Okay, so these is a large lady sitting next to me on the plane. I'd guess her to be about 280-300 pounds depending on her muscle content. No matter her weight, she was large enough that she did not have the arm rest down when I first got to my seat. I didn't know if she didn't have it down because it wouldn't have been comfortable for her or if she just didn't know it was there. (She definitely wasn't Delta savvy, as I later found out, so it's hard to make a guess on how flight savvy she was.) I was concerned that the arm rest wasn't down because it wouldn't be comfortable for her as she was already spilling over onto my seat, so I just left it up. Ordinarily I would have put it down, but I figured I would be nice in this case and let her decide. After I settle in (get my book out and put my backpack under the seat in front of me) I offer her some gum. (I find it helps my ears adjust during take-off and landing) She accepts and we just wait for the take-off. She makes no motion to put the arm rest down.
Each seat has its own video display on the back of the headrest, so I begin to fiddle with it a little bit after the safety video and take-off. It was sort've hard to navigate at first since I'd never used one before, but I'm usually pretty good about figuring things out. My neighbor's husband (presumably) is telling her how she can turn on the reading light if she needs it by touching a button on the display and then touching the reading light button. She finally gets it and the light goes on... I'm used to this, planes usually have your reading light above the other person, but angled so that it shines down on you... only thing is with our row some wires seem to have gotten crossed because the light above me didn't go on, the light above her went on and shined down on me! She turns it off and tries it again, same thing. I tried my light button and sure enough, the light above my head turns on and shines down on her. Okay, mental note: Wait until you're above the clouds to read your book, because you'd have to ask your neighbor to turn on the light if you want to read otherwise. (I may have made a joke to her about that or said something along the lines of, let me know if you want to read something.) For some reason, she tries the light for a 3rd time... okay lady, clearly it's not going to work as it should, just give it up.
I started fiddling with the touch screen, saw that I'd have to pay for the movies or HBO series, decided against those. I saw there was some satellite TV, but I didn't have my headphones out yet so I couldn't hear anything. The lady sitting next to me didn't have any headphones either, but that didn't stop her from watching CNN. When we got to cruising altitude, I reached down and got out my iPod and headphones, I had planned to just listen to music and read, but I thought I'd try and see if maybe there was something good on the TV first. I plugged my headphones into the armrest (I was in a window seat, so mine plugged into the one between me and the window, not the arm rest that was still up.) and flipped through the TV channels. There wasn't much I felt like watching, so I decided to check out the radio stations... I couldn't get any of those to work, there was just NO sound. I fiddled with the volume even though I could hear the TV fine, but just couldn't get the radio to work. At this point it was like the airplane knew how to calm me down. I think it was trying to say, chill... your suitcase is fine, the lady next to you is nice, and you don't really want to listen to the radio... just try to relax, there's nothing you can do about it now anyway. You see, I didn't get a chance to update my iTunes and iPod for the trip and I was curious about Miley Cyrus' album. The airplane had tons of CDs to listen to and Miley's CD was one of them to choose from! YAY! I got to listen to it without having to buy it, so it was my saving grace. And Halo by Beyonce helped calm me down.
Most of the rest of the flight was uneventful, except 2 things stand out in my mind. First, the lady next to me bought headphones from the stewardess, but then couldn't figure out where to plug them in at, so I told her they were on the arm rest that was up. I wasn't sure if she was still going to leave the arm rest up and just plug them in there, or if she was going to lower it to put her headphones in. She lowered it about halfway, plugged them in and then went back to the screen... I was shocked! This was really not comfortable! Finally when she settled on something to watch, she lowered the arm rest all the way *whew*... unfortunately this sort've squeezed her in the seat a little more, so her thigh kind've billowed out towards me and I needed to squeeze a little more towards the window so I wouldn't feel like I was sitting on her.
The second thing that stands out towards me is that we were totally skipped from the steward when they came around to see if anyone wanted anything to drink. This was the second time they passed through, since it was a long flight. I had an empty cup and a half filled cup of water. She had an empty cup. I don't know what the people in the row next to us had, but our whole row was completely skipped. They asked the people in front of us and the people behind us, but not us. The lady turns to me and says, what's wrong with us? Why skip us?! I had no idea what to say to her, I was just as dumbfounded. Her husband ended up getting up and asking the steward for 2 ginger ales (one for her and one for me... how nice!). I thanked them both. When the steward came with our drinks he claims that he saw our cups and thought we had drinks... umm... too bad the empty cups had TRASH IN THEM, so they are CLEARLY drink-less! Granted, I had some water in a cup on my tray, my neighbor didn't! Anyways, it was a harmless mistake that got rectified, so no harm there. The rest of the flight was fine, listening to music, sometimes watching TV, and generally just being squished up against the window. :)
Then, we landed in Atlanta. It was easy enough to look up and see I needed to go to terminal D (can't remember if they call them terminals there of if there is another name for them at the Atlanta airport), so I followed the crowd downstairs to the tram and got off at D, made my way back upstairs and headed to my gate... which happened to be the furthest one... of course! Oh! I didn't mention that I stopped to pee after I got off the flight. I bring this up because the Atlanta airport is SOOOO CLEAN!! It was amazing. Like seriously, you could totally eat in the bathroom and not be grossed out... well... except for just knowing that you're eating in a bathroom... but it's the cleanest public restroom I've ever been in. Seriously in the airport there were people cleaning up everywhere. It's like, oh, someone threw something in the trash bin, time to change the bag! Okay, maybe not that fast, but still very clean. So, I make it down to my gate and don't see my flight listed, so I go to the screens and see they've changed my gate, to one I've already walked by... of course! I make my way to the new gate and go sit down when some people get up to board the flight before mine. That's when I meet a sweet old lady!
She was so nice and very chatty I might add. She was heading to Texas from North Carolina for her... get this... her 55TH HIGH SCHOOL REUNION!!!! So, I'm not kidding when I say "old lady." She said that last she heard, 300 people had RSVP'd.
...to be continued...
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
I ALMOST hate Delta, but they didn't completely fail me... yet...
I'm in Georgia!! It's like... way late here and I thought I would be tired since I woke up at 4:15am (after going to bed at midnight) pacific time, but no... still not tired. Boo!
I got to SFO at 5am. My flight was scheduled to take off at 6am. No problem, right? WRONG! I got out of the car and as I was walking towards the Delta signs there was a sign outside that said for all Delta flights if you're flying to or THRU one of the following cities, you check in here (meaning the outside kiosk). Atlanta was listed as one of the cities, and the line looked shorter than the one I saw inside, so I was like "score!" and I stood in line. 5-10 minutes later I'm at the kiosk and the man tells me "Oh, it's not letting me check you in here, you have to go inside." I reply back, "but your sign says that if you're flying through Atlanta then I need to check in here." The man then tells me "yeah, but the machine says I cannot do it. You need to go inside." So I am a little peeved, because it was cold and I thought I was getting a good deal by standing outside and following Delta's signs, but turns out I just wasted time and now have to go inside. I tell the man, "then you should really change your sign because it says to check in here and now you're telling me I can't!" (I was also tired... hello... 4 hours of sleep!)
So, I go inside and I walk the line to find the end and I finally get to what I think is the end of the line... it is! Someone keeps calling more people forward to check in and people are looking happy as they leave. :) Good! Success! .. or so I thought... I get to the front and turns out it's those self-check-in things. No problem. Southwest has these (BTW: I LOVE SOUTHWEST), I've used them, no problem.... again... I was wrong. The machine won't let me check my bag, it tells me something is wrong and I have to see an attendant. WTF? I JUST SAW AN ATTENDANT AND HE TOLD ME TO COME TO YOU STUPID MACHINE! *breathe* calm down... so I call for a guy behind the counter (who presumably are there to help). A girl behind the counter starts talking to me and calling me Jackie and I'm trying to interrupt her and tell her that I'm not Jackie and that I need help nonetheless and she is just rambling on and finally I have to speak over her and say "I'm NOT Jackie. I'm not whoever you think I am." The lady replies, "well, where is Jackie?" to which I say, "I don't know. I don't know who that is, but my machine won't let me check in, can you help me?" ... she has no response and she just walks away. B*tch. Another guy walks by and I just say "what does it mean when it says" and the man stops, looks at the screen and says, oh, you can't check in here, you have to go to that line (and he points to a line behind me... which is clearly labeled International Flights) and I'm like "that line?!" and he goes "no, go stand behind the man in brown"... and that's when I notice there is a smaller line right next to the International Line... I saw this line when I first came after the kiosk guy told me to. I thought it was part of International... I was wrong.
It was the line to go to the Domestics counter... the line that I THOUGHT I went in and instead got to the electronics counter... the only problem is... I have wasted 15 minutes standing in line and trying to deal with this stupid ELECTRONIC thingy and the man in the brown suit HASN'T MOVED since I've been inside!!! It is now like... 5:25. I am still comfortable knowing that I will not miss my flight, but I am FREAKING OUT that they will not take my bag because online it said you had to have your bag checked in 30 minutes before departure for Delta to guarantee it will make it on your flight. So, I go and stand behind the man in brown and start praying. Well... not "praying" per say, more like that "OH GOD PLEASE HELP ME" plead that people get in dire situations... which I guess is like prayer, but with less "thank yous" and more "I promise to never do this and such if you just help me!"
I am standing there for MAYBE 1 minute when an attendant who reminds me of Martin Shorts character in Father of the Bride (where he's like kind've "foreign" but also kind've metro or gay or something) comes up and is asking people when their flight is. I say mine is 6am and he looks at me and goes, "Do you have a boarding pass?" and I said "Yes, but I need to check my bag." He says "Oh no, you can use the electronic check in, it'll be faster, the counter is too long" to which I reply, "I just tried that, it didn't work and the guy back there said to stand in this line." The man (who I will now call Roy because I later find out that is his name) says "Give me your boarding pass. Electronic will work." (I stay in line behind the brown coat man just in case because if Roy is wrong, I don't want to lose my place) I keep a close eye on Roy with my boarding pass and he is trying to work the electronic thing but keeps getting interrupted by people around him (for example the electronic machine next to him didn't print out a boarding pass for the guy using it... see... their technology sucks). I'm watching Roy and it messes up just as it did for me. He turns to me and says "That's NOT a special bag!" and I say "I know! I told the machine it wasn't!"
**okay, please note here... a special bag is something that is heavier, larger, funny shaped, etc than your typical checked bag. I had checked in online the day before and told the computer that I had to check 1 bag and had 0 special bags. I KNOW I said "NO" to the special bag area... but when I looked at the confirmation online it said: 1 checked special bag. I could not go back and edit this online even though I tried.**
Roy finally LIES to the machine. He tells the machine that I'm checking in with 0 bags total. 0 checked and 0 special. The machine is happy and continues on. Then Roy re-checks me in and says I have 1 non-special bag and the machine is like "Oh Roy. You are so nice. I am going to do whatever you want because I believe you. I don't believe that brunette over there with the angry eyes." As I'm watching Roy do his thing, I start to walk over to him because I see the machine asking for a credit card to pay the bag fee. Roy starts yelling, "Ma'am! Ma'am! Where are you, I got it to..." and I'm like "I'm right here. I see that. Thank you SOOOO MUCH!!" and I smile real big and I think about hugging him because THANK THE GOOD LOVING LORD FOR MAKING ROY! He walks off to help someone else and I take my credit card out and put it in the slot and a receipt prints out and I wait for someone behind the counter to come by with one of those long white sticker things that they put on your bag, because that's what I've been watching them do for some time now whenever someone is done paying. So I wait, at this point it's like 5:28. I have "checked" my bag and I have a receipt for payment BEFORE the 5:30 cut off and I am no longer freaking out, although I am still plenty mad that they made me freak out. I think that I am home free... but... oh... what is this you say? Hammy is not lucky enough to be "home free" and Hammy should have handcuffed herself to Roy because the machine CLEARLY like him more than me??? ARGH!!!
The machine tells me again "please insert credit card for payment" and I'm like ?????? but I refuse. I think "NO machine! I will NOT insert my credit card, I have already put it away because you gave me a receipt."... but then I think, what if even though it charged me, it just didn't get all the verification it needed or something... I start to rationalize why the machine might want to see my card again, so I swipe it again. No receipt and the machine mocks me "please insert credit card for payment." Umm... at this point I just want my damn bag GONE, so I put in another credit card and STILL nothing!! So I flag ANOTHER man down and say, umm... I have a receipt but no one has taken my bag, my flight is at 6! and the man says, "oh, hmm.. nothing printed out. Umm... let's call Roy over. ROY! HEY ROY!" Roy doesn't hear him because he's helping other people, (what a busy man Roy is) so the man behind the counter tells me "ask that attendant for him" and he wanders off to help someone else with their bags. So I yell "excuse me sir!" and Roy looks up and says "I'll be right with you ma'am." He finishes whatever he's doing (helping some lady in a wheelchair get in line or something) and walks over and I tell him that the man behind the counter said nothing printed out for the bag, but I paid and have a receipt. The man behind the counter walks up and verifies that nothing printed out. Roy takes my boarding pass AGAIN, scans it and the electronic machine tells Roy IT IS TOO LATE TO CHECK BAGS FOR THIS FLIGHT! Roy says "oh, you're late. you can't check your bag now." and I pretty much verbally STOMP that idea to the ground. I FIRMLY and AGITATEDLY state "NO! I was NOT late! I have been trying to check this bag for 30 minutes. I've been told to stand in 3 different lines. I even have a RECEIPT from the machine saying I paid to check the bag already, but the machine didn't print anything out to put on my bag!" I mean come on Roy... you've already helped me... you KNOW that I'm not late. Are you so busy that you can't remember the brunette who sassed you earlier when she didn't believe that the electronic machine would work for you because it didn't work for her? Anyway... Roy either pitied me or feared me, but either way, he jumped behind the counter and said "I'll take care of this."
Then, this next part, took seriously like 1 minute... 1 minute.... that was ALL it took for him to put some yellow tag on my bag, ask me where I was going ("Valdosta, Georgia"), staple some yellow strip of paper to my boarding pass and tell me "You flight has already boarded. Go to the lady at the security check point. Don't stand in line, just go to the lady" I thought "SWEET! I can jump the line" for a moment, but quickly realized that I'd been fooled before by Delta, not just 10 minutes ago, so I said "thank you" and high tailed it around the corner to security. There was a lady standing at the beginning of the security line, so I stopped at her, waved my boarding pass and yellow stripe at her. She asked me "what time is your flight at?" "6" I reply. She tells me to go to the line all the way to the left. There are maybe 4 people in that line where there at at least 10 in all the others, so I'm feeling a little more at ease... that's when I realize that I didn't actually see what Roy put on my bag... omg!? I told him I was going to Valdosta, he saw my boarding passes, did he mark my bag for Valdosta?? Or just for Atlanta?? OMG! I am NOT paying another $20 in Atlanta to have them take my bags to Valdosta! I don't want to have to go through security AGAIN after I get my bag in Atlanta. I am NOT going down to baggage claim in Atlanta! If my bag is not there in Valdosta, then I will just file a missing bag claim and yell at Delta and curse them to high heaven for this crappy morning! The man checks my ID and boarding pass at the end of the line and I bee line for the shortest security scanner line. I breeze through it (however easily you can breeze through those when you need to remove your shoes, jacket, and take your laptop out and your liquids!) and luckily my departure gate is 2 gates away from security. So I make it with PLENTY of time to board.
I am feeling anxious about my bag, but happy to be on the plane. I walk back to my seat and see who my seatmate is and ... omg... she's big! I mean she wasn't like 400 lbs huge as a house, but she was big. Way bigger than me!
... okay, this will have to continue another day... it's way late and I really should sleep... until next time, where you hear about my seatmate and the nice, old, chatty lady in Atlanta who is going to her 55th high school reunion.
Oh, and the time stamp below is Pacific Time... so it's really 3:06 Eastern time.
I got to SFO at 5am. My flight was scheduled to take off at 6am. No problem, right? WRONG! I got out of the car and as I was walking towards the Delta signs there was a sign outside that said for all Delta flights if you're flying to or THRU one of the following cities, you check in here (meaning the outside kiosk). Atlanta was listed as one of the cities, and the line looked shorter than the one I saw inside, so I was like "score!" and I stood in line. 5-10 minutes later I'm at the kiosk and the man tells me "Oh, it's not letting me check you in here, you have to go inside." I reply back, "but your sign says that if you're flying through Atlanta then I need to check in here." The man then tells me "yeah, but the machine says I cannot do it. You need to go inside." So I am a little peeved, because it was cold and I thought I was getting a good deal by standing outside and following Delta's signs, but turns out I just wasted time and now have to go inside. I tell the man, "then you should really change your sign because it says to check in here and now you're telling me I can't!" (I was also tired... hello... 4 hours of sleep!)
So, I go inside and I walk the line to find the end and I finally get to what I think is the end of the line... it is! Someone keeps calling more people forward to check in and people are looking happy as they leave. :) Good! Success! .. or so I thought... I get to the front and turns out it's those self-check-in things. No problem. Southwest has these (BTW: I LOVE SOUTHWEST), I've used them, no problem.... again... I was wrong. The machine won't let me check my bag, it tells me something is wrong and I have to see an attendant. WTF? I JUST SAW AN ATTENDANT AND HE TOLD ME TO COME TO YOU STUPID MACHINE! *breathe* calm down... so I call for a guy behind the counter (who presumably are there to help). A girl behind the counter starts talking to me and calling me Jackie and I'm trying to interrupt her and tell her that I'm not Jackie and that I need help nonetheless and she is just rambling on and finally I have to speak over her and say "I'm NOT Jackie. I'm not whoever you think I am." The lady replies, "well, where is Jackie?" to which I say, "I don't know. I don't know who that is, but my machine won't let me check in, can you help me?" ... she has no response and she just walks away. B*tch. Another guy walks by and I just say "what does it mean when it says
It was the line to go to the Domestics counter... the line that I THOUGHT I went in and instead got to the electronics counter... the only problem is... I have wasted 15 minutes standing in line and trying to deal with this stupid ELECTRONIC thingy and the man in the brown suit HASN'T MOVED since I've been inside!!! It is now like... 5:25. I am still comfortable knowing that I will not miss my flight, but I am FREAKING OUT that they will not take my bag because online it said you had to have your bag checked in 30 minutes before departure for Delta to guarantee it will make it on your flight. So, I go and stand behind the man in brown and start praying. Well... not "praying" per say, more like that "OH GOD PLEASE HELP ME" plead that people get in dire situations... which I guess is like prayer, but with less "thank yous" and more "I promise to never do this and such if you just help me!"
I am standing there for MAYBE 1 minute when an attendant who reminds me of Martin Shorts character in Father of the Bride (where he's like kind've "foreign" but also kind've metro or gay or something) comes up and is asking people when their flight is. I say mine is 6am and he looks at me and goes, "Do you have a boarding pass?" and I said "Yes, but I need to check my bag." He says "Oh no, you can use the electronic check in, it'll be faster, the counter is too long" to which I reply, "I just tried that, it didn't work and the guy back there said to stand in this line." The man (who I will now call Roy because I later find out that is his name) says "Give me your boarding pass. Electronic will work." (I stay in line behind the brown coat man just in case because if Roy is wrong, I don't want to lose my place) I keep a close eye on Roy with my boarding pass and he is trying to work the electronic thing but keeps getting interrupted by people around him (for example the electronic machine next to him didn't print out a boarding pass for the guy using it... see... their technology sucks). I'm watching Roy and it messes up just as it did for me. He turns to me and says "That's NOT a special bag!" and I say "I know! I told the machine it wasn't!"
**okay, please note here... a special bag is something that is heavier, larger, funny shaped, etc than your typical checked bag. I had checked in online the day before and told the computer that I had to check 1 bag and had 0 special bags. I KNOW I said "NO" to the special bag area... but when I looked at the confirmation online it said: 1 checked special bag. I could not go back and edit this online even though I tried.**
Roy finally LIES to the machine. He tells the machine that I'm checking in with 0 bags total. 0 checked and 0 special. The machine is happy and continues on. Then Roy re-checks me in and says I have 1 non-special bag and the machine is like "Oh Roy. You are so nice. I am going to do whatever you want because I believe you. I don't believe that brunette over there with the angry eyes." As I'm watching Roy do his thing, I start to walk over to him because I see the machine asking for a credit card to pay the bag fee. Roy starts yelling, "Ma'am! Ma'am! Where are you, I got it to..." and I'm like "I'm right here. I see that. Thank you SOOOO MUCH!!" and I smile real big and I think about hugging him because THANK THE GOOD LOVING LORD FOR MAKING ROY! He walks off to help someone else and I take my credit card out and put it in the slot and a receipt prints out and I wait for someone behind the counter to come by with one of those long white sticker things that they put on your bag, because that's what I've been watching them do for some time now whenever someone is done paying. So I wait, at this point it's like 5:28. I have "checked" my bag and I have a receipt for payment BEFORE the 5:30 cut off and I am no longer freaking out, although I am still plenty mad that they made me freak out. I think that I am home free... but... oh... what is this you say? Hammy is not lucky enough to be "home free" and Hammy should have handcuffed herself to Roy because the machine CLEARLY like him more than me??? ARGH!!!
The machine tells me again "please insert credit card for payment" and I'm like ?????? but I refuse. I think "NO machine! I will NOT insert my credit card, I have already put it away because you gave me a receipt."... but then I think, what if even though it charged me, it just didn't get all the verification it needed or something... I start to rationalize why the machine might want to see my card again, so I swipe it again. No receipt and the machine mocks me "please insert credit card for payment." Umm... at this point I just want my damn bag GONE, so I put in another credit card and STILL nothing!! So I flag ANOTHER man down and say, umm... I have a receipt but no one has taken my bag, my flight is at 6! and the man says, "oh, hmm.. nothing printed out. Umm... let's call Roy over. ROY! HEY ROY!" Roy doesn't hear him because he's helping other people, (what a busy man Roy is) so the man behind the counter tells me "ask that attendant for him" and he wanders off to help someone else with their bags. So I yell "excuse me sir!" and Roy looks up and says "I'll be right with you ma'am." He finishes whatever he's doing (helping some lady in a wheelchair get in line or something) and walks over and I tell him that the man behind the counter said nothing printed out for the bag, but I paid and have a receipt. The man behind the counter walks up and verifies that nothing printed out. Roy takes my boarding pass AGAIN, scans it and the electronic machine tells Roy IT IS TOO LATE TO CHECK BAGS FOR THIS FLIGHT! Roy says "oh, you're late. you can't check your bag now." and I pretty much verbally STOMP that idea to the ground. I FIRMLY and AGITATEDLY state "NO! I was NOT late! I have been trying to check this bag for 30 minutes. I've been told to stand in 3 different lines. I even have a RECEIPT from the machine saying I paid to check the bag already, but the machine didn't print anything out to put on my bag!" I mean come on Roy... you've already helped me... you KNOW that I'm not late. Are you so busy that you can't remember the brunette who sassed you earlier when she didn't believe that the electronic machine would work for you because it didn't work for her? Anyway... Roy either pitied me or feared me, but either way, he jumped behind the counter and said "I'll take care of this."
Then, this next part, took seriously like 1 minute... 1 minute.... that was ALL it took for him to put some yellow tag on my bag, ask me where I was going ("Valdosta, Georgia"), staple some yellow strip of paper to my boarding pass and tell me "You flight has already boarded. Go to the lady at the security check point. Don't stand in line, just go to the lady" I thought "SWEET! I can jump the line" for a moment, but quickly realized that I'd been fooled before by Delta, not just 10 minutes ago, so I said "thank you" and high tailed it around the corner to security. There was a lady standing at the beginning of the security line, so I stopped at her, waved my boarding pass and yellow stripe at her. She asked me "what time is your flight at?" "6" I reply. She tells me to go to the line all the way to the left. There are maybe 4 people in that line where there at at least 10 in all the others, so I'm feeling a little more at ease... that's when I realize that I didn't actually see what Roy put on my bag... omg!? I told him I was going to Valdosta, he saw my boarding passes, did he mark my bag for Valdosta?? Or just for Atlanta?? OMG! I am NOT paying another $20 in Atlanta to have them take my bags to Valdosta! I don't want to have to go through security AGAIN after I get my bag in Atlanta. I am NOT going down to baggage claim in Atlanta! If my bag is not there in Valdosta, then I will just file a missing bag claim and yell at Delta and curse them to high heaven for this crappy morning! The man checks my ID and boarding pass at the end of the line and I bee line for the shortest security scanner line. I breeze through it (however easily you can breeze through those when you need to remove your shoes, jacket, and take your laptop out and your liquids!) and luckily my departure gate is 2 gates away from security. So I make it with PLENTY of time to board.
I am feeling anxious about my bag, but happy to be on the plane. I walk back to my seat and see who my seatmate is and ... omg... she's big! I mean she wasn't like 400 lbs huge as a house, but she was big. Way bigger than me!
... okay, this will have to continue another day... it's way late and I really should sleep... until next time, where you hear about my seatmate and the nice, old, chatty lady in Atlanta who is going to her 55th high school reunion.
Oh, and the time stamp below is Pacific Time... so it's really 3:06 Eastern time.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Halloween Week
The Thursday before Halloween, I went with Jennifer to the Pirates of Emerson, The Haunting Fields in Fremont. We had a blast. It was really fun to go with just the 2 of us because we didn't get to "hide" as often from the people trying to scare us. It made it more scary and more fun. What I learned is that if I can find something scary humorous, it becomes way less scary. Case in point: We decided on the next attraction based on the length of the line... meaning there was absolutely no one in line so we decided to go to the main Pirates of Emerson attraction. There was this spooky guy crouching down like Quasimodo or something at the end of a long hallway when we first entered and Jennifer says, "How long have you been there for? There was no one in line. You've been waiting a while haven't you?" (or something to that affect) I couldn't help but laugh and so he became more funny than scary when he scurried off. We caught up to him again later and I still laughed. Also in the Gordello (the haunted Brothel attraction) I told one of the dead hookers that Jennifer called her a slut and she laughed and said that she knows my voice and knew it was me and not her. Then later Jennifer yelled "SLUTS!" at a couple girls and one of them was like "WHORES, honey! We're whores." It was so hilarious!!
Now this is not to say that I wasn't still scared sh*tless in these haunted mazes/houses. I was scared twice by one witchy monster thing in one attraction. I yelled back at her that it wasn't fair for her to scare me once I left the room she was in. Also at the end of the Pirates of Emerson attraction this guy came out of no where and roared or something. I was walking behind Jen and I jumped and may have pushed her a little or something I don't remember, but she turned around, saw the guy and took off running. I TRIED to run away but couldn't!! There was some sort've wavy/moving wooden bridge like thing that I kept tripping on. I screamed from the guy scaring me at first and then I was yelling because Jennifer left me!! and I couldn't escape. I ended up running out of the house like a freak. I swear I probably looked like I was doing one of those tires-on-the-ground exercise thingies with my legs and feet flailing all over the place and not running in a straight line. That darned bridge thing was almost the death of me.
So, as you can see... I had a blast.
Then the next night, Friday, I went with Dawn and Veronica and 5 of their other friends to the Sharks game and then to a bar in San Jose to celebrate Dawn's birthday. The Sharks won (YAY!) and I again... had a blast. Since it was the day before Halloween at this point, there were lots of people in costume at the game. At one point they put someone in a Waldo costume up on the Jumbo-tron and it became like a mission for a couple of us to try to find Waldo in the crowd. Eventually we found him and all had a good laugh. There was this little boy sitting with his family in front of us. I swear his mom was regretting bringing him tot he game after they left. He kept wanting to interact with us and basically was only half paying attention to the game. He gave each one of use high fives and fist bumps and kept asking him mom if he was allowed to have the candy that some of the people were having. He tried to play a form of patty cake with Veronica and at one point we think he might have looked up the skirt of one of Veronica's friends. The kid was like 8 or something.
After the game we went to the Britannia Arms, which is only about 2 or so blocks away from the HP Pavilion. (By the way, I hadn't heard of this place before and when Dawn first mentioned it I was like "who is that?" HAHAHA!) There was this one guy who dressed up as JT's "dick in a box" and I asked him to take a picture with Dawn since he was you know... holding a present... and we were out for Dawn's birthday after all! Anyway, it turns out he had some sort've giant blow up penis in his box and he started to inflate it for the picture. The giant pink blow up thing had huge eyes and a grin at the end of it. We all had a good laugh at that. Once I upload the photo onto my laptop I'll edit the post and add it in.
And finally on Halloween, Jennifer had a Birth-o-ween Party. I made her a Dragon Birthday cake because it was Halloween. Nick had the bright idea to put "Jenzilla" on the side of the cake, so I did that. Her party was a costume party, so I dressed up as.... Victoria from Twilight! I think it turned out pretty good. My hair wasn't quite up to par with her hair, but I did the best I could with what I've got (meaning my thin dark hair). My sister sprayed the color in for me and her and my mom pinned in leaves, which I thought gave it a nice touch. :) As with the Dick in a Box photo, I'll post my Halloween costume photo later.
I was surprised to see Jefferey Sam at the party. I haven't seen him since high school I think. I didn't get to chat with him as much as I would have liked. I was all hyped up on energy from my busy end-of-week and then we played beer pong in the garage so I was getting tipsy. I ended up leaving Jen's around 3 am... which really was more like 4 because we turned the clocks back. I got home, removed my make up, put my orange hair in a high pony tail and went to bed. I was so tired that there was no way I could spend the time to wash all the spray out of my hair at 4am! I decided that my pillowcase was going to take one for the team and I'd just wash it later. :)
I ended up waking up the next day at 4pm! Apparently my body needed rest after all that stuff!
Now this is not to say that I wasn't still scared sh*tless in these haunted mazes/houses. I was scared twice by one witchy monster thing in one attraction. I yelled back at her that it wasn't fair for her to scare me once I left the room she was in. Also at the end of the Pirates of Emerson attraction this guy came out of no where and roared or something. I was walking behind Jen and I jumped and may have pushed her a little or something I don't remember, but she turned around, saw the guy and took off running. I TRIED to run away but couldn't!! There was some sort've wavy/moving wooden bridge like thing that I kept tripping on. I screamed from the guy scaring me at first and then I was yelling because Jennifer left me!! and I couldn't escape. I ended up running out of the house like a freak. I swear I probably looked like I was doing one of those tires-on-the-ground exercise thingies with my legs and feet flailing all over the place and not running in a straight line. That darned bridge thing was almost the death of me.
So, as you can see... I had a blast.
Then the next night, Friday, I went with Dawn and Veronica and 5 of their other friends to the Sharks game and then to a bar in San Jose to celebrate Dawn's birthday. The Sharks won (YAY!) and I again... had a blast. Since it was the day before Halloween at this point, there were lots of people in costume at the game. At one point they put someone in a Waldo costume up on the Jumbo-tron and it became like a mission for a couple of us to try to find Waldo in the crowd. Eventually we found him and all had a good laugh. There was this little boy sitting with his family in front of us. I swear his mom was regretting bringing him tot he game after they left. He kept wanting to interact with us and basically was only half paying attention to the game. He gave each one of use high fives and fist bumps and kept asking him mom if he was allowed to have the candy that some of the people were having. He tried to play a form of patty cake with Veronica and at one point we think he might have looked up the skirt of one of Veronica's friends. The kid was like 8 or something.
After the game we went to the Britannia Arms, which is only about 2 or so blocks away from the HP Pavilion. (By the way, I hadn't heard of this place before and when Dawn first mentioned it I was like "who is that?" HAHAHA!) There was this one guy who dressed up as JT's "dick in a box" and I asked him to take a picture with Dawn since he was you know... holding a present... and we were out for Dawn's birthday after all! Anyway, it turns out he had some sort've giant blow up penis in his box and he started to inflate it for the picture. The giant pink blow up thing had huge eyes and a grin at the end of it. We all had a good laugh at that. Once I upload the photo onto my laptop I'll edit the post and add it in.
And finally on Halloween, Jennifer had a Birth-o-ween Party. I made her a Dragon Birthday cake because it was Halloween. Nick had the bright idea to put "Jenzilla" on the side of the cake, so I did that. Her party was a costume party, so I dressed up as.... Victoria from Twilight! I think it turned out pretty good. My hair wasn't quite up to par with her hair, but I did the best I could with what I've got (meaning my thin dark hair). My sister sprayed the color in for me and her and my mom pinned in leaves, which I thought gave it a nice touch. :) As with the Dick in a Box photo, I'll post my Halloween costume photo later.
I was surprised to see Jefferey Sam at the party. I haven't seen him since high school I think. I didn't get to chat with him as much as I would have liked. I was all hyped up on energy from my busy end-of-week and then we played beer pong in the garage so I was getting tipsy. I ended up leaving Jen's around 3 am... which really was more like 4 because we turned the clocks back. I got home, removed my make up, put my orange hair in a high pony tail and went to bed. I was so tired that there was no way I could spend the time to wash all the spray out of my hair at 4am! I decided that my pillowcase was going to take one for the team and I'd just wash it later. :)
I ended up waking up the next day at 4pm! Apparently my body needed rest after all that stuff!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Eggplant, Costumes, and T-Scores... Oh My!
On Sunday night I made Eggplant Parmesan. It was delicious! Everyone enjoyed it (and by everyone I mean my family and Nick). I didn't end up using Jennifer's recipe, mainly because I didn't want to make the sauce myself, so I used a Martha Stewart recipe. So yummy!!
Well, I just found out another friend of mine is pregnant! (and I'm totally going to talk about it here even though not everyone knows yet, because really... only like 4 people read this blog, and none of them are related) I swear, there is something in the water! haha... I'm happy for the families of these 2 precious fetuses.
I'm going to a Halloween/Birthday Party and am very excited about my new costume. If you recall I went to a Halloween Costume Party/Dinner a few weeks ago at the Fratellanza club and my parents won 2nd place with their Popeye and Olive Oyl costumes!... wait, did I post about that? Let me go check... Oh, hmm... I totally didn't talk about that... well... now you know. I went to a Costume Party/Dinner/Dance thing at an Italian, Members Only Club, with my family a couple weeks ago. I helped plan my parents costumes (re: I told them they were going to be Popeye and Olive Oyl) and I helped plan my sister's costume (re: I told her she was going to be Cruella De Vil). That left little time for the planning of my costume, so I ended up going as Beth Chapman... again. I was Beth last year in SD. I figured since no one from SD will see me, it's cool if I wear the costume again. Well... I didn't really want to do that again. I could have recycled my boxer costume from 2 years ago, but I wanted to do something new, so I decided on a fairly decent and easy costume. I went to JoAnn fabric and craft store today for some material and Party City for some hair color and lastly WalMart for 33¢ knee high panty hose!! (Those were a great find, I'm just going to wear them on my arms, so I didn't want to ruin something expensive... but 33¢ is amazing!) I'll probably post a picture later. I hope it works out. That's the most hint I'll give you. I won't spoil the surprise. :)
Oh, this morning I got my T-Score breakdown in the mail. Remember the POST test I took that I passed. (I know I wrote about that, so just scroll down some if you don't remember... go ahead... I'll wait.... .... ... okay, ready? good.) I got the breakdown of my score, which basically means that instead of just "Pass/No Pass" I got a score. My score is 68.3. (The different categories had scores too, but I"m just posting the overall T-score) I have no idea what that means. I went to the site it told me to go to for more information on interpreting the scores, but it wasn't super helpful. It was helpful in boosting my confidence though because it told me that I am "above average" of other test takers. :) What I think it means is that, of the questions I answered, I only got a few wrong. The test added points for correct answers, deducted points for incorrect answers, and did nothing for no answers.
I haven't heard back yet from the Oral Board Interview, but it was less than a week ago, so that's not surprising. I'll keep you posted (no pun intended).
Well, I just found out another friend of mine is pregnant! (and I'm totally going to talk about it here even though not everyone knows yet, because really... only like 4 people read this blog, and none of them are related) I swear, there is something in the water! haha... I'm happy for the families of these 2 precious fetuses.
I'm going to a Halloween/Birthday Party and am very excited about my new costume. If you recall I went to a Halloween Costume Party/Dinner a few weeks ago at the Fratellanza club and my parents won 2nd place with their Popeye and Olive Oyl costumes!... wait, did I post about that? Let me go check... Oh, hmm... I totally didn't talk about that... well... now you know. I went to a Costume Party/Dinner/Dance thing at an Italian, Members Only Club, with my family a couple weeks ago. I helped plan my parents costumes (re: I told them they were going to be Popeye and Olive Oyl) and I helped plan my sister's costume (re: I told her she was going to be Cruella De Vil). That left little time for the planning of my costume, so I ended up going as Beth Chapman... again. I was Beth last year in SD. I figured since no one from SD will see me, it's cool if I wear the costume again. Well... I didn't really want to do that again. I could have recycled my boxer costume from 2 years ago, but I wanted to do something new, so I decided on a fairly decent and easy costume. I went to JoAnn fabric and craft store today for some material and Party City for some hair color and lastly WalMart for 33¢ knee high panty hose!! (Those were a great find, I'm just going to wear them on my arms, so I didn't want to ruin something expensive... but 33¢ is amazing!) I'll probably post a picture later. I hope it works out. That's the most hint I'll give you. I won't spoil the surprise. :)
Oh, this morning I got my T-Score breakdown in the mail. Remember the POST test I took that I passed. (I know I wrote about that, so just scroll down some if you don't remember... go ahead... I'll wait.... .... ... okay, ready? good.) I got the breakdown of my score, which basically means that instead of just "Pass/No Pass" I got a score. My score is 68.3. (The different categories had scores too, but I"m just posting the overall T-score) I have no idea what that means. I went to the site it told me to go to for more information on interpreting the scores, but it wasn't super helpful. It was helpful in boosting my confidence though because it told me that I am "above average" of other test takers. :) What I think it means is that, of the questions I answered, I only got a few wrong. The test added points for correct answers, deducted points for incorrect answers, and did nothing for no answers.
I haven't heard back yet from the Oral Board Interview, but it was less than a week ago, so that's not surprising. I'll keep you posted (no pun intended).
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Sometimes things get in the way... sometimes, like tonight, they don't!
I wrote the following on a piece of paper Sunday Morning around 5am at my friends' house...
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I've been trying to write a post for a while now, but things get in the way. I dog/house sat for my friends Veronica and Dawn this past weekend. Their dog, Doc, is adorable but somewhat needy. He wants love almost 24/7 and while I'd love to pet him and talk to him a ton, I just can't. I need to sleep and eat too you know! Ha Ha! He's still a puppy so of course he wants attention, but please stop jumping up on me or nibbling on my knee when I ignore your tactics. But I had a good time with him... except the last day.
I feel so bad for the poor guy. He's got a bad case of the runs. I described it in a note to my friends as "It was like he has a water gun strapped to his back filled with dirty water." It was that bad... like projecting and the sound... let's just say it was gross.
How can you possibly discipline a dog for going in the house when you know he couldn't help it... well... you just don't.
I hope he's okay, but also I'm excited to be able to sleep through the night/sleep in tomorrow. =)
I haven't worked out in a while, to be honest, I've been really busy and on the few days I haven't been busy I haven't been able to use the TV or wii as someone else is using it/them. I did a lot of walking the past few days though by walking Doc around a bunch, so that should have made up for at least a tiny bit.
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All in all, I feel like it was a pretty complete blog post for being sleep deprived. I wrote it after I cleaned up poop at 3am and washed off the dog.
I had an interview on Thursday. I feel good about it, so I hope the interviewers felt the same! :) I should know in 1-2 weeks. *crosses fingers*
Oh, and I booked a trip to go to Georgia and visit my friend Charlie. I'm really excited to see him. I haven't see him, or even talked to him in over a year... in WELL over a year... omg... has it been 2 years?? I think it's been like... 1 year and 10 months or something crazy like that. I hope he hasn't forgotten about me. I saw a picture of him in his Halloween costume recently:
ADORABLE isn't he!?!!? I still keep in touch with his parents, Lizzy and Matt, and his grandma, Nancy, but I haven't talked to him in a long long time. Matt posts pictures of him on Facebook every now and then...
HaHa! Yes, I booked a trip to see Lizzy and Matt. It was a good price and when really will I have time in the future? The only thing that could get in the way is if I get the job and have to go in for a psych exam, poly graph test, or medical exam (a job with a police department is very thorough). I am banking on getting the job, but not having to go in for those things until after I get back. :) We'll see I guess.
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I've been trying to write a post for a while now, but things get in the way. I dog/house sat for my friends Veronica and Dawn this past weekend. Their dog, Doc, is adorable but somewhat needy. He wants love almost 24/7 and while I'd love to pet him and talk to him a ton, I just can't. I need to sleep and eat too you know! Ha Ha! He's still a puppy so of course he wants attention, but please stop jumping up on me or nibbling on my knee when I ignore your tactics. But I had a good time with him... except the last day.
I feel so bad for the poor guy. He's got a bad case of the runs. I described it in a note to my friends as "It was like he has a water gun strapped to his back filled with dirty water." It was that bad... like projecting and the sound... let's just say it was gross.
How can you possibly discipline a dog for going in the house when you know he couldn't help it... well... you just don't.
I hope he's okay, but also I'm excited to be able to sleep through the night/sleep in tomorrow. =)
I haven't worked out in a while, to be honest, I've been really busy and on the few days I haven't been busy I haven't been able to use the TV or wii as someone else is using it/them. I did a lot of walking the past few days though by walking Doc around a bunch, so that should have made up for at least a tiny bit.
--------
All in all, I feel like it was a pretty complete blog post for being sleep deprived. I wrote it after I cleaned up poop at 3am and washed off the dog.
I had an interview on Thursday. I feel good about it, so I hope the interviewers felt the same! :) I should know in 1-2 weeks. *crosses fingers*
Oh, and I booked a trip to go to Georgia and visit my friend Charlie. I'm really excited to see him. I haven't see him, or even talked to him in over a year... in WELL over a year... omg... has it been 2 years?? I think it's been like... 1 year and 10 months or something crazy like that. I hope he hasn't forgotten about me. I saw a picture of him in his Halloween costume recently:
ADORABLE isn't he!?!!? I still keep in touch with his parents, Lizzy and Matt, and his grandma, Nancy, but I haven't talked to him in a long long time. Matt posts pictures of him on Facebook every now and then...
HaHa! Yes, I booked a trip to see Lizzy and Matt. It was a good price and when really will I have time in the future? The only thing that could get in the way is if I get the job and have to go in for a psych exam, poly graph test, or medical exam (a job with a police department is very thorough). I am banking on getting the job, but not having to go in for those things until after I get back. :) We'll see I guess.
Friday, October 16, 2009
...I just punched myself in the face...
WTF self? How could you punch me? What did I ever do to you?! I mean yeah, I might try to fill you with crappy, but delicious, food and I might have missed a couple work outs, but you don't have to be so aggressive about it.
So I guess I was really tired tonight. Sleep deprivation likes to creep up on me sometimes. As I was waking up, from a "nap," I wiped the sleepies from my eyes (okay, maybe you don't call them sleepies, but doesn't that sound so much better than something like "eye crust"), stretched, and promptly knocked myself on the jaw.
I either wasn't awake enough to control the function of my arm and just let gravity pull it back down towards the bed (and thus my face), or I'm angry with myself subconsciously and decided to knock some sense into myself. I'm inclined to believe the later. Besides, if it was the former, then I'd have to be mad at gravity for taking part in the abuse and I can't have a grudge against gravity lest it find out and decide to reek even more havoc on me. Can you imagine? I'd be walking along and then WHAM! HELLO GROUND! because gravity got the sudden urge to exert its full potential on me without warning? No thank you!
So I guess I was really tired tonight. Sleep deprivation likes to creep up on me sometimes. As I was waking up, from a "nap," I wiped the sleepies from my eyes (okay, maybe you don't call them sleepies, but doesn't that sound so much better than something like "eye crust"), stretched, and promptly knocked myself on the jaw.
I either wasn't awake enough to control the function of my arm and just let gravity pull it back down towards the bed (and thus my face), or I'm angry with myself subconsciously and decided to knock some sense into myself. I'm inclined to believe the later. Besides, if it was the former, then I'd have to be mad at gravity for taking part in the abuse and I can't have a grudge against gravity lest it find out and decide to reek even more havoc on me. Can you imagine? I'd be walking along and then WHAM! HELLO GROUND! because gravity got the sudden urge to exert its full potential on me without warning? No thank you!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Gahh!! Where have the posts been?
I hoped I would be able to update if not everyday of the 30-day challenge, at least every day I worked out and keep a record of what exercises I did and how they made me feel... well, I failed at that. I've been oddly busy lately. Well, I suppose I didn't have to go to Happy Hour tonight with Jen and Alyssa, but come on, I need some semblence of a life!
I helped my dad build our new side fence. It's not completely done yet, but so far it looks good. :) I'm way proud of my dad! The day we put in the most work, I decided to work out with the Wii Active. I had skipped the day before and I started to fear the trainer would yell at me or be like "where have you been missy?" but luckily it's just a game and she didn't. Still, I felt good working out afterwards.
I hope to find time to work out this weekend, but I'm a little worried I won't. Tomorrow I'm going to bake a cake for Nick's birthday and I have costume dinner party to go to and then on Sunday I'm going to my cousin's girlfriend's baby shower and then out to dinner (if we get back in time) for Nick's birthday. When I write it all out, it doesn't seem like a lot, but each thing takes a long time, so it really is a lot. Ohwell, if I can't work out, I'll just work out more on Monday.
This is seriously the longest that I've still felt motivated to exercise. Like I said before, I might not be doing a lot, but I'm at least doing something and that says a lot for me.
I helped my dad build our new side fence. It's not completely done yet, but so far it looks good. :) I'm way proud of my dad! The day we put in the most work, I decided to work out with the Wii Active. I had skipped the day before and I started to fear the trainer would yell at me or be like "where have you been missy?" but luckily it's just a game and she didn't. Still, I felt good working out afterwards.
I hope to find time to work out this weekend, but I'm a little worried I won't. Tomorrow I'm going to bake a cake for Nick's birthday and I have costume dinner party to go to and then on Sunday I'm going to my cousin's girlfriend's baby shower and then out to dinner (if we get back in time) for Nick's birthday. When I write it all out, it doesn't seem like a lot, but each thing takes a long time, so it really is a lot. Ohwell, if I can't work out, I'll just work out more on Monday.
This is seriously the longest that I've still felt motivated to exercise. Like I said before, I might not be doing a lot, but I'm at least doing something and that says a lot for me.
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