Monday, March 24, 2008

california part two

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.

So, after packing rather obsessively as I always do, planning outfits for every day in advance to minimize packing and hunting around for the smallest of everything, I went to sleep the night before the trip at around 1:30am. It was about two hours too late, but I survived. I had been spending some last-minute chill time with friends so I don't regret one lost moment of sleep.

Early the next morning, though not too early (6am), I woke and readied myself for the plane ride. We all met in the chapel at 6:45 and after dropping off our things a few of us ran quickly to McDonald's for McGriddles (which make me McSick but I keep McEating them). We waited for the bus. And waited. And waited..."Rollo's been on the phone for a good twenty minutes now. I wonder what's goin' on?"
"Well, it looks like the bus is late."
"Ohhhhh...he just looks so calm I didn't know anything was wrong."
Yep, the bus scheduled to take us to the airport was late because the bus driver never showed up to work. We got a replacement bus and arrived at the airport exactly one hour before our flight's departure time. Rollo worked some of his Rollorific magic with United Airlines and they expedited our check-in process by forming a line just for us, pre-printing our boarding passes, and shuffling us through security as fast as possible.

We made it to the terminal in plenty of time and boarded the plane when they called us. It was a beautiful 777, the biggest plane I've ever been on, and I was seated between my good friend Stina and a mystery woman. Mystery woman's name turned out to be Kelly, as we found out after some awkward introductions and those rather uncomfortable moments at the beginning of a relationship between people who apparently only have one thing in common--the destination. After chatting for a good while with Kelly, we found that we have a lot in common and learned a lot about ourselves and each other. Pretty good for a fraction of a plane ride, no?

That's about all of the excitement from the plane. After exiting the airport we boarded a bus in 75-degrees California and met Jim, who would be our bus driver, friend, and confidant for the week. More about him later.

Well, this day was quite a packed one, so I'll leave the rest for later.

Peace

No comments: