So, we haven’t been updating recently, because not much has been going on. Sam has been studying and I have been relaxing. Boring stuff for our friends and family to read. I did have to fly out to DC this week, though. I had called the moving people last week and found out the two pallets worth of our stuff had arrived in Manassas. They needed to be picked up at the terminal or the storage fees were going to start accumulating. It would cost $500 for the moving company to take the two pallets in a storage facility for us. I could still use dad’s Delta benefits, so a quick trip to DC it is!
Flew out of Palm Springs on Sunday afternoon. On a side note, an early afternoon flight felt really strange. Every flight out-of-state out of the Anchorage airport leaves sometime between the hours of 11pm and 2am. Those red-eye flights get tedious, so this 12:30pm flight was rather awesome. Got the last stand-by seat available, so the trip is off to a good start. Got into Salt Lake where I had a 2 hour layover. I spent the entire layover doing a fantasy baseball draft with some of my college buddies. We had to move the draft time at the last minute thanks to my late scheduled trip. Free wifi at the SLC airport now! Of course, it is really slow and takes the equivalent of a long layover to connect. For the second time today, I got the last stand-by seat on the plane. The airport gods were being kind to me. I even got a seat in an exit row! Of course, right before I boarded the plane, I learn that there had been an earthquake in SoCal. I was already the last one on the plane, so I couldn’t stand out by the gate to get more information out of CNN. Got a text from Sam about the earthquake, with no more information. She would not pick up her phone. I finally got some more info while on the plane when I called Sam’s mom and was able to talk to Sam. Everyone is alright. Good enough for me. I’ll now follow orders and turn my phone off.
Got into Dulles around 11pm. I had checked two bags full of winter clothes and dress clothes that would be unnecessary for the rest of the trip. Both bags made it without issue and were off the carousel rather quickly. Hadn’t seen dad since Thanksgiving, so it was nice to see him again.
The time change screwed with me the entire trip. On Monday morning, I woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep because of the light. Got up anyway on the lack of sleep and went with dad to pick up the truck. Dad had already secured a storage facility for our stuff (along with some of dad’s stuff, which he had been meaning to get out of the house). The facility had a u-haul type truck that could be reserved for free. We had it for Monday. We took the truck home first to grab some of dad’s stuff to take to the storage unit. Then, over to the receiving dock to get the pallets. Both pallets worth of stuff fit into one load with the truck. We had all our stuff in the storage unit before noon. But, since we had a free truck for a day, dad wanted to take advantage. Dad’s bedroom set was older than me. He and mom had had since before I was born. So, it was time for it to be replaced. We took it all apart and moved it into the truck, so it could be taken to the Salvation Army. These dressers were heavy and not easy to get down from the upper level of a 3 level condo. The walls took some damage from the ordeal. Thankfully, dad’s neighbor came over and helped with the final dresser after dad had drawn blood. The moving was successful, so we celebrated by getting lunch at Chick-fil-A and watching Opening Day for the rest of the afternoon. Caught the national title game, as well. The Yankees have won the last World Series and Dook is now the reigning national champion in basketball. The terrorists have won.
I had another rough night. My room was too hot and I managed to get a nasty headache, which didn’t seem to want to go away. My headache was so bad by morning that I actually went to Safeway at 6am to get some Excedrin and PowerAde. Dad only had asprin in the house, which wasn’t working. Excedrin may be the greatest headache reliever ever. I cannot believe it took me so long to realize the greatness of Excedrin. Sam introduced me to it about 6 months ago, and I will never go back to Tylenol or Advil. Trust me, get some Excedrin for your medicine cabinet, and thank me the next time you have a headache. After popping the Excedrin and downing some sports drink, I crashed out until almost 11 and woke up feeling great. We had shipped about 10 boxes via USPS for the media rates (cheaper than adding it to the pallet), and some from Sequim to get stuff out of the car. Sam needed me to search these boxes for 3 books to help her study for her exam. She was kind enough to send me pictures of the covers after copying them from some website like Amazon. I had to search all the boxes with books at least twice over to find all of them. One of them was hiding in a box full of my law books. But, at least I found all three. I took all the boxes to the storage unit with the family Honda. I was pretty amazed that I managed to get the 10 boxes into the Prelude with only one trip. I then took off for Trader Joe’s, so I could make a healthy, yet delicious dinner. Got some chicken apple sausage, onion, apples and juice to combine and throw over rice. On the way back, I took a wrong turn off the freeway going into Manassas and discovered an amphitheater. Actually, I discovered Nissan Pavilion (or is it Jiffy Lube Live?). Whatever the corporate sponsorship for the venue, this is where Pearl Jam is playing in May. I had no idea it was so close. So close (3.5 miles to my dad’s front door according to Google maps) that is within walking distance for us. Glad I made that wrong turn and learned something useful. I caved and watched Lost tonight without Sam. Dad fell asleep in the recliner as usual. I was too awake to go to bed early after sleeping in this morning. This is a problem with an early flight out of Dulles Wednesday morning. I watched the Daily Show, Colbert Report and some Sports Center, but still not tired. Forced myself to be by 1. Hopefully I can sleep on the plane.
Up at 4am Wednesday morning! Got to the airport plenty early because Dad had to drop me off, then be at the office early for a conference. Got a call from dad while I was sitting at the gate. My connecting flight from SLC to Palm Springs was now oversold and almost impossible for a stand-by passenger to get on. Great. Fortunately, there was a clear flight that left at about the same time to Ontario, California, which is about an hour and a half drive from Palm Springs. So, just switch the reservation (which cost less than $2), and we were good to go. Sam would have to drive out to pick me up, but at least she could exchange her Keens for a pair that fit correctly and we both could get some Chick-fil-A (Ontario is near that REI I went to last week). Well, my flight luck continued. Much to my surprise, I was cleared for my first flight in first class. Sweet! I get breakfast and a comfy seat. Downloaded some podcasts from ESPN and NPR for the trip and I was ready to board. Sadly Dulles did not have free wifi. Cost me $6 to get on the net and download my podcasts. Upon boarding, I learned that the same plane that I was on was also my connecting flight to Ontario. I would still have to get off and be stand-by cleared again, but at least the gate wouldn’t be far. Got into Salt Lake just to learn that for some reason, my connecting flight was cancelled. Wait, wasn’t that the same plane that I was just on? Did we narrowly avoid death and not know about it? I ran down to gate for my original flight to Palm Springs to see if I could get relisted. Just as I was getting to the gate, my name was called as a cleared stand-by passenger. Guess I was never unlisted for that flight. And I was cleared without even having to talk to the gate agent. I have been lucky on this trip…
Or so I thought. After getting on the plane, the older guy sitting next to me strikes up a conversation. It was the usual getting to know you stuff that you have on a plane. Right after takeoff, though, I got the dreaded question; “Do you pray? Do you believe in Jesus?” Ugh! How long is this flight? There is nothing worse than being stuck on a plane, sitting next to someone who wants to beat you over the head with their religious or political views. I humored him for 10-15 minutes, before finally sticking my headphones in my ears, because “I really wanted to finish the NPR Fresh Air podcast that I had been listening to.” It was only a half lie. I did listen to an NPR podcast to tune him out, but started a brand new one. I had no idea what I was going to listen to when I turned my iPod on, but that Fresh Air podcast about Right Wing extremism was really interesting. I had to endure some more of that conversation when the flight attendant made me turn off the iPod for landing. I was never confrontational the entire time. 20 year-old Matt would have been in a heated argument, but I sucked it up and humored the guy the entire time. Maybe I have matured a little in the last 10 years.
Sam picked me up from the airport, and it was great to see her again. Even just a few days apart can be too long sometimes. Her sister, Ashley, was now at the house with us. So, her parents now have to endure both their adult children and me. I tried sitting out in the sun and swimming in the pool for a bit this afternoon, but was just beat from the early morning and the travel. I downloaded the last episode of Lost for Sam, since she hadn’t seen it yet. I made it about 10 minutes in before I was out. Guess it was a good thing I had already watched it.
Up Next: More Sporadic Updates
M.E.
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