California Trip

Well, I had a short and super fun trip to California from Thursday to Sunday morning.

Got a jump start when I realized I hadn’t heard my alarm go off, ten minutes after it had been going off. I ran out the door and drove through Krispy Kreme because I was starving, and headed to Grandma’s. We got to the airport on time. There was a whole team from BYU in line ahead of me, so I was a little nervous, but I wasn’t even close to late, so it was fine.

Mom picked me up from the airport, and I just kind of chilled out that day. I let Jason steal some music from my iPod. I had intended to steal some of his but never got the chance. Jason, Jake, and I went to get In-N-Out but had to drop off some clothes at the dry cleaner first, and Dad saw us driving by. I was so pissed because I waited all day, and he hadn’t come home. He didn’t know I was coming; it was supposed to be a surprise! And we blew it. We got the food and came home, to an unsurprised Dad who guessed that it was me and not Emily driving my mom’s car. Oh well.

Mom and I went to Kohl’s to get me an outfit for the Fleetwood Mac concert I got dragged into attending. I borrowed some leggings from her to complete it. It turned out super cute, see!



I also got two darling dresses and two shirts. I am most excited for these new clothes. I’ve been in desperate need of some dresses. The one I wanted most didn’t fit, and they didn’t have a bigger one. I was pretty sad, but oh well. I still got some clothes!

The limo came around 6 PM. There were eight of us packed in there—Emily, Jason, April, Derek, cousin Jason, me, mom, and dad. Pretty low tech, since I couldn’t figure out how to get my iPod to work back there. Actually it wasn’t my failure, it was the limo’s failure. Here are some pics:













Um, yep, I took a pic of myself in the mirror.



There’s Stevie.

It was a long night with some dramatic events that I don’t care to note since they really didn’t involve me. But I had fun with my cousin so that’s OK. And Derek bought us food, including some nachos for me, so that was awesome of him. Thanks Derek!

We got to bed late. Friday morning I got up and got ready and went to lunch with Krystle at Legends, which was SO good, by the way. Since Bravo Burger is gone, I thoroughly enjoyed my replacement burger—bacon avocado cheeseburger. That’s what I’m talking about. We talked and talked, both of us. I didn’t dominate, I hope. And we went to get frozen yogurt and talked some more. Then we went to the Verizon store where I saw Ashley Hunter! It was so fun to see her, and she invited me to Up that night but I’ll get there later. We also went to the post office, and Target, where I purchased some discounted Kashi cereal that I haven’t been able to find in Utah, $5 Dodgeball movie, black leggings, and $1 pineapple scented lotion. Mmm it smells good. So it was a great day spending time with her. She brought me a side bag from India, and a scarf. They’re both sooo cute and pretty. I love them. Let me just go off for a minute about how much I love Krystle. She is the most motivated and insane individual I know—she never stops! I’m not sure there’s any opportunity she hasn’t seized, most especially opportunities to serve. She’s gone to India and Mexico for service projects, having to take out loans and grants for such activities, devoting her entire vacations for these things. She is incredibly smart, completely generous, and one of the most conscientious and self-aware people I know, which I appreciate. I don’t think I could have anything bad to say about Krystle if I tried, because she’s even learned to speak her mind a little more instead of staying quiet, which wasn’t even a huge downfall before unless it hurt her. She’s so, so great. And so cute! Her haircut was darling, and her outfit. I love her. Truly.

Friday night we went and saw Up in 3D as a family. We lined up an hour early and fortunately got OK seats even though they weren’t dead center like we wanted. They were still good. I LOVED this movie. I intend to see it again next week. It was so darling, hilarious, and touching. The story, the characters, the animation—so well done. I adored it.

Saturday morning dad made a delicious breakfast of bacon, eggs, and potatoes. He makes the best breakfast ever. I went and rented Bolt for us to watch. Dad enjoyed it. “Hey, hey. You got your head stuck pretty good there, huh guy? Twist and pull, twist and pull. Fuhgettaboutit, you’ll be out in no time!” Oh, Bolt.

I also took lots of fun pictures of me and my kitty. He is so darling, and he loves me back. See!







I got ready to go to Dane Cook, and my cousin arrived at our house again in a timely manner. The limo was SWEET and definitely high tech, so I plugged in my iPod and played my fabulous music.





John, Aaron, Tamara, Laina, Julie

We got to Mom’s friend Tamara’s house around 5:30 so we could go to El Torito for dinner. It was great but the service was not so great. Kind of ridiculous when you take drink orders and food orders 45 minutes apart… Just sayin’. We listened to some comedy on the way to the Staples Center to get everyone in the mood.

The environment in the suite was much more laid back and pleasant this time.







I like this pic of me and mom.

I really enjoyed Dane Cook’s opening acts. Al Del Bene’s website is found at www.funnyal.com/ and the other he went on Tourgasm with a few years ago—Robert Kelly. You can go to http://www.robertkellylive.com. They were really funny, though the latter was slightly raunchy. Dane is too, so I guess I can handle it, right?

I was so, so pleased with Dane’s performance. Rough Around the Edges was super tough for me. I didn’t enjoy it and stopped listening to it before track four. It wasn’t funny, and he over compensated with language. This performance, Isolated Incident, was not that way at all. It was really funny, even if a large part of it was sexual. He had everyone cracking up. I love Dane because of his taboo jokes—the ones that make me gasp, cover my mouth, and make my eyes go wide thinking, “I can’t believe he just said that!” I will purchase this CD. It’s already out, for those of you who are interested. Go here.





In the limo on the way back, we continued listening to my playlists from my work mixes. I will argue to the death that I make the best, most universal, people-pleasing, well-rounded mixes. Everyone was LOVING my stuff. We were all singing along really loudly, and it was tons of fun.

We hung out at Tamara’s for a while just chit chatting and hanging out. It was all a delightful time, really. Tamara is probably the most fun and pleasant drinker there is, by the way. She was so nice to me the whole night and gave me all sorts of compliments, telling me how smart and good I am, that she enjoys my Facebook updates because I am so witty and different. She said also that I have a beautiful singing voice, and shamed my mom for never mentioning it. haha. She said there’s nothing bad about me, and she called me beautiful and told me she loved me. I don’t know how much of this she remembers, but nevertheless, it was nice to receive so much praise and really meant a lot to me. I don’t repeat these things to toot my own horn—I just like to remember the good stuff people say.

We got home pretty late, and Mom demanded that I make copies of my mixes for her. So I did, and that took long enough. I also packed, had a good phone conversation, and went to sleep. I was up early and got ready this morning to go. I don’t believe I have forgotten anything yet.

Here are some random notes:

-Connecting flights for what should only be a 1 hr 45 min flight really stink. It’s up and down and up and down. It doesn’t do well for my ears. And the flight I’m on into Salt Lake right now has been a really rough take-off, throwing my stomach into a tornado. I don’t have anything to vomit up, so I think I’ll be OK, but I really do not feel good.

-I slept on the flight from Ontario to Phoenix. Surprising, really. I slept pretty solidly.

-Phoenix airport had internet, so I was able to upload my pictures to Facebook and MySpace. I love when public places have internet.

-There was a small toddler and his mother sitting near me in Phoenix. This mother let her kid crawl around, wafting his poopy diaper smell in my face, for about fifteen minutes. I subtly plugged my nose. I had to. It was seriously one of the stinkiest diapers ever. Wow. I hope I never wait that long when I am in a public place to change my kids’ diapers. The kid kept trying to get my attention, but I couldn’t look at him because I wouldn’t be able to control a grossed out “the smell of shiz is floating into my cerebellum” face. So I ignored him to try to be nice.

-I like that Southwest gives out Honey Roasted peanuts instead of just plain peanuts. Makes my airline experience much more enjoyable. What’s more, I’m awaiting a Dr. Pepper. Hopefully my tummy will settle.

-Only on a flight into Salt Lake would I be surrounded by middle aged women knitting. Not even joking. To my right and to my left there are women knitting. I am not going to look behind me. Two’s enough to prove my point. 

-When flight attendants do their spiel about seat belts and life jackets and oxygen, I can’t help but think of the scene in Tommy Boy. And I keep waiting for one of them to go, “You know what, if you haven’t figured it out by now, ring your call button and Tommy will come back and hit you on the head with a tack hammer because you are a retard.”

California’s weather wasn’t so great. Overcast and slightly chilly most days. Still, I had a great time eating and being with my family. Fleetwood Mac was fabulous, and Dane was hilarious. The limos were great. My new clothes are cute. What more could I ask for? Maybe just one more day...

Comments

amelia said…
You have THE BEST trips to California. I'm jealous!
StacyB said…
Twas truly a fun and eventful few days, and I loved having you home. Thanks for the full blown story and for leaving out a few ugly details.

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