Ending the Vay... Kay?

Woke up early again, surprised? I was hoping to take another rinsing shower [no shampooing or anything, just a rinser, because A.) I felt sticky from the day before, and B.) I wanted my hair to do the wavy thing it does when it's drying from a morning shower], but Ashley didn't want to, so I didn't want to be the tag-along friend who uses up all the water [even though it would have been like a minute long]. We got dressed and I got everything all packed up and Ashley's friend's husband brought home doughnuts for us for breakfast. I had half of a glazed doughnut and half of a powdered sugar one.

We were going to go downtown to look at the shops and the waterfront before dropping me off at the airport, so I figured we'd be leaving somewhat early. Once again, I figured wrong. Ashley's friend literally said, "I'm so slow in the morning," while sitting and nibbling on her doughnut. She still had to shower, get dressed, get the kid dressed, get everything she needed to bring the kid out and about, and whatever else she needed to do. So Ashley and I were ready and waiting to go, while everyone else sat around like bums. The husband went for a run and Ashley's friend finally hopped in the shower. When the husband came back, he turned on Christian music and made breakfast while singing to every word.

Referring to one of my previous blogs from this vacation, I never have been very religious. I think it's amazing when someone is religious and has that foundation to make their life optimistic and positive, but I just can't do that. I'm not denying that there is a higher force at work or denying fate, destiny, good vs. evil, or any of that. I just can't comprehend it, and I don't think that humans physically can comprehend it. We humans only use, what, 10% of our brain? Geniuses and prodigies probably use more, but if we could open up that extra 90%, even an extra 2 or 3%, we could probably understand more about everything, and possibly come to an understanding about creation, evolution, the Big Bang, or whatever ended up being the reason for life. Unfortunately [and possibly fortunately], I don't have that extra 2 or 3% opened up right now, so I can't come to any kind of understanding. Therefore, I am not religious.

So, this religious music about praising the cross and all that jazz started getting on my nerves. Especially because the way I decided to pass the time waiting was by reading my boring book. How can you read with distracting music like that? I understand jazz or classical or even easy-listening that wasn't too loud, but it wasn't possible for me to continue. I don't know if I'm alone on this, but if I was hosting guests and I was religious, I wouldn't want the possibility of offending anyone by listening to it at full blast, and if I needed to listen to it, I would bring it to a low volume wherever I decided to be at that moment, instead of blasting it from the living room when I was in the kitchen.

[I'm typing this from memory from my laptop at home, and let me tell you: it is a gift to be able to have a computer with a functioning spacebar. Appreciate it when you have it. Oh, and I need to look at new phones and find out when my upgrade is].

I decided to take myself outside and call Andrew. Although it was around 8:30 in the morning and he was probably asleep, I gave it a chance. I told him it was an "excuse" to get away from the obnoxious praise going on inside. He laughed and we talked for about a half an hour. I figured they were about ready to go so I said good-bye and went back inside. Sure enough, I was wrong.

When am I ever right in California?

When I went inside, Ashley's friend's husband was preaching the word of Christ to Ashley. I'm so glad I missed out on the beginning of the message.

We didn't leave until 9:30 or so, got to SeaPort Village at 10:30, and had two hours of free parking if we bought something. I said I wanted to find something for Andrew [because the shopping that we did at Old Town was more of an "Accessory Alley" kind of deal, and I know Andrew and I wouldn't want to get him something he wouldn't use or anything] so we went looking. Not inside any stores, just looking. Looking at the birds on the little pier, looking at the ducks in the little pond, looking at the amphibious car called "The Seal" with a giant seal painted on it, looking at the carousel... basically giving the kid a good time.

I was surprised we went into the book shop and got drinks. Ashley's friend seemed eager to keep on walking, but we somehow got inside and got drinks. I ordered an "ice blended mocha" which ended up being the powder once again. Whatever, it was still a good, cold drink. Ashley got an ice blended chai [chai is delectable by the way], her friend got an Italian soda, and the kid got chocolate milk with about ten feet of whipping cream. Of course he made an absolute mess everywhere, drinking the chocolate milk with the spoon he was given for the whipping cream. But after throwing a screaming fit for chocolate, he got his way.

I should have thrown a screaming fit to take a shower that morning. Maybe I would have gotten my way.

Anywho, we ended up looking in some shops, one of which had t-shirts that were printed using chocolate or chilis. How weird! Another shop had cowboy stuff including belt buckles, hats, boots, and lots and lots of jewelry! Ashley found some cool turquoise cuffs that were close to $200 each. Poor thing, set on something that is super expensive.

We left right before our two-hour limit and headed into the downtown area. Ashley's friend said, "I don't want to just stroll around, so where do you guys want to go?" ...waiting on me for an answer. What the hell am I suppose to say to that? I'm not sure exactly what I wanted to get Andrew; I'd have to stroll around to find that perfect "something." I said that I didn't mind where we went, so she drove to the mall.

Perfect place not to stroll.

We went straight to Steve and Barry's because A.) I'd never been there, and B.) Ashley was excited because that's where they sold Sarah Jessica Parker's line of clothes. Apparently, nothing in her line is over $25, and nothing in the store seemed to be over $8.98. I ended up getting way too much stuff [two basic tees for Andrew, a button up top for Andrew, a sweatshirt for Andrew, and two sweatshirts for myself]. The total was less than $55, so I think I did okay getting all that stuff. I just needed to worry about getting it all into my one backpack and my one purse, that were full to the brim already.

What was I thinking?!

So, we went back to the car and went to the park so that A.) the kid could play for a while, B.) I could change into my "flight to Seattle" outfit that made more room in my bags, and C.) I could pack all my new stuff away and be ready to go. So, I changed into my flight outfit [jeans, two layered grey tanks, one of my new sweatshirts tied around my waist in the hot weather, my fake Coach sunglasses, and my artsy-fartsy hat, with my scarf in my purse in case it got cold enough. Tell me that's not cliche "Seattle" with my hemp and leather bracelets going up each wrist?], and sat in the shade on a picnic table bench with Ashley, and watched her friend and the kid play for a while.

While he was playing on the toys, this mother was sitting under a tree on her cell phone with her young son [about a year or so old] laying next to her in a cute little orange outfit and her daughter [maybe three and a half?] playing on the playground. She was running all over the place and ended up running off the playground and hiding behind a tree. Did her mother know where she was? No. She wasn't even paying attention. At one point she looked up at the playground and stared at the "big toy"--or whatever people call it these days--and waited for her kid to show up. The kid ended up running back to the little gravely-pit and the mom saw her again, not freaking out because she was out of sight for some time or that she could have A.) gotten kidnapped, B.) ran away down the hill into the woods/creek/whatever was down at the bottom of the hill, or C.) ____________ [you fill in the blank].

After sitting and watching the kid play for about 45 minutes [if I'm not mistaken, the longest time we stayed at one place and did anything while I was in California, minus the time we got away from the kid] until we headed to the airport. I got out of the car, said my "thank you" and "good-bye"s and went through to security. Once again, my manicure scissors got through in my purse. Guess it's safe to say I'm a terrorist.

I then went to Starbucks [ugh], got a blended chai, a water bottle, a sandwich, and a salad [my eyes were WAY bigger than my stomach]. I then went to the little miscellaneous shop, got a book by some guy and Jennifer Crusie [whom I LOVE], a Cosmopolitan magazine, and a pen [to draw all over the models with]. I ate the salad, drank the chai, and read my book until the plane got there. We were supposed to be boarded and taking off at 4:55pm.

The plane didn't arrive until 5:10.

So I was that much later getting home to Seattle, home to the rain, home to the clouds, home to my dogs, and home to the love of my life. We get on the plane and I get a window seat toward the back. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. I watch the ground basically the entire time we take off, fly, and land again in Oakland, California. I figured there wouldn't be many people getting off the plane, but I was one of only six passengers staying on the whole flight. So, when everyone got off and the flight attendants counted us and made sure we were really going to Seattle, I moved up to the front of the plane.

That made me that much closer to getting off the plane and into Andrew's arms.

So the plane boarded and there were grouchy passengers who were upset at the delayed plane. No worries though, the plane had to delay even more because they had to change one of the tires. Instead of being happy that they were being so cautious about something so serious, everyone [including me] was upset at leaving so late. We were supposed to arrive in Seattle at 8:50pm.

...We didn't take off until 7:45.

Lovely, isn't it? Before we take off, the flight attendants made sure that our carry-on items were locked in the overhead bins and that our purses and other belongings were underneath the seat in front of us. So, my purse and bag with the magazine and my book inside were under the seat in front of me when we took off. I'm not sure why, but this angle taking off was much steeper than before, and my phone flew out of my purse, under my seat, and under the seat behind me. After a bit of being in the air, I realized this and asked the people behind me if they could see it. The woman wiggled her feet and said, "No, it's not here." She didn't even look down.

If someone asked me ANYTHING, I would be more than willing to help them out. Come ON people!

So this flight didn't land in Seattle until 9:55, over an HOUR later than expected. I couldn't call Andrew right when we landed to have him head on over because my phone was not in my possession. I had to wait for half of the plane to get off before I had the opportunity to go back a row and grab my phone, clearly under the woman's seat, and turn it on.

Which takes forever because my phone is a piece of crap. It's great for listening to music, playing games [Sudoku is amazing by the way], and basic stuff, but here's my little list as to why my phone [the Nokia 6263] sucks:

A.) It resets all of the tones, wallpaper, and settings on its own at random times;

B.) When I text or write myself little notes [a.k.a. blogs], it can't keep up with my "typing" because t9 sucks and instead of the word "one," it uses the word "Moe" because I stored it in there right when I got it, and the word "he" is ALWAYS the word "if" and "go" is always "in" and "me" is always "of." I've gotten used to typing 43* to get the word "he" because the * makes it go from "if" to "he," but if I type the word "he" enough, it figures that when I type 43, I mean to type "he." So when it figures that out at a random and unpredictable time, I'll still hit 43* and end up with "if" instead of "he";

C.) When I'm using Windows Live Messenger on it and am in the middle of typing a message to someone [for example, I was typing back and forth to Sam the night we were watching Speed], it'll say "Windows Live Messenger is going into background mode. You can access it again by re-opening the program." I then have to re-open up my IM section, click on Windows Messenger Live, find my conversation [with Sam], open it, and RE-TYPE whatever message I was in the middle of typing. I looked through all the settings in my phone and for instant messaging and nothing had a thing about "background mode";

D.) When I'm typing a note [blog] and am going so fast that instead of hitting 3, I hit the "End" button, it doesn't ask me if I want to save the note, like it does with texts. So, no matter how long the note is [sometimes it is absolutely huge, 2,000+ characters--average four letters per word, considering that I use "the" and "it" and "he" and "me" and "of" and "if" and "a" and all those shorties that make the longer words average to about four letters is 500 words--it will just delete it with no question. And believe me, that gets super annoying.

E.) If I turn my phone off [which everyone should do every once in a while, like a computer] and turn it back on whenever I decide to, I can't call anyone or text anyone for about five or six minutes, until it is FULLY loaded. My computer doesn't even take one minute to start up. And when it is fully loaded, I STILL can't call people from my speed-dial because "it hasn't loaded yet." AND when it's fully loaded, I can't text anyone for another three or four minutes because apparently, "Message Memory is not ready." You'd think this means that there are too many messages in the inbox, sent box, draft folder, etc. So, if you go to delete anything, it'll fix it, right? Wrong. It says the same dang thing when you go to delete anything. You can't open any messages, create any messages, or delete any messages until it decides it's good and ready.

How is this an upgrade from my Samsung t629, which everyone seems to have right now? I don't think it is. I am desperate for a QWERTY phone and need to find out when my upgrade is. Maybe I'll do that when I'm done here.

So anyway, after I get my phone and call Andrew, I wait for him to get me. When you haven't seen the love of your life for 96 hours [well, 97.5 thanks to the delay], you'd think you'd be all smiles and kisses, right? I guess I didn't get that memo and after CHUCKING my bags into the backseat and getting in the passenger front seat, I gave him an enormous hug and started bawling.

I suppose I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up and expecting a "California vacation with no agenda" to mean anything but a "California vacation with NO agenda." It was a frustrating trip where I felt like a selfish bitch and wasn't expressing my gratitude at all.

Being home again is an amazing feeling. Being with Andrew again is an amazing feeling. Sleeping in a king-size Beautyrest after sleeping on an air mattress and a lopsided couch is an amazing feeling. And being able to blog with a spacebar, like I mentioned earlier, is an amazing feeling.