Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Holiday/Weekend Review

Dear Lord. I am barely able to stay awake as I type this. I slept well enough last night but I could not wake up at all today. I was a working zombie, only able to communicate in grunts and growls, and nods. No amount of coffee in the world could wake me up. I'm having serious jet-lag issues. Probably cause I did not want to come back.

Needless to say Cali was fabulous. Though the whole reason behind everything ended up all topsy turvy. Originally I had planned to go with a friend who had never been. I made the arrangements and booked all the necessary tickets and reservations. However at the last minute he backed out on me. So originally Mix Tape Girl was not even going to go, as she had to work. But seeing that I had an extra ticket now, I fixed the ticket so that she could catch a flight last Thurs evening after work. She called in on Friday. (cough, cough)

Anyways for whatever reason I decided to leave my ticket the same and leave in the morning at 7 am. So I had to get up by 4 am to make sure that I get through security in time and since my dad was going pick up and drop me off, I had to allow for his extra slow nail bitting driving on the express way. Thank goodness that there is hardly any traffic at 5 am on a weekday. Needless to say I got there with an hour to spare. I took a new airline MTG found called Express Jet. You basically fly non-stop on one of the small jet planes. The ride was awesome, I got there 15 mins early and we took off early too. Though being 6 ft 3' I had to practically bow down get to my seat and had almost no leg room. But for $89 bucks each way, I wasn't complaining. Hey they even served up breakie. Really not a bag of nuts, or a cookie, no a full breakie. Cereal, juice the whole deal.

Needless to say I got there due to the time difference at 7:45 am. I left at 6:50 and got there at 7:45 am. And that's with the 3 hour flight. Not bad if I do say so myself. After I picked up the rental car it was a little after 8 am. I figured that maybe the hotel might have a room, and they did at 8 am!! Great!! No waiting till noon or after. So I put my stuff up and headed out. Since it was still ultra early I wanted a bigger breakie than what I had on the plane. So I set out for a good food place. Oh I should mention I actually stayed in Ontario, CA which is right out side of L.A., since it was cheaper. Anyways, in Ontario the morning is dead. Nothing in CA opens till after 9 am, except for fast food places like McD's etc. But I didn't want that. I was craving pancakes. I happened upon a newly opened cafe. I looked good from the outside so I stopped. Bad idea. I went in and it was like a coffee/health food cafe. Get you latte and your veggie wrap. Ewww...wraps for breakie? Everything was a wrap. Bleeech!! So I had a latte instead. Though I kinda didn't really drink it as the girl who made it for me, obviously had a cold and was weezing and sneezing. And the coffee was bitter, bitter, bitter. But I drank it anyways. Afterwards I decided to go back to the hotel and unpack. I had planned on driving down to the beach by myself, but before I knew it I had lied down on the bed and when I woke up it was almost 3:30 pm. D'oh!!

MTG's flight came in at 4 pm. Needless to say like my flight she too got there 15 mins early. Fortunately the hotel is down the street from the airport so I was there in no time. I should mention too that MTG's sister decided to come along at the last minute. So I picked both of them up. We unloaded their things at the hotel and then decided to go out to eat. As I was starving from the morning still. One thing I learned from my trip, CA has some down right bad food. As in regular stuff. We went to this restaurant and I ordered a personal pizza, it looked good and the marinara sauce sounded ok. It looked good when I got it too. But when I bit into it, the sauce tasted like Spaghettie O's. Awful wasn't the word to describe it. Our drinks too practically had no liquor in them what so ever.

A friend of MTG came from San Diego while we were eating. It's a little over an hour drive to Ontario so she left right after work. Somehow she ended up staying the weekend with us too. Which was no biggie. The room we rented was huge, two bedrooms, and a full kitchen. Yes a full kitchen. MTG hadn't seen this friend in over a year so they talked and talked and talked. Needless to say I really didn't spend too much time with MTG, as her friend hogged up all the time, but that was ok with me. How often do you get to spend time with a long distance friend?

The following day we all went to see the sights. (Beach not included) Mostly museums, art museums to be exact, in L.A. I pretty much hung out with MTG's sister the whole day. Which we got to know each other more so it was a good thing. MTG and her friend just kept talking and talking. It was really funny. Other than that nothing too exciting.

Saturday was another story. I happened upon a friend of mine who was on holiday too in L.A. and was also staying in Ontario with some of her friends. MTG and her friend were still basically talking and just wanted to chill out all day. So I opted to go with my friend and MTG's sister to go out at night. We meet up with my friend's, friend she knows from L.A. Carlos was nice, and a big trip. Talk about a party animal. I finally go to the beach at around 8 pm, and saw the black Pacific Ocean once more. The sky was clear and beautiful. We walked the beach at Newport, and did the whole O.C. thing. I forgot though how cold it gets at night on the bay. So sans jacket, I had to buy one from a store. Now I have an O.C. zip-up sweater. Yes it says O.C. on it. It was cheap so I bought it. Carlos took us all over the place, some really nice clubs, the arcades on the docks, places that only locals would know. It was fun. MTG called from time to time to check on me and vice versa. As fun as Carlos was though, again he is a party animal. Good grief, he wanted to stay out till 5 am!! Needless to say we had to eventually say enough and I drove everyone back at around 2 am to Ontario. When we got there MTG and her friend were still there talking, but now drinking wine.

Sunday was a chill-out day, did a few things, mostly shopping. One very important thing I learned. If a girl says stop here and here happens to be Fredrick's of Hollywood, cause she needs to pick something out for tomorrow. YOU STOP AND GO TO THAT STORE. ^_^ Needless to say that made up for holding all the bags and purses etc, while shopping.

Monday, finally went out with MTG the whole day. Her friend was still with us, but we spent time together. Again didn't hit the beach till late at night but it was ok. Went and heard some live local bands, mostly jazz. Danced a little with MTG and her sister too. Had fun, drank a few bottles of wine. A good night. Oh and we had the most amazing Thai food in I guess you could say Thai town in L.A., changed my mind about it. I had a bad experience with Thai food here. But this changed my mind. Got back to the room not too, late. Stayed up with MTG, and relaxed on the patio outside our room, looking at the stars and the mountains surrounding us. I'll stop there, for that night. Not a liberty to say what happens next. ^_^

Tuesday we flew back in. None of us wanted to come back. MTG sulked in the airport and on the plane. "Do we have to go back?" she kept asking. "Unfortunately" is all I could say back. Got home late at night, unpacked, did laundry. Slept and went to work a few hours later. Oh and found out my new fridge went out, yesterday. Grrrrr!!! and the water heater needed to be replaced. Thankfully I was able to get them all fixed today. Though I had to throw away much food. Oh well, I'll go shopping again tomorrow.

Sorry I didn't do too much detail, but I'm about ready to pass out here. Will try to write more details later.

2 comments:

Cup said...

What a great trip! Did you go to the Getty Museum?

I've decided you're the model beau, Artful — 6'3" and respectful of a girl's time with her friends. And you dance! Do you have a fortysomething model on the shelf for me?

Artful Dodger said...

Hmmm...Maybe I should look into cloning myself. I could probably make some decent cash. Once I prefect the aging process, I'll send you a 40 something model on the house.

I saw some of the Getty not all of it. We went to the one in L.A. But there is another one..uhm..I forget what beach its at, that houses the greek/roman statues. That's the one I really wanted to see but we didn't get the time.