After Much Anticipation...

I decided in January that I was going to take a trip to Los Angeles. It was about time to visit the west coast, specifically this city where I might want to live. This post as well as future ones will be about my 3 week adventure in LA! Here goes....

“I am not checking a bag. Even if I have to wear three layers of clothing!” I say to Josh once he saw the pile of clothes lying by my suitcase, my room a mess.  Packing took a week,  maybe it was that I was over eager and ready to get going. I packed three weeks of stuff into a backpack and small luggage, unpacked it, packed it again and finally after the screech of the last zipper I tossed the luggage into the car.  I did end up wearing my sweater and jacket on the plane, but not multiple layers. I arrive at the airport with a very short period of time to catch my flight. After a lot of hurrying, lines and unpacking/repacking I get to my gate. My flight is booked maxcap and they still haven’t assigned me a seat. Superduper. 

“Oh my God.” My attention is averted to the woman boarding passengers. She has a huge grin on her face. “I watch your show all the time.” I glance over to see a woman who she is talking to, wearing sunglasses so I didn’t really recognize her. Plus with the amount of TV I watch it’s not surprising I couldn’t put a name to her. My first celebrity sighting and I didn’t even get on the plane yet.

I got my seat, one of those with extra leg room, exciting at the time but couldn’t make up for how uncomfortable the seats were. Looking back I should’ve just curled up on the floor. Great plan until the flight attendant came around and said if I can’t fit under the seat I’d have to be checked.  Speaking of that, one thing I didn’t consider: where I was going to put my bags once on the plane. Here goes, I think and hoist my 40 pound luggage over my head struggling to get it on the shelf above my seat. Apparently even with all my chuttarunga practice gravity was tough competition. I thought this was where my journey ended, with the luggage falling on top of me. Death by suitcase. Luckily some guy was nice enough to help me get it up there, and some lady was nice enough to tell me to check it next time. Or maybe it was my conscious; at this point I didn’t even bother to acknowledge that idea.

I fly maybe once every year or couple years; not enough for me to be comfortable with it. After some mantras and gum chewing my nerves calmed. Luckily they had movies to pass the time. I was running from the night, but it caught up with me by the time I reached LA. On the descend I saw endless lights. I finally saw for myself how expansive the LA area is. I walked through the airport, my head held high shoulders thrown back and a grin on my face that I tried to suppress. It was my first time flying alone. I crossed that off my “firsts” list. I exited the airport and saw my first California palm tree! Outside the air was comfortable, warmer than when I left during the afternoon. Ashley picked me up. “So do you feel like going out tonight?” I smile, of course! It was my first night in LA, I didn’t feel tired even though I didn’t sleep on the plane. We went over to her neighbor’s house- Ryan. First thought being that he looked like Justin Timberlake, but wasn’t about to say that. I met his friend Nick and all of us went down to Santa Monica. We ended up in a pub listening to live music.

“So what do you do?” I asked Nick as we were walking to the pub.

“I work as a manager at Burger King.” He answers seriously and shrugs.  

I look at him, not sure if he’s for real and say, “Oh I didn’t realize they had Burger King out here.” Of course I did, they are everywhere. Later he tells me that he doesn’t actually work at Burger King. Really? Thanks. I don’t understand why people do that. After the pub we go to a hotel bar on the roof that is right on the coast. It was awesome, because you could go out on the roof. So we were out looking at the ocean. It was so nice to hear the waves crashing on the shore. Then it started to rain.

After a long day of traveling, and fun night out I crashed on the sofa. It was a liberating day.