Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Find my way back to then

Ok, so now that I've had a day back in California and have had time to decompress a little bit (I guess), I want to post about my sort-of-not-really-hellish day of goodbyes and flights gone wrong.

First of all, the goodbyes that I had planned didn't turn out anything close to what I was hoping for.

The original plan: 1 - go see [title of show], 2 - head to Serendipity to get massive ice cream sundaes with Rachel, Emma, and Laura, 3 - get my suitcase from my brother's apartment (where I had stashed it because Rachel's room was more of a closet) and take it back to Rachel's, and 4 - hang out at Rachel's until it was time for me to go to the airport.

What actually happened: 1- saw [title of show] with Rachel. It was amazing (just like it was the first time I saw it.) Rachel and I went to the stage door and got to meet the cast (and writers) of the show, which was really cool. They were so nice, talking to everyone and signing autographs and taking pictures...absolutely fantastic. 2 - After the show, Rachel and I went to get my suitcase from my brother's apartment. He had to go to bed early because he was starting a new job, so I had to go out of order for this. Daniel sent me a text asking where I was, then sent me another text saying something along the lines of "hurry up, I wanted to go to bed before this" which kind of made me want to...well...hurry up. Emma and Laura also kept calling to find out where we were because they got out of their show before we did. This brought on a bit of a headache. Carrying my huge ass suitcase down the stairs at his apartment made me headache get a little bigger. 3 - As we were about to get a cab, Emma called saying that they were going to seat us in about ten minutes, so we went to Serendipity. So now I have my suitcase in tow, and a huge headache. We met Laura and Emma, where I was totally stressed because I still had my suitcase and didn't have time to bring it back to Rachel's before they seated us. I was worried they weren't going to let us in with my huge ass suitcase. (Seriously, I could fit in that suitcase. I could probably fit all four of us in my huge ass suitcase. Ok, maybe just two of us.) Emma and Laura both said that they probably wouldn't let us in with my suitcase, so then I became a bit of a baby and started crying. (The headache and the thought that I had to leave soon plus the fact that I wasn't in a good mood didn't exactly help me not feel like crying. Ugh.) They ended up being really accommodating and put my suitcase in a back room that they locked so that I wouldn't have to worry about it. But alas, Serendipity was not to be...Emma and Laura didn't realize that there was no 12:45 bus back to New Jersey and had to catch the 11:45. We were seated at Serendipity at 10:30. Serendipity is at E. 60th and 3rd Ave, Port Authority is W. 42nd and Broadwayish. So it takes a little while to get there, even if you take a cab (which is expensive). So about ten minutes after we were seated, Emma and Laura had to leave to catch the bus. That sucked because it was a quick hug goodbye, and that was it. I was in a pretty bad mood as it was, having not gotten much sleep the night before, so I was a little more stressed. Now, not only did I have the suitcase issue and a headache, I didn't get to say a proper goodbye to two of the people I had gotten really close to. Not cool. 4 - Rachel and I left Serendipity about five minutes after Laura and Emma did because we had already been there on Tuesday and figured there was no point in staying since we had wanted to share it with Laura and Emma. So, we caught a cab heading up to Rachel's place to drop off my suitcase, then went to get food at somewhere much cheaper. We ended up eating at Tom's Restaurant, the outside of which is a model for the diner in Seinfeld. Food was cheap, which was good. Then we went back to Rachel's and watched TV until I had to leave for the airport. I took a nap. Woo. Car came at 2:30 to pick me up. Rachel and I had a long hug goodbye, and that was it. I was off.

I got to the airport around 3am. I thought it would have taken longer to get to the airport, but it didn't. So I was there ridiculously early. Then, nobody showed up at the ticket counter until 4:45. My flight wasn't until 6:30am. I sat on my suitcase and tried to read for a bit, but kept falling asleep. Sleeping while sitting up on a suitcase is not comfortable, lemme tell ya. The only good thing about getting there so early was that I could weigh my suitcases on the scale and make sure they weren't too ridiculously heavy. Eventually I checked my bags, went through security, and got on the plane. Once on the plane, however, I found out I was in the emergency exit row. Kind of freaked me out. I'm nowhere near strong enought to be able to help anyone out of a plane, but I consoled myself in thinking that if the plane went down there was little chance of survival which meant less of a chance of me helping someone out of the plane. That's not morbid at all, right? I also froze during the entirety of the flight. Blankets cost money now, so I tried to deal with it...but freezing and sleeping do not go hand in hand. Made for a very uncomfortable three hour flight. Then I had a 3 hour layover in Kansas City International. Nothing was open, so I basically sat in the terminal hungry, cold, and tired. Awesome. The second flight was a little better, but I think the guy sitting next to me was sick. So maybe I have that to look forward to? Towards the end of the flight they passed out AMAZING cookies, so that was mildly redeeming. (Seriously. I almost stole the cookies from the guy who was sitting next to me because he was asleep. He wouldn't have known...) Thanks for the cookies, Midwest.

Now I'm home, meeting Lacey in Santa Monica tomorrow and hopefully finding a dress to wear for auditions on Sunday. I guess I should memorize my monologue...

P.S. I really want to learn "Find My Way Back to Then" from [title of show]. Or any of the girl songs from that show. So...my birthday is in November, feel free to order me some sheet music...

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