancy and Patrick. Patrick really wanted his picture taken with these forks, so here ya go. :D I ordered the fettuccine alfredo with chicken and sun-dried tomatoes. Yum! But of course those fries filled me up so I hardly ate any of it. *d'aww* It was really goo and worth the wait and in the end, El Nan paid for everyone. Wow! *Thanks* So then we drove around some more and ended up cruising on Sunset Strip. It was so crowded! I have never seen that many nice cars in one place. YEOW. I was a little self-conscious since I've never really "cruised" before and I didn't know "how to do it." But it was pretty fun. I think we did two rounds or something and then had to take Vivian home since she had to study the next day. Then they took us over to Mulholland (sp?) where there was a beautiful view! And we ended up at Sunset again. *LOL* I was more relaxed by then and it was pretty fun. Patrick fell asleep in the back for a bit because he was still running on Iowa time (two hours ahead). But yeah, it was a lot of fun, El Nan pointed out a few characters they recognized and it was coo. We stopped off at McDonalds for a restroom break and to make some calls. Then we took Nan and Patrick back to USC. And Ellen and I went back to Sunset. *ROTFLMAO* It was less crowded at the time, but still coo! Got home late at 3am and just conked out watching "I Love Lucy," which I've never seen before. (Yeah, I know.) January 16, 2000: Day ThreeToday I woke up somewhat early again and got ready. Ellen had a combination uncle-gramma birthday party to go to, so I would be dropped off at Nan's. I could have gone with them, but I didn't think I'd be very comfie there.Went to Nan's @ 3.30pm. I watched Patrick wrap Iris' and Benny's gifts and it was amusing to see him wrap using that crinkly, shiny paper. *heh* But he did a good job and it didn't take too long. :) Nancy was still getting ready for the day. We had a few options that night, the main one being whether we would go to the car show or not. We would be going with her dad, because he and her sisters were coming by with food. They arrived and also brought Nancy's violin, which Patrick wanted to play. I spent much of that evening, trying to tune it. It was difficult because I had to use the pegs and they kept slipping and also she didn't have little tuners on her violin. *shrug* It was nice to meet her sisters though. I have talked to them a few times, very nice girls. Her dad was also pretty nice. He and Patrick had an exchange for a while until we decided to not go to the car show. The dad went home and the sisters remained. We ended up eating the *yummy* food they brought over and I had some red wine *hiccup* with everything. I didn't like the wine much and tried to give it to someone else, but Patrick suggested taking it like a shot so I did. *weee!* But things loosened up after dinner. Benny asked us a series of questions and it was a lot of fun. Then we played cards for a while. We had a good game of BS going on. *LOL* It was about time for "Who wants to be a millionaire," so we watched that. And you know, it was the first time that I've ever seen this show. I try to avoid it. But tonight was alright. :) Ellen came over around 10pm, so we broke into poker teams and we played with snack-ins (or something). *L* It was so much fun! It was pretty late when Nancy's parents came by to get the girls. I thanked her mom for the delicious food and it was nice to meet everyone. I snagged another picture before they all left. :D This time they also brought over Risk, so we started playing that. I remember thinking when I was younger that this game seemed so complicated. But now I realize it's not. It's more on chance because you 'battle' by rolling the dice. There is some strategy though because you need to know where to put your troops and what direction you wanna go. But it was definitely interesting. We tried to make some plans for the next day, which would be Patrick's last day. We finally came up with shopping, dinner, and then the airport. His flight was leaving at 6pm. The day had to start early for us to do all this stuff, so for a moment, we considered just staying up all night and stuff. Of course that didn't really fly, so Ellen and I just went home. Oh yeah! Nancy gave me her Christmas gift and I got a purple velvety jewelry box, with a picture frame on the lid and some bath gel in this stocking shaped container. Now that's Freudian! *chuckles* Ellen and I conked out again. *LOL* But I think I remember her checking her email before then. *G* January 17, 2000: Day FourThe next morning we didn't wake up so early. So it was difficult to get in touch with them, things ended up making us just have time for dinner (just barely) and then the airport. But Ellen and I did go out on Melrose for a bit and that was nice. Foist we waited longtemps for her piercer woman to come and open her shop! Cuz her ear had been bugging her and stuff. Turns out the piercing woman was stuck at the post office!But we got two free balls (*L*) for her hoop thingie and then we walked around into all sortsa funky stores. We ended up at Nancy's and left late again for the Peruvian restaurant. And as you would know it, the place was closed today! ARGH!! So more time was wasted in looking for another place to eat. We ended up on Sunset at Cafe Med (which Ellen called "club med" once *L*). And you know who we ended up eating next to? Chris Rock and Mike Dee...that's pretty cool, eh? We were seated outside on the other side of the front walkway. Our server was pretty cute. *heh* I wasn't sure of what to order so I got one of those pizzas, which of course was too big. But we were really running late, so we basically ate for 5 minutes and then got everything boxed up and I paid and then we all ran off. It was pretty hectic when this woman in the parking lot wouldn't move. *haw* Sped to USC, cuz no one had even though about bringing Patrick's bags with us. *duh* Then we sped to the airport with about 20 minutes or so. We didn't know where his gate was, so they had to go to where they could look at departures. And you know something? Even though we got there "on time" it wasn't enough, Patrick missed his flight. He rescheduled for something that left five hours later. We didn't know what to do, so we went to Ross to kill some time. I thought it was amusing how Ellen and I made a bee-line for the stuffed animals. *LOL* She took a picture of me covered in munkays. And we both bought munkays for ourselves. Cute! Since there was more time before his flight, Patrick had to go back to USC to get his blazer for verk. So we went BACK there and then hung out a bit. He fell asleep on the floor and I took some pictures of him. *L* Ellen later fell asleep too. Nancy ended up cleaning the kitchen. We left around 10.30pm for the flight. We arrived 12 minutes before take-off but that just wasn't enough time. (Partly because they had to look through his bags..haw.) So he checked in at the podium and they told him to board. :( Afterwards, we didn't know what to do, though Nancy said that Marina was back at the apartment. So we went there, those two went in the same car and we went to Mel's on Sunset. There was no cruising cuz it was a Monday night. I wanna'ed! :P *L* But it had been such a long and trying day that I hardly talked at all. Marina payed for my banana split. *Thanks* It was about midnight when we went home. What a LONG day! Geez! January 18, 2000: Day FiveI woke up early this morning as well and packed up my things. I learned from Patrick that I should have my things in Ellen's car. *L* I thanked her mom for everything and we left the apartment. D'awww.There was still a lot of time before we would meet up with Nancy (who had class until 2.30). So we went shoppa! We were in this one store (okay I forgot what it's called) and I was looking for "junky stuff from Los Angeles" to get Lar. I just found a magnet which was too expensive for a magnet and then I bought Jen a postcard. Ellen had found this purple bracelet she liked. I grabbed it when she left and I was trying to lose her so I could get it and surprise her. So I pointed way across the store at where I thought sunglasses were and ran to the register. It was scanned, but by the time it was put in the bag, she was der and saw it! AWWW! It was funny though. Then we went to the Wherehouse and she said she was gonna get me the "Empire Records" soundtrack and I wasn't letting her...until I saw a copy of "Dosage." I ran over there and grabbed it. Ha ha! I bought that for her and a purple envelope and put everything in there. So much for the element of surprise. *chuckle* We went to Nancy's and took separate cars to the Peruvian place, which was actually open. Haw! The food was really good, calamari and some rice and stuffs...(Btw, the whole weekend was about calamari. We had it at the Cheezcake, Cafe Med, and now here. *L*) Nancy was too burdened with schooverk so she said she wasn't coming to the airport. *pout* Marina paid once again. *mo thanks* We had some pictures taken..cuz I still didn't have any pics of me with the girls! Ellen and I got to the airport on time. *yeah* We were just sitting around with the munkays and stuff. I called Lar to say I was ready to leave and they also talked for a while. Then my flight was delayed like 30mins. What's the deal?! But I lefted. Awwwwwwwww!!! I got home by 10pm and it was coo. I had a lot of fun. It was indescribable what it felt like to meet them for the first time. Sure it took me a few days to get used to being there but when I did, it was just like home. :) I'll be planning on going back there; I just don't know when. All's I know is I just paid off that trip. Ayieeeeeee!!! |
