My flight from SFO to LAX was scheduled to depart at 7:55 and arrive at 9:30. Being the cautious traveller I am, I figured I should get to the airport by 6 o'clock. So with new ID holder around my neck with drivers license and passport (just because), I was dropped at the airport by my mother and my aunt and uncle who were visiting from Florida.
Of the two ticket booths immediately available to me, one was occupied by someone buying their BART tickets one at a time because they have no idea how to read how to buy multiple tickets in one transaction, and the other one was occupied by a woman fumbling with crumpled dollar bills. I waited behind crumpled dollar bill lady, and after the third rejection of three different bills, I proceeded to the empty ticket machines on the other side.
Ticket and bags in hand (backpack, duffel bag, and rolling germent bag), I proceeded to the gate and the door shut on my garment bag. I pulled it under the gate and heard a train rolling in. I cut off a woman who was waiting for the rest of the multi-ticket party, and ran up the escalator. I got into my SFO bound train just in time.
At the airport, I paid for an eight dollar turkey sandwich. Should've brought my own.
It was windy and rainy of course, so my flight was delayed in arriving at the airport because parallel landings were disallowed. My flight on takeoff would be delayed 90 minutes.
We do get on the plane, and it's a tiny little thing. I pretended I was flying the Concorde. The thing is, a tiny plane is a lot more agile, which is good if you're a pilot, but bad if you're a passenger frightened by the turbulence and violent motion taken to escape it. It was a single flight attendant (I mean, one flight attendant, relationship status unknown) who performed admirably.
We arrive in LAX, 90 minutes late of course, and after travelling for miles and miles we stop at our gate. The door doesn't open. Turns out they're having problems with the jetway. After about ten minutes we're asked to sit back down and buckle back up. But they fix the problem and we all get out to go to baggage claim.
I can't for the life of me figure out which carousel has my bag. After 20 minutes searching at the only moving carousels, I see my bags alone at one of the one's that never seemed to have ever gone. It appears they had already offloaded our bags in the delay at the gate.
The rest is me getting a bus to the Van Nuys FlyAway and The Londoner picking me up to his home in Studio City. Arrival time, 12:30. Total travel time, approximately 8 hours.
I don't really get perturbed by travel delays especially since I started working in a customer service position. There are things that are just meant to happen, I wasn't in a hurry, and I had other things to occupy my time. So I was fine while other folks trapped on the plane were absolutely exasperated.
Still, I should've just taken the bus.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Live, from Casa Londoner, it's Saturday night!
So these last few days have been quite a blur. I'll break these up into several posts about my last few days. An outline of what's to come:
The flight over
Day 1 in Los Angeles
The Big Bay Balloon Parade
The Pacific Life Holiday Bowl
Day 3 in Los Angeles
Day 4 in Los Angeles
The flight over
Day 1 in Los Angeles
The Big Bay Balloon Parade
The Pacific Life Holiday Bowl
Day 3 in Los Angeles
Day 4 in Los Angeles
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Leaving on a Jet Plane
Packed my bags last night, pre-flight...and I'm gonna be HIGHHHHH...as a kite by then!
So I leave tonight for Los Angeles, unless the flash flood watch weather has anything to say about it since I'm leaving from San Francisco. Looking forward to some warmer temperatures, and for good California football in San Diego. Go Bears!
Anybody have any suggestions for good songs of travel? Basically add to this compilation album: "Rocket Man", "Leaving on a Jet Plane"...
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Luck - Baseball style
With the Athletics signing a catcher who can hit homeruns, I'm reminded of the awesome moments in the A's last couple of seasons that I've had the great fortune to attend.
Payton hits a grand slam
In 2005, down 3-0 to Detroit with the bases loaded, a newly acquired Jay Payton did a great John Mabry impression and destroyed a grand slam ball to give the A's the lead. Soon after, Detroit catcher Ivan Rodriguez would get ejected for mouthing off to the home plate umpire.
The walk-off whoopsie
Playing the Angels in a tie game in the 9th, "K-Rod" Francisco Rodriguez was pitching to Eric Chavez. With an alert Jason Kendall on third, after a ball to Chavez and Crosby taking second on indifference, catcher Jose Molina returned the ball to K-Rod. Or tried to anyway. K-Rod had been upset at the called ball, and had put his glove at his side. He tried to catch the ball in his glove at the last second, but it was in truth a split second too late, and the ball bounced off his glove towards the first base side of second base. I was marking the previous action on my scorecard when the Coliseum got really noisy. I looked up to see the ball rolling away from the mound, Jason Kendall charging home, K-Rod chasing after the ball and making a desperate throw to get Kendall, which was unsuccessful. I was rolling on the ground over the absurdity of that play. The A's would take first place that day, but wouldn't be able to hold onto that advantage.
Back-to-back-to-back!
It was a cold weekend game early in the 2006 Elephant's campaign. Down two runs in the 6th frame, Chavez homers, Thomas homers, Bradley homers. Pandemonium ensues. Billy Beane is declared a genius.
Jason Kendall hits a home run
It was a weekday daygame May 31, a BART Double Play Wednesday, in fact, and the A's were off to their usual middlin' start, though it wasn't nearly as poor as the previous year's 17-32 start. There were folks sitting next to me in the expensive seats talking about the catcher who hadn't homered in a year-and-a-half and I was watching him bat. I was without my scorecard, unusually, at this game, but I was sitting next to someone who was, and the two of us managed to exchange the finer points of our craft.
And then Kendall enters and hits a frozen rope to left on the hot, hot day. The assembled were mostly the diehards who got time off to attend, so they knew that this was a big moment. Everybody's standing, demanding the ball stay fair and go over the wall. In the radio booth, Ray Fosse, I would later learn, was standing and yelling "Get up!" And I was channeling the television broadcasters of a March Madness buzzer beater and yelling "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" And then I was jumping up and down with scorecard girl and high fiving everybody in the section and the team was out to give Jason Kendall slaps on the back like he had just hit a walkover and it was so exciting.
A homerun ball slaps my hand
This was not in truth an Oakland A's moment, but it was an anti-Giants moment, which will suffice. I was on a lunch break at my summer internship in China Basin that's literally across the street from AT&T park. On the few days the Giants did play those weekday day games, I took my lunches in the free outfield viewing area on the ground. On one of those days, however, I had the fortune of finding someone who was just giving away their extra ticket, and I took up the offer.
So I was standing in the outfield promenade when a Milwaukee Brewer hits a homerun right at me. I drop my waterball and the ball hits me in the hands. I also unfortunately blew another patron's chance at actually catching the ball with a glove. He was a little upset about it.
I buy tickets for all three playoff series, and attend none of them
I had purchased tickets for an ALDS Game 4, no dice, fortunately.
I had purchased tickets for an ALCS Game 6, no dice, unfortunately.
I got an e-mail saying that I had won the drawing for the right to purchase World Series tickets. I bought 3 bleacher seats for game 6. No dice, unfortunately.
But I printed them out, and so I have three World Series tickets at home. That's pretty cool.
Happy 200th post everybody!
Payton hits a grand slam
In 2005, down 3-0 to Detroit with the bases loaded, a newly acquired Jay Payton did a great John Mabry impression and destroyed a grand slam ball to give the A's the lead. Soon after, Detroit catcher Ivan Rodriguez would get ejected for mouthing off to the home plate umpire.
The walk-off whoopsie
Playing the Angels in a tie game in the 9th, "K-Rod" Francisco Rodriguez was pitching to Eric Chavez. With an alert Jason Kendall on third, after a ball to Chavez and Crosby taking second on indifference, catcher Jose Molina returned the ball to K-Rod. Or tried to anyway. K-Rod had been upset at the called ball, and had put his glove at his side. He tried to catch the ball in his glove at the last second, but it was in truth a split second too late, and the ball bounced off his glove towards the first base side of second base. I was marking the previous action on my scorecard when the Coliseum got really noisy. I looked up to see the ball rolling away from the mound, Jason Kendall charging home, K-Rod chasing after the ball and making a desperate throw to get Kendall, which was unsuccessful. I was rolling on the ground over the absurdity of that play. The A's would take first place that day, but wouldn't be able to hold onto that advantage.
Back-to-back-to-back!
It was a cold weekend game early in the 2006 Elephant's campaign. Down two runs in the 6th frame, Chavez homers, Thomas homers, Bradley homers. Pandemonium ensues. Billy Beane is declared a genius.
Jason Kendall hits a home run
It was a weekday daygame May 31, a BART Double Play Wednesday, in fact, and the A's were off to their usual middlin' start, though it wasn't nearly as poor as the previous year's 17-32 start. There were folks sitting next to me in the expensive seats talking about the catcher who hadn't homered in a year-and-a-half and I was watching him bat. I was without my scorecard, unusually, at this game, but I was sitting next to someone who was, and the two of us managed to exchange the finer points of our craft.
And then Kendall enters and hits a frozen rope to left on the hot, hot day. The assembled were mostly the diehards who got time off to attend, so they knew that this was a big moment. Everybody's standing, demanding the ball stay fair and go over the wall. In the radio booth, Ray Fosse, I would later learn, was standing and yelling "Get up!" And I was channeling the television broadcasters of a March Madness buzzer beater and yelling "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" And then I was jumping up and down with scorecard girl and high fiving everybody in the section and the team was out to give Jason Kendall slaps on the back like he had just hit a walkover and it was so exciting.
A homerun ball slaps my hand
This was not in truth an Oakland A's moment, but it was an anti-Giants moment, which will suffice. I was on a lunch break at my summer internship in China Basin that's literally across the street from AT&T park. On the few days the Giants did play those weekday day games, I took my lunches in the free outfield viewing area on the ground. On one of those days, however, I had the fortune of finding someone who was just giving away their extra ticket, and I took up the offer.
So I was standing in the outfield promenade when a Milwaukee Brewer hits a homerun right at me. I drop my waterball and the ball hits me in the hands. I also unfortunately blew another patron's chance at actually catching the ball with a glove. He was a little upset about it.
I buy tickets for all three playoff series, and attend none of them
I had purchased tickets for an ALDS Game 4, no dice, fortunately.
I had purchased tickets for an ALCS Game 6, no dice, unfortunately.
I got an e-mail saying that I had won the drawing for the right to purchase World Series tickets. I bought 3 bleacher seats for game 6. No dice, unfortunately.
But I printed them out, and so I have three World Series tickets at home. That's pretty cool.
Happy 200th post everybody!
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) scenarios
By the rules of the Senate, a Senator's seat is only vacated by death or resignation; no other person or body can declare a Senator "incapacitated." Now Sen. Johnson of South Dakota's condition is presently unknown to the public, but he entered hopsital with symptoms of a stroke. In the event of his death or resignation, the Republican governor of South Dakota would presumably appoint a Republican to the Senate and tip the Senate back into GOP hands at 50-50 with the Vice-Presidential tie-breaker. So what are we facing?
If he lives, nothing changes, Democrats control the Senate 51-49.
If he dies, the Republican governor of South Dakota would presumably appoint a Republican to the Senate and tip the Senate back into GOP hands at 50-50 with the Vice-Presidential tie-breaker. So what are we facing?
If he resigns, same as if he dies.
But if he is in some sort of, oh, I dunno, "persistant vegetative state", well that's where things get interesting. This would go way beyond Schiavo levels of hysteria and madness. All of America would have a stake in the incapacitated Senator's life or death. Senate Democrats would have to be extremely careful not to be too eager to continue his life in a coma in the hopes that he survives just to maintain a 50-49 edge or else witness a backlash from the American populace beyond the "GET THE FUCK OUT OF SCHIAVO'S LIFE!" the American people expressed during that affair.
A tricky situation, tricky indeed.
If he lives, nothing changes, Democrats control the Senate 51-49.
If he dies, the Republican governor of South Dakota would presumably appoint a Republican to the Senate and tip the Senate back into GOP hands at 50-50 with the Vice-Presidential tie-breaker. So what are we facing?
If he resigns, same as if he dies.
But if he is in some sort of, oh, I dunno, "persistant vegetative state", well that's where things get interesting. This would go way beyond Schiavo levels of hysteria and madness. All of America would have a stake in the incapacitated Senator's life or death. Senate Democrats would have to be extremely careful not to be too eager to continue his life in a coma in the hopes that he survives just to maintain a 50-49 edge or else witness a backlash from the American populace beyond the "GET THE FUCK OUT OF SCHIAVO'S LIFE!" the American people expressed during that affair.
A tricky situation, tricky indeed.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
This isn't people magazine
So we were poking around Facebook (as opposed to poking on Facebook) when we figured out who a certain guy was dating. Now the two characters that are dating would merit an article in some sort of campus tabloid, if one existed, but it must be left to the blogs.
But not this one.
I am not People Magazine, Us Weekly, etc. It would be kinda cool to actually use this blog as a sort of Lance Bass type "I'm Gay" interview outlet, but I don't usually interview people, I just copy off of other people's.
Anyway, I'll just leave it as a certain gay ASUC _______ is dating another certain gay ASUC _______. Good friends know who I am talking about, no need to comment.
But not this one.
I am not People Magazine, Us Weekly, etc. It would be kinda cool to actually use this blog as a sort of Lance Bass type "I'm Gay" interview outlet, but I don't usually interview people, I just copy off of other people's.
Anyway, I'll just leave it as a certain gay ASUC _______ is dating another certain gay ASUC _______. Good friends know who I am talking about, no need to comment.
Monday, December 04, 2006
Celebration
Despite the illwill associated with strenuously avoiding the color red on World AIDS Day, the California Banner collapsing under gale force winds, the net ropes going crazy due to said gale force winds, and the unavoidable woofing disadvantage that put the existence of good Stanford Football as a matter of faith to their own fans, California did manage to win the Big Game 26-17.
From the point of view of a net crewer on a windy day, I watch the game in fits and starts from a ground level end zone view that is terrible from far away but is awesome on the goal line. Plus I got to be on the ground with the Axe for the game, which was fun. I stood on the Memorial Bench when the students rushed the field, slowly for this one.
The other big story of the day is that California shares the Pacific-10 title for the first time since 1975, 31 years. No Rose Bowl birth this year, but next year, that's the year.
Instead I have the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl, which I will have the good fortune of attending, again with the Rally Committee on December 28 on a daytrip during my week in Los Angeles with The Londoner. The Londoneris not a football fan has other things to do in LA and people to see, so he will not be going.
Today is the fifth consecutive Axe Rally at Berkeley. I will take time out of my school schedule to parade the damn thing around with its freshly engraved score, as I did last year.
And yes, the score of the 1982 Big Game is still 20-25.
Go Bears! Beat the Aggies!
From the point of view of a net crewer on a windy day, I watch the game in fits and starts from a ground level end zone view that is terrible from far away but is awesome on the goal line. Plus I got to be on the ground with the Axe for the game, which was fun. I stood on the Memorial Bench when the students rushed the field, slowly for this one.
The other big story of the day is that California shares the Pacific-10 title for the first time since 1975, 31 years. No Rose Bowl birth this year, but next year, that's the year.
Instead I have the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl, which I will have the good fortune of attending, again with the Rally Committee on December 28 on a daytrip during my week in Los Angeles with The Londoner. The Londoner
Today is the fifth consecutive Axe Rally at Berkeley. I will take time out of my school schedule to parade the damn thing around with its freshly engraved score, as I did last year.
And yes, the score of the 1982 Big Game is still 20-25.
Go Bears! Beat the Aggies!
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