November 2009 Archives

Today is my typical pre-trip day. The plan was to pick up Gary at SNA (John Wayne Airport) and take him to his hotel near LAX. In the middle of doing that, I was going to get the rest of my errands done. Daniel and I got up early and headed to IHOP for a goodbye breakfast. Daniel had gingerbread pancakes and I had my usual. I decided to get a couple of errands done quickly, so I went to the bank to deposit some paychecks and get some money for the trip. Then we did a quick stop at Target and headed back to my apartment.

When we arrived, I noticed Daniel's rear license plate on his Prius had been stolen. I can't believe this was the second crime against one of my friends since I have lived in my apartment complex - the first being Tiffany's radio being stolen way back in 2003. We called around and determined we needed to go to the police station to file a report. By this time, we were getting close to Gary's arrival at SNA, so we quickly went down and filed the report. Heading back to the apartment, Daniel and I started calling around to see where he could get replacement plates. His mom offered to come and take him to AAA to get the replacement plates, the only catch being he had to become a member. I went to pick up Gary at the airport and came back to the Apartment. Daniel then went with his mom on an adventure to get his plates changed.

I hit up Wal-Mart, Kohl's, and REI for shopping with Gary while Daniel was gone. It took him about 2.5 hours to go to AAA only to be told he had to still go to DMV because the address on his license was not where the car was registered. So all in all, he had to pay for replacement plates and a new license at the DMV. Once he was back and the new plate was on his car, we headed out to eat at the Olive Garden. We made a quick stop at DSW for shoes before heading to take Gary to the hotel.

We had Carpool access so the trip to the hotel and back went pretty quickly. It is weird that Gary, Mom, and I will all be arriving in Dallas on different flights before we join up for the trip to Buenos Aires. I spent the rest of the night packing and then watching some Ghost Adventures before finally heading to bed. I am either forgetting something major, or I am getting used to traveling and now can remember what I need.

November has completely gotten the shaft from me this year. I have completely let it pass me by and here we are almost to Thanksgiving for crying out loud! You know what that means? It's time for a bullet point recap!

The first half of the month sucked on a personal level, but I have managed to work through it and am just taking it one day at a time.

After much hand wringing about financing, I closed my eyes and clicked purchase on the most expensive single destination plane ticket I have ever bought. With Mom and Gary heading back to Argentina for their conference, I knew this would be a chance of a lifetime to get a relatively cheap vacation out of it. This trip is very similar to the Hong Kong trip in that there is a huge up front expense of the plane ticket, but everything else will be relatively cheap. The length of the trip is very similar as well. Needless to say I am excited to head to my 5th continent, and hopefully up to four new countries. (Still woefully behind Nathan, he now has double my country count and is heading to the UAE for the holidays...)

After two extra weeks of hand wringing and patience, I was sent back to Guest Relations for the holiday season. On Sunday when I returned, it was like I was on an extended vacation, and I am sure some people were wondering how come they hadn't seen me in awhile.

Shaking the tea leaves at work is especially hard, because sometimes I am given wonderful mind numbing opportunities, and then occasionally given a false start and thus end up disappointed. Then again, who doesn't have a job like this.. In spite of everything, I have a really good vibe about 2010. I am not sure what it is, but lately I have the feeling that things will start to pull together next year for me in more ways than one. What this means I do not know. I just hope it is not gas.

2012: This movie was all sorts of awesome. It is everything you could want in a disaster movie and more. My only let down was the ending. After such a rush and high through the whole thing, it is difficult to end such a behemoth of a story. I think Roland did a great job and I will be interested if the supposed 2013 TV series pans out where we see what happens when the arks land in Africa.

Star Trek and Up: Both movies were released on DVD/Blue-ray this past two weeks. For the first time (Sort of related to my previous post) I am looking at which ones contain a digital copy so I can have it on my iPhone. I am also going to purchase the Blue-ray versions despite not having a BR player. I actually considered whether or not I actually want to buy them considering I want everything digital now. I don't know if I will ever get a Blue-ray player, but just hedging bets. As soon as I can figure out how to get downloaded movies on my TV without porting to my iPhone then the shoe will drop and my entertainment life will change forever.

Ok you are now caught up. Preparations for Argentina are commencing. Let's just say I can't get this song out of my head.