Day 7: And I fly to Atlanta

Friday: 03.13.2009.
Flying on Friday the 13th is only mythically bad luck because we had no trouble at all. We got to the airport, said goodbye to our wonderful hostess, and made it through security without any problems. My arm and hand was still hurting after my fall out from the day before. We hung out for a short while, where I caught up on my journal writing. We took a few last pictures while we were in California to denote our feelings towards leaving. The rest of the day went pretty flawlessly. We finally got a Cinnabon in Arizona that we had been dreaming of since the first time we landed. It was tasty and fattening of course. PS Everyone in the Arizona airport is in a foul mood for some reason. Regardless, we landed in Atlanta 10 minutes early and went to fetch our luggage. I reunited with my long-lost mother. Meghan and I parted ways after our big adventure to begin the trek home. Until next time, my friend!

Day 6: How did I get here?

Thursday: 03.12.2009.
I woke up early and rather abruptly this morning to my phone ringing from an unknown number, which I let go to a voicemail. It was my landlord calling to ask about paperwork they “hadn’t received,” and it turned out to be actually already at their office. Grrr. I couldn’t really fall back asleep, so I got up a little later to call the Inner Balance Center to schedule a massage. Thankfully they took us so we prepared for a day of relaxation. Aimee drove us to Pacific Beach, CA and dropped us off at Café 976, which was this really cute coffee shop. We got some sandwiches there before heading off to Inner Balance. We were a little early, but both of our therapists (although magical healers seems like a more appropriate title) were there already so they took us when we arrived. It was terrific through and through, and my person actually told me a lot about various issues within my muscles, all of which made perfect sense (i.e. I have a lot of “holding” in my right leg, probably from my injury 2 years ago.)
After our nirvana-like hour, we greasily slid to the rest of the downtown area. We went in lots of little shops, where I bought a new dress/shirt thing and a pair of black gladiators, which Tracey affectionately calls my S&M shoes. They do look a little dominatrix-y by I promise I didn’t think of this until after I had bought them. All this time I had it in my mind that I wasn’t leaving until I got my tragus pierced (which sounds a lot dirtier than it really is.) While I continued in my indecision, we made a stop by this story called Pangaea. Pangaea was a rather eclectic mix of nearly everything in one store. When we walked up to the entrance, there was a man sitting there with a pig. A pig. The pig’s name was Barbie Q., and the man had little business cards with her picture on them. Later I was taking pictures of her, when he picked her up over his shoulder so I could get a good one of her face.
When I could put it off no longer, we made our way to a row of shops to find the least sketchy tattoo/piercing place. I settled on when and went in almost-bravely. I tried to calm myself as best as I could, but I was shaking and all googley on the inside. I asked my very pregnant piercer lots of questions and finally picked out my jewelry. I paid; so it was final. I was leaving this place with a piercing come one thing or another. I went inside my little room and sat in the chair, shaking like a leaf. I got a cup of water going in so that I was prepared. The lady started preparing everything. When I began to see long silver things, I looked away immediately. I didn’t want or care to know what was about to be shoved through my ear. She put the clamp on my ear, which was slightly uncomfortable at most, but freaked me out nonetheless. Then she counted down and BAM. I had a 3 inch needle stuck through a clamp in my tragus. It sat there while she got the jewelry ready, removed the needle, and then put the jewelry in my ear. All the while, I was clutching Meghan’s hand for dear life. I’m not really sure what color I turned, but I’m sure it was quite a shade. I started feeling a little light headed at this point so I released Meghan’s hand and settled a little further down in my dentist’s office-like chair. The lady asked me if I wanted some water to which I apparently replied yes. Next thing I know, I’m face down on the floor, one leg propped against a wall, with my face held off the floor by somebody’s jeans-clad leg. Wait… what?? How did I get here? Apparently I passed out and remained out for a solid minute; and according to Meghan there was some twitching involved. Great. For this to happen, I had to lean forward out of my slumped position, bypass the armrest, and fall out of the chair. Of course, the poor thing is freaking out and wanting to call an ambulance. All the workers are calm and say, “It’s okay, this kind of thing happens all the time.” Oh really? That would have been nice to know about 5 minutes ago. The pair of jeans holding me up turned out to be one of the male tattoo artists. My pregnant piercer couldn’t bend over to get me up. I told him thank you for holding me and rubbing my head (despite my not knowing him), and he made some smart comment like “What… you never wake up in a strange man’s arms?” Sick. He claimed it happens a lot to him. So I had to ask, “You wake up in strange men’s arms?” He was quiet after that. I’m sorry. You put an OCD germ-phobic person face down in a tattoo shop? She’s not gonna be in a good mood. Meghan called Aimee to get her to come pick us up. Unfortunately Meghan told her I had my trachea pierced, which sent off a flare of concern as you can imagine. She got there and realized we were all in one piece, and I had to inform her of my tragic story. I sat there for a good while trying to get my blood pressure stabilized. Finally, with a friend on each side, I wobbled out to the car. We went through the McDonald’s drive-thru to get me a coke. Aimee wanted me to eat, but I didn’t want anything to eat for fear it might come back to get me.
We got back to her apartment and rested for a while. Thankfully everyone had sympathy for my not wanting to go anywhere, and we ordered pizzas and watched The Wackness. Finn and Otto came over to visit, which is always fun. After a big day, I was more than ready for some good rest. Unfortunately, it was our last night in California.

Day 5: What A Wonderful World

Wednesday: 03.11.2009
The big day was here. Really the only thing I knew I HAD to do while I was in San Diego was go to the world renowned San Diego Zoo. It was just as wonderful as I’d hoped. It’s a massive place, as expected, with nearly any animal available to be in a zoo. Our $35 ticket granted us unlimited access to the “Skyfari” sky buckets and park tour. Aimee dropped us off a little after 9 so she could get to work on time. We walked in and went to the Flamingo Café to get some breakfast, all of which was semi-cold. But, as usual, we were hungry, so we scarfed down our food anyway. I ate a very expensive platter of pancakes, bacon, and eggs (a massive breakfast). We checked out our very necessary park maps to try and get a game plan together. We noticed there was a sea lion show at 11 that we wanted to check out so we headed off in one direction to kill some time before then.
A couple of misled turns later, we realized it was getting close to time for the show, and we were no where near where we had planned to be. So we power walked back to the entrance and found where we were supposed to be. The show was too cute and surprisingly educational. My favorite thing was when the sea lion pretended to be a shark and swam on his side with one of his flippers in the air like a shark’s fin.
After that we really had no agenda so we wandered up and down the roads looking at all the animals. Probably the best thing about the zoo was a couple of exhibits had little babies in with the adult animals.

One meerkat exhibit had two little babies, who were all fuzzy and cute.There was another exhibit, some sort of hog but I don’t know their proper name, which had a couple of babies teetering around. They could not have been very old because they were still pretty unsteady on their feet and tripped over sticks and uneven dirt. Then there was the big gorilla that grabbed up her baby and put it on her back and stood there like she knew we would love to get some great pictures of the two. Such a good participant!
We took the Skyfari across the park, which provided a great view of everything going on throughout the zoo. Unfortunately it was a very chilly ride, so we were thankful it didn’t last terribly long. Meghan had a pretty serious hankering for a corn dog so we searched until we found the children’s café where they promised corn dogs. We finally found it only to discover that it was closed! Meghan was sorely disappointed, but settled for another place. I got a way-overpriced cheese pizza and a massive souvenir cup full of Coke that promised only $1.28 refills… WOW… what a deal! Later on we took the last available park tour on this double-decker bus. It was a nice re-cap of everything we had seen because it was hard to remember it all. After that it was close to closing time, but we still managed to spend a good bit of time in various gift shops (like we always seem to do.) I bought a couple of neat things; I got a pin for a friend at work that asked me to get her one.
Aimee showed up at the perfect time, as usual. We were already pretty hungry so we decided to grab some food on the way back to her apartment. We went to Rubio’s which is like fast food Mexican (but WAY better than Taco Bell.) I got a cheeseburger quesadilla thing that was pretty good. By this point we were tired, a little sunburned, and full, all of which equates to a pretty sleepy traveler. So we returned to our temporary home and prepared for our usual night in.

Day 4: How many miles did we just hike?

Tuesday: 03.10.2009
After an exhausting day with lots of walking, we thought we’d take a “day off.” It turned out to be anything but a day off, but we had a great time anyway. We slept in a little bit later and then got up to begin our adventure on foot. First of all, when you walk out the door of the apartment, the view is astounding. All you can see is blue ocean. We headed east and walked to University of California San Diego (UCSD). I know my mom is proud that I knew directions, but it’s only because I could see the ocean, and I know that it’s the west coast. So sad.
I must say, and I don’t want to brag or anything, but I think our campus is much prettier. There was one very interesting difference though. We ate lunch at this pub in the middle of campus where they serve alcohol DURING the day… on campus! It was very unusual for Meghan and I. The food wasn’t that great, so alcohol must be its claim to fame, which was unfortunate for us. We walked around the area for a little while before we found the bookstore. I bought a UCSD chocolate brown zip-up sweatshirt that was 30% off (cha-ching). Meghan, on the other hand, was deep in concentration in the on sale post card section. This was a very serious matter. She finally settled on some good choices, and we checked out with our purchases (including a little candy for the road.)
We then headed back towards the apartment, when I decided we try an alternate route (always a good idea, right?) Instead of walking down this steep, winding road, we decided to just tackle the mountain head-on. So we walked across this grassy field before taking in the view of a lifetime. It was breathtaking. We took that in for a few minutes and changed out camera batteries. Then we just started walking… and walking… and walking. We walked down dirt paths, cement drains, and really anywhere that looked remotely safe. We finally wound up at one of the many destinations we hoped to find, and used that area to make our way down some stairs and to the beach. On this whole path, we encountered many wetsuit-clad surfers. California boys are ridiculously attractive, and I wanted to date them all. But that’s really a different story entirely. We hung out on the beach; it was a bit chilly for bathing suits, but that didn’t stop us. We laid out on our beach towels, fully clothed in t-shirts and shorts. These annoying little gnats were about to drive me crazy, and for some reason left Meghan alone. I think they liked my suntan lotion because it smelled like bananas. Later, we then continued walking down the beach until we got to a lifeguard stand that Meghan simply HAD to have a picture of her standing on it. So she struck a pose, and I snapped several pictures for her. We decided to try and head back to our original area to try and go to the Birch Aquarium. We also wanted a t-shirt or sweatshirt from Scripps International School of Oceanography, where Aimee is working on her Ph.D. To make a long story short, we wound up stopping at the Scripps Administration building to ask for directions, and by the time we made our way up this huge hill to Birch, we didn’t have enough time to actually go inside the place. So we settled for the gift shop, where we spent a TON of time. Meghan had a serious dilemma in choosing a sweatshirt and must have tried on each one four or five times. She finally decided on one, and loves it by the way, so in the end it was a great day. Aimee picked us up a little after 5 and took us back to the apartment so we wouldn’t have anymore hills to climb.
That night we were in the mood for some good seafood. We went to this great restaurant that Jeremy suggested. We parked and began walking to what we thought was the entrance… and kept walking… finally we had almost circled the building when we found the front door. It was a nice place with really cool old photos of fishermen and their large catches. Aimee ordered a steamed artichoke for an appetizer. After some instruction and a demonstration on how to eat the thing, I actually tried it. It was different than anything I had ever had, but pretty good actually. For my meal, I ordered some shrimp pasta, which was delicious. We went back to the apartment to hang out for a while before getting ready for bed. By this point, Meghan and I had developed a routine. We’d get ready for bed, then get in bed and read for a while. I brought sTori Telling (Tori Spelling’s autobiography, which is really funny) for her, and I had begun reading Eclipse again.

Day 3: Oh Happy Day.

Monday: 03.09.2009
We wake up around 9ish to call Harbor Expeditions to make 2 reservations for a whale watching excursion. Thankfully, they still had a few spots open so we reserved them for the excursion at 1:30 p.m. Aimee drove us to downtown San Diego so we could look around and check out the area. We walked to Horton Plaza, which is this really cool outdoor mall kinda deal. It has several main levels, but also little in between level places too. It’s kinda hard to explain, but it was very bright and colorful. There was this adorable little flower shop, where the blooms were unreal. They had opened up, and the aroma wafted down the street a little. Earlier that morning, a friend of mine, Darla, had written on my wall suggesting that we visit Kansas City BBQ. It was where part of Top Gun was filmed. Remember the scene where Goose is banging on the piano and singing “Great Balls of Fire?” That was the place. They still have the same piano that was used in the movie.

They have tons of memorabilia in there, such as pictures of the cast and crew set up on the inside and outside of the building. Last June, the restaurant unfortunately had a fire, but thankfully the piano survived. Meghan, this whole time by the way, was on the verge of a heart attack. I have never seen her, or anyone really (aside from myself at Jason Mraz’s concert), be THAT excited. She asked me every 5 minutes about getting a picture at the piano, which I had full intention of doing, but she wanted to make doubly sure I hadn’t forgotten. We ordered our food; mine was okay, I’m just not a huge fan of BBQ. Meghan said she enjoyed hers though, and was ecstatic otherwise, so it all worked out for the best in the end anyway. The bartender saw us as we were taking pictures and let us go behind the bar. He even offered to take a picture of us, which was nice of him. He gave us these little cards and warned “not to show them to our boyfriends or husbands.” They weren’t awful; they just warned no one to mess with our drinks while we were gone to the bathroom… just not in those words exactly. We bought some souvenir t-shirts from our waitress. I noticed she had her tragus pierced, which I wanted to get done while I was out here, sort of as a more permanent souvenir of my time in San Diego. So I struck up a conversation with her, and she warned that it hurt pretty bad and was sore for quite a while. That scared me of course, but I tried not to think about it.
What I didn’t mention was how incredibly long it took us to get to Kansas City BBQ. We noted the address from online, but locating it was another matter entirely. We walked all over the area hunting for it, asked several different people for directions, walked around and finally THROUGH a Hyatt Hotel (which was amazing on the inside by the way) before we found it. But watching Meghan’s excitement as she bounded down the street was worth it, no questions asked. On the verge of being late for our whale watching excursion, we all but ran back to the harbor. I checked in and was told the boat leaves in 4 minutes. Talk about cutting it close! We boarded the ship and sat near the front of the boat. I’d already loaded up on Dramamine in preparation for any awaiting motion sickness. We left the harbor pretty soon and were on our way. We had a really nice time. We saw what must have been a small group (about 3-5) of whales. They would blow air near the surface then arch their backs out of the water. When they wanted a deeper dive, they would allow their tales (flukes) to come out of the water to propel them further downwards. It was such a cool experience. Except for the couple (newlyweds, possibly) who probably shouldn’t have left the hotel room just yet. They continually groped each other for a good portion of the trip. It was unfortunate that Dramamine doesn’t really cure that kind of sickness. However, we rode out of the harbor pretty fast, so when the waves got a little choppy sometimes we would catch a pretty good spray from the lovely Pacific. So it was mildly appropriate when the nastyweds got a good soaking. I think it was Mother Nature telling them to quit being so distracting and to stop stealing the other passengers’ attention from her. In other sickness news, there were several people holding onto their sea sickness bags, so that was also pretty gross. Meghan was feeling a little gross, but once we got back to land and got rid of our sea legs, she started feeling much better.
It also helped that we made a little run to Baskin Robbins. Meghan and I walked all the way back to Seaport Village where we saw a Ben and Jerry’s; unfortunately their ice cream was a solid $7-8 to get anything we wanted. That got vetoed. So when Aimee picked us up and took us to BR. While we were there, this man walked by with a reddish-brown Dauschund. Of course we got excited, so the man picked him up and made him wave to us. The dog looked pretty uncomfortable, but did as he was told.
For dinner we were introduced to the California wonder known as In-and-Out. It was pretty good. Just normal hamburger fast food, which is always good to me. The girl who took my order commented on my accent and wanted to know where I was from. Turns out, she’s from Alabama- didn’t sound like it though. The menu was really small; the combo meals were hamburger, cheeseburger, or double cheeseburger. Not many options, huh? We enjoyed it though, and then went back to the apartment to hang out for a little bit before winding down for bed.

Day 2: Hello Jetlag.

Sunday: 03.08.2009
Whoa. We woke up sometime late morning feeling like refreshed zombies. Aimee suggested a brunch so we threw some clothes on and freshened up a bit while we waited for her boyfriend, Jeremy to come and meet us. We met him, and he’s a super nice guy. He brought two of their fur children, two 4-month-old Dauschund puppies named Finn and Otto. Cute and cute. We went to this great coffee shop, where I had a breakfast bagel with scrambled eggs on it and a vanilla tea. I later went back to get a cinnamon raisin pastry because all of their desserts looked (and smelled) amazingly delicious. We sat outside to enjoy the beautiful day and inviting atmosphere with our animal entertainment. FYI, with two Dauschund puppies, you achieve instant celebrity status. Everyone you pass wants to talk about them and pet them. But really, who can blame them? Afterwards we went to a nearby beach in La Jolla. It was a little chilly, and Jeremy was nice enough to get me a jacket out of the car. We walked along the beach for a good stretch. I walked Finn, which made my trip just that much more fun. He liked to zigzag back and forth without much preference for a straight line or keeping his leash untangled from his brother’s. Next we rode down to downtown La Jolla where there is a really neat seal beach. The seals come up from the ocean and sun on the beach. They socialize, play, and roll in the sand. It’s a beautiful scene. It is ocean life as it’s meant to be enjoyed. Next we went to this grassy cove just above the beach where lots of families and pets were hanging out. It felt wonderful to sit and bask in the sun. We hung out there for a little while, but Finn and Otto were just a little too enthusiastic about all the green grass and wouldn’t stop eating it. So as a precaution for future upset little tummies, we began our walk back to where Jeremy had parked. We returned to Aimee’s apartment to relax and unwind for a little while.
We went to Su Casa for dinner. Some west coast Mexican food! I was shocked when I ordered a cheese dip and the waitress informed me that they didn’t have any. What? Mexican food with no cheese dip? But I bravely forged ahead. Aimee ordered some tableside guacamole, where they bring all the ingredients fresh to your, well, tableside and make it for you. I never thought I’d like guacamole, but this was really good! Maybe I just like fresh California guacamole. We returned home, and I took a refreshing hot shower and got ready for bed. I started reading Eclipse (again) to wind down from the busy day. I slept really well that night, unlike Meghan who both never fell asleep, and heard her watch beep every hour, on the hour. Poor soul; but oh how the next day would make up for it…
Interesting conversation: Held ~2:45 a.m.
I notice Meghan is partially awake so I ask her, “Hey, are you hot?”
She sits bolt upright and enthusiastically says “YEAH!” I begin to fiddle with the lock on the window, but can’t really figure it out. I give up because I’m about to pee on myself, and when I return, Meghan has magically opened both windows and is already lying down again. Oh Meghan.

SB09: California Bound

Saturday: 03.07.2009
Today I woke up about 9:58 a.m. I know this because I set my alarm for 10 and checked my phone to see how close it was to being time to get up and get ready. I thankfully slept well last night due to my friend, Mr. Tylenol PM. I didn’t hear it, but I got a text message from my one of my favorite agents saying that she was just now returning home from being at a crime scene all night. When the boss called her, he asked how early I was leaving the next day. She was sweet enough to make it seem as though my flight was pretty early and that I shouldn’t be bothered. THANK YOU! I talked to her as she drove to the office to make sure she stayed awake, and when we hung up, I hopped in the shower to get ready for possibly the best vacation ever.
I got ready in time, but I was still stressed about my suitcase. I’m always nervous about the 50 pound weight limit. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but I’ve gone over before. Plus, they now charge you for every bag you check. $15-20!! Ridiculous. Our economy has all but collapsed, and we have to travel by carry-on only to fly “free.” At any rate, I met Meghan in the parking lot because I was checking the mail, and she greeted me with an excited hug. Meghan arrived around 11:15, and by 11:30 I had double, triple, and quadruple-checked to see if I had left anything. I cut the heater off, said good-bye to T.I. (our fish, a tilapia for the record), and lugged my massive suitcase to her car. We ran through the Chick-Fil-A drive-thru for lunch. We didn’t think we’d encounter any of those out west. We drove to Atlanta, but my trusty captain took the wrong exit off the interstate and we ended up in a pretty bad (excellent drug area) of town which I affectionately and appropriately named “the Tijuana of the East Coast.” She phoned her brother, who quickly got us straightened out. We finally arrived at her relatives’ house, and her brother and cousin took us to the MARTA station to ride it to the airport. We got there safely and remained unscathed from our fellow passengers. It wasn’t too bad, but I don’t plan on riding it at night anytime soon (ever.) We explored around the airport for a little bit, then went ahead and checked our over-bearing suitcases. Then we wandered around until we found the correct terminal and specific place to wait for our plane to arrive. This all went really well for us, and I was very thankful to have a pretty stress-free day. To make things even better, a girl was on our flight that had flown to Georgia to pick up a puppy for her sister. The puppy, named Hector (I know, too cute), was a Rat Terrier. He was absolutely adorable and very friendly. Being prone to loving on any animal within reach, I quickly befriended the girl and later had Hector in my lap. He fell asleep curled up, with his head draped across my arm. He was mostly white, except for a short black tail with a white spot on it. And like others of his kind, his ears stood straight up, with the exception of his right ear that hyper-extended and kind of curled backwards. Too cute. Unfortunately, it was close to time to eat before boarding, so I had to part with Hector. We grabbed some Quizno’s for supper (moderately overpriced might I add) and took it back to our area. As we got back, I felt like I was missing something. We were supposed to tear a certain area off of our boarding passes and I realized I couldn’t find mine. Panic. I could remember fiddling with it on the way to Quizno’s, but it was no longer in my purse. Without much explanation to Meghan, I took off to find it. I returned victoriously to a puzzled looking Meghan left in my wake. I had left my boarding pass on the counter when I took out my wallet to pay for my dinner.
We boarded our plane, but not without another small hitch. At no point in our waiting around did we discover that our seats were not side-by-side. Which I really don’t understand because I hand-picked them myself. I mentioned this to the lady taking up the boarding passes, and she was able to work something out. I asked this very nice gentleman if he minded changing from his seat, to the same seat just on the other side of the aisle. He had no problem with it, thankfully, and Meghan sat in his middle seat, and I sat in the seat near the aisle. The flight was pretty long, but we were really too excited to care. I listened to some music and did some crossword puzzles. I managed to lose the top of my felt tip pen which had the potential to be very messy. Meghan took one for the team and gave me the top to her pen, which didn’t match in any way, shape, or form, but it did the trick. We landed in Phoenix very gracefully and set off to explore a new airport and enjoy a new state for about an hour. We walked around for a little bit, but were pretty tired at this point. So mostly we sat around in our waiting area until it was time to board again. This time I had a window seat, and Meghan was in the middle again. It was a short flight (~44 minutes according to the pilot). It was really pretty flying into San Diego at night with everything lit up in the city. The airport is right downtown, so it seems as though you are going to land right on top of the buildings.
Our flight landed about 15 minutes early, and we had no problem finding the baggage claim (still a surprise to me really). I called Aimee when we got our baggage off the conveyor and got to a safe and uncrowded place. She told me she was just driving into the airport and would be there in about 5 minutes. We walked outside and pretty soon she drove right up to get us. Perfect timing! I got a good hug from my long-lost cousin and introduced her to Meghan. We loaded everything up and were on our way to Aimee’s apartment. We stayed up talking till about 3 a.m. Georgia time, so needless to say, we were good and tired. I loaded Meghan and myself up with Tylenol PM to calm the jitters and weird jet lag feeling, and we slept like rocks.