worst day of travel ever

7.00 am wake up and finish packing
7:30 am finish cleaning apartment
8:00 am type up random notes for Jason my dog guy
8.15 am take cali to the dog park
9.00 am head to the Oakley headquarters to exchange purse
9.30 am head to Trader Joe’s to buy dog treats and edamame to take home (frozen)
10.00 am arrive home and eat breakfast of champions, captain crunch peanut butter balls. love it. not good for you but so good.
10.30 am watch some tivo-ed episodes of grey’s anatomy and oprah.
12.15 pm walk cali around the apartment complex one last time
12.30 pm start driving to the Apple store where i am leaving my jeep in the hands of vince who has been claiming he’s going off roading while in possesion of my jeep.
1.05 pm arrive at the Apple store and hand car keys to vince, and leave apartment keys for jason with random dog toy i found in the jeep.
1.20 pm the cab arrives
1.20-1.40 pm most uncomfortable cab ride ever. not a single word spoken, the cab smelled like old sushi and apparently the driver had something against using the a.c.
1.40 pm check my bags and head to my gate
2.30 pm southwest staff member makes an announcement involving every airport east of las vegas saying there is ‘bad weather’ and flights may be delayed or cancelled and they won’t be serving drinks during this flight because of the expected turbulence. not a good sign.
2.35 pm board flight from orange county to las vegas
3.05-4.00pm sat next to a very large man who decided that the most comfortable way for him to sit is for his legs to be spread as wide as possible and his arms to be as far over to the sides as possible. he was not my favorite person.
4.00 pm landed in las vegas and noticed some dark clouds rolling in from the west.
4.10 pm arrive at gate C23 and stood in line.
4.15 pm my plane arrives and everyone de-planes and then the loud speaker came on “there is a mechanical issue we need to have checked.” (at this point, you should see where this is going)
4.35 pm as i’m standing in line, next to the tv that only plays the news, i notice that there is a ‘breaking news story’ regarding the las vegas airport. oh good heavens. more about this later, and oh by the way, it was a shooting.
5.00 pm (when my flight was supposed to be leaving) they announce they aren’t able to fix the plane where it is, they are pulling it away to a hanger to be able to fix it. really not good.
5.00-8.30 pm random messages coming over the PA system saying they were checking the brakes and changing the tires. are you kidding me? in the mean time, i have been on the phone with my mom and sister to figure out a better way for me to get home. initially my mom was going to pick me up but as time went on, it became more and more unrealistic. she has to work at 8am and boarding the plane at 8.30 my time meant i would arrive in chicago around 2.30 am, then we would drive two hours. not good. rental cars, no. flight from chicago to south bend, no. train, no. bus, son of a gun. to bad they stop running around 11pm and don’t start again until 7am. this is an issue.
8.35 pm (this is the time my flight should be landing in chicago) we start boarding the plane. we start boarding as a huge thunderstorm, lightening and all, surrounds the airport.
8.35- 11.35 pm (2.35 chicago time) uneventful flight, and by the way, the brakes worked so thats always good. the flight attendant was trying to tell me a story about how God killed someone's cow and when he asked why, God said, ‘it could have been worse, i was going to kill your wife.’ maybe i just haven’t heard that one but it freaked me out.
2.35 am arrive in chicago to a dead airport
3.45 am (current time) i’m sitting here typing about my travels in a corner of the baggage claim level hoping not to fall asleep and awake to all my bags being gone. has anyone seen ‘adventures in baby-sitting?’ i feel like i’m that girl who ran away and was stuck in the bus station but i’m not trying to buy a hot dog with a check and i’m not petting a rat. but i’m not far off.

so, here i sit, watching movies on my laptop and debating whether or not i should sleep. i’m hurtin. but here i sit. i’m bored and i want to sleep. AND by taking the bus in the morning, i won’t actually get home until around noon. odd how a two hour trip takes 4 when it’s on a bus, it kills me but, there you go.

so, about the shooting. apparently someone kidnapped their own child and drove to the airport. something happened where he shot a cop and they shot him back. who knows.

i think i’m going to sleep. i hope i don’t get robbed :)

weekend recap

friday night i went out with my friend tobi who i work with, to a concert in long beach. our friend brian from work was playing at a place called alex's bar. it was a lot of fun. i spent most of my time with a guy named rich who also works for apple but in a different store. he's hysterical. very entertaining. tobi found the object of her affection early on so we hung out there until around 1ish and then headed home. it was a really fun night. however, it was kicked off by a guy at the bar offering to buy me a drink and making a rose out of a napkin. yowza.

saturday i worked from 1 until 10. that's a rough shift.

sunday i spent the day at my friend brandons grandparents house. my friend brandon left for iraq again on sunday so there was a going away lunch for him. so we hung out there for a while. i got to spend time with their family. i know brandon from one of my best friends, kat. he is her cousin. so, i know their family fairly well. it was such a relaxing day to go, and sit outside and eat together. i had a lot of fun.

after i left there, i headed to my aunt illenes house. it had been a while since i had been there so it was good to see her and catch up. she always has a ton of funny stories about my grandfather. like the time where my aunt came home late so my grandpa locked the back door so she would have to go through the front door and as shes going through the front door she notices that he tied pots and pans to the other side of the door so it made a ton of noise. she told me a couple like that and said, it's amazing that he lived. pretty funny.

so that was my day off. and then i worked today noon to 9pm. not a fun shift.

i leave for home a week from tomorrow. i'm excited but worried about finding someone to watch my dog.

i go home the 27th and then i'll leave the 30th to go to wisconsin, then i'll go back to granger on the 4th, then fly back on the 7th. it should be fun. i have a ton of people i want to see so we'll see how i fit them all in.

it'll be good though.
k

i went to lunch today with a group of guys from work. so much fun! i haven't laughed that hard in a very long time. someone decided that we should go to panda express which is probably 7 miles from work. it was a very rushed lunch but well worth it. the best part were the people i got to go with. (this comes into play later) one guy is korean, one is japanese, one is filipino, and one is italian. i tend to be referred to as the american or occasionally the dutch. what's so funny is that no one uses names, they'll call each other by country which is very entertaining. at one point during the duration of the commute, our lunch was referred to as the "united nations lunch." very laughable. i loved it. lunch like this makes the day go so much quicker.

so great.

too bad one of my friends is leaving me. he's leaving to teach. teach. ha. who needs it?! actually, he's going to be great at it, i'm really excited for him but i'm going to have to start auditioning for a new lunch friend. it's not going to be the same. i'm going to miss him, work won't be the same. those kids better be greatful! :)

one of my best friends from high school graduated today and turned 24. i'm so proud of her, here are some shots of graduation and friends and the fam. oh by the way, this gorgeous girl graduated magna cum laude. pretty impressive.

for more graduation pictures go to web.mac.com/k_holt and click on mer or click here.

i bought my plane tickets today to go home! woo hoo! i'll be home from june 28th through july 7th. i'm so excited...now i just have to find someone who wants to watch my dog.

just my crazy dog.

sprinkler dog