Oh! Los Angeles

Oh, the return to LA. Could it have gone any smoother? The answer to that is of course, yes. I got up at 5:30 AM on Saturday morning in an effort to get one last location done before I flew back west. But on rising, I encountered the storm system they had predicted and while viewing the torrential down pour outside my hotel window I made the decision to return to bed. Woke a bit more refreshed at 7:00 Am and followed the normal morning routine of the two “Cs”. Took bout an hour to finish paperwork on the three sites I’d done the day before and secured them into the FedEx package. Shower/packing/policing of room and checked out fo the hotel at 10:00 AM. I then dropped of the FedEx package and headed to the Palisades Center Mall to kill the remaining hours before the flight. Of course I got bored quickly since there were no movies I wanted to see with times to match my schedule, so I eventually ended up in the Fox Sports Grill where I watched storm pixilated World Cup matches and had a couple of Bass and a sandwich, breaking my normal rule of not drinking until 5:00 PM. This helped the time pass and I left for the airport, with it still raining, at about 1:30 PM. Arriving at the airport, I checked in the car and was relieved to find that my first flight was on time for a 3:20 PM departure. That would be the last good news of the day.

We arrived on time in Philadelphia and after a bus ride and a long walk, I made it to the terminal about 20 minutes before boarding. I was going to grab another drink so I’d sleep on the plane to Vegas, but the bar was packed and I’d just wait until I got to Vegas, I thought. Well, twenty minuets passed and we were informed that as soon as the cleaning crew was finished they’d start the boarding. Another 20 minutes passed and they kept looking down the gangway as though it was possible that the plane had in someway digested the cleaning staff and no one was really quite sure if they wanted to risk themselves checking on them. About ten more minutes passed, placing the time directly at scheduled departure, and I realized I should have just gone into the bar anyway. However, I simply waited, thinking they’d start boarding any minute. Thirty minutes later the flight disappeared from the board and the flight attendants who had boarded earlier, deplaned. We were informed that we were waiting on a pilot and that the flight was rescheduled to a 7:00 PM departure. I went to the counter and asked them if they thought I’d most likely miss my connection to LA in Vegas and the woman simply stared at me somewhat confused at why I wasn’t just staying in Vegas and why I’d want to go to LA from there. Eventually she tried to find out for me but couldn’t locate the flight from Vegas to LA in the computer. It seemed that since my boarding passes had been printed out in NY that the flight had changed numbers. So, without telling me I’d miss my flight in Vegas she handed me back my boarding passes and told me I could always catch the 11:59 flight, which was the last one out of Vegas to LA that night. I slumped a little at this news since that’d put me in LA around 1:10 AM. Thirty minuets later we began boarding the plane.

Well, for some reason, ATC was in a bit of a tiff and wasn’t allowing anyone to take off for reasons they wouldn’t even tell the pilots, so 30 minutes later we lifted off into the sky. Arrived four and a half hours later in Vegas with me having gone through roughly four hours of that fitful sleep where you’re pretty sure you body is convulsing as it catches itself in what seems to you to be an infinite loop of sleeping/waking in rapid succession. Need less to say I arrived in Vegas punch drunk from the whole affair, and had only missed my connecting flight by 2 hours and 15 minutes. I went to the customer service desk and found that without informing me that she had done it, the woman in Philadelphia had actually already booked me onto the 11:59 flight to LA. So, I guess there was a bit of a silver lining on the black hole.

Well, there was nothing to do but have a beer in yet another Fox Sports Grill, due to the lack of availability of anything else, so at 11:00 PM on Saturday night, a full 11 hours after leaving NY, I had a $ 8.00 Sam Adams in a plastic cup served by a deaf woman. I did however have a fun chat with a medical salesman on his way home to Sacramento, so while I had my one beer he drank three and a shot.

I got to LA at 1:10 AM, and had my luggage in hand by 1:25. Then it was only a short 45 minute wait for a cab, since they’d all decided to leave due to lack of patrons I later found out from my driver, and was back to my friend’s house by 2:20 AM. On entering I promptly woke the dog jack who began barking loudly. I calmed him as quickly as I could and went to bed. I woke promptly at 5:30 AM EST, and then went back to sleep.

So, now I’m in the library hitting the refresh button on the apartment rental sites hoping new ones will pop-up. So far no luck, but then again I’ve only been at it for two days, and with what I can afford to pay, it’s slim pickin’s people.