california blogging: yesterday was not a good day

Greetings from Orange County! It's the coldest I've ever felt here yet that's the least of my problems. Happy vacay to me! (NOT)

Yesterday was kinda crappy. Jesse and I had a 7:30 a.m. flight to Orange County by way of Dallas. We arrived in Dulles before 6 a.m. so we decided to go to the sit down restaurant near our gate for breakfast (Max and Irma's has a great b-fast for cheap that I highly recommend). After breakfast, we saw a huge line of people by our gate. Assuming it was time to board, we made it to the end of the line, only to be told that our flight had been cancelled. I was plenty tired, had just had a tearful goodbye with the kitties (they took it well; I was a wreck), and all I wanted to do was get home ASAP and now here we were with a cancelled flight.

Ugh. I hate cancelled flights.

They ended up putting us on a flight to Dallas 2 hours later after which we would need to hightail it to the other side of the airport in order to get to our connection to Orange County. Except I was hungry, thirsty, and needing to pee. We got to the gate just as they were doing a final boarding call. I got on the plane and my hunger/thirst/bladder was the last thing on my mind because I felt a migraine coming.

Ugh. What timing.

I took an Imitrex which knocked me out (yay, sleep!). I slept for most of the flight to Orange County until I woke up during some crazy turbulance due to a storm we were flying in. It continued for about 45 minutes until we had the bumpiest landing ever. As I got off the plane, I sighed in that little connector tunnel between the plane and the gate and I SAW MY BREATH.

What??? I'm not supposed to see my own breath in normally sunny, mild, generally perfect Southern California! That stuff only happens in states where winter actually takes place.

Ugh. It's cold.

As we stood outside in the pouring, freezing rain waiting for our car rental shuttle, I saw my breath plenty of times. I checked the weather forecast on my phone and saw that we should expect this kind of weather for the entire week we are here. Great. I left DC to get away from this crap and enjoy some sun. Now I get to spend my week, sans sun.

Ugh. Stupid rain.

Things calmed down a bit after a trip to In-and-Out and a long-needed trip to the bathroom. Two hours later, we started on our way to meet a good friend of mine for dinner.

The normally 1 hour drive to Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood where I was meeting my friend took nearly 2 hours thanks to the usually congested freeway made worse by the rain. Not sure what it is about rain that makes people forget how to drive. We were nearly rear-ended twice because the cars behind me were wayTOOclose and we were stop and go for a while. Hello, inappropriate stopping distance!

Ugh. Silly California drivers.

Dinner was awesome and I'm so glad I got to see my friend and her new husband. It was the first time I had seen her since her wedding and she looked so happy with her boo and her life, which made me really happy.

Yay, friends!

Later, I had some trouble sleeping, so I got up to check email. Big mistake. I received an email from the agency I consult for (I need the extra money as my non-profit salary isn't remotely competitive in today's market) telling me they can no longer afford to pay me so I was being let go. Oh and Merry Christmas, Liz.

Ugh. Sh*tty layoffs.

And now I'm here, blogging this at 4 a.m. PST. Well, at least I didn't get a migraine, we got home safe and sound, we didn't get rear-ended and I got to see my friend.

I really miss my kitties though. *sigh*

the rain is just a teeny bit excessive

What the heck? The Mid Atlantic region was soaked last night. Apparently, there were some areas under two feet of water. Yes, two feet. We don't even get that much snow. Well, I guess that means it's time for me to move back West. It's one thing to get rain during summer months (that is just odd to me). It's a whole other thing to get more rain than snow. That's completely abnormal. It's like straight out of that movie, The Day After Tomorrow. I'd rather risk the occasional earthquake then deal with this much moisture.

To give you an indication of how freakish this whole thing is, there was a mudslide. In Virginia. Apparently shutting down the beltway. Where am I? Laguna Beach?? Malibu?? Metro had to shut down two stations due to flooding. L'Enfant and Federal Triangle. During rush hour. There were 20 minute rail delays and you had to take a shuttle if you wanted to get to the closed stations. There were 1 hour delays to take those shuttles. So let me see... I guess DC just wasn't ready for this much rain. The worst part about all of this--more rain is expected tonight and throughout the week.

Why couldn't this rain have come while we were away in SF? Rain, you suck.

rain, rain, go away

Just checked the weather forecast for the next week. It's Sunday evening and I need to plan my work outfits. Besides, I recently purchased some undies from Victoria's Secret and I hope to match them up with my various outfits for the week. Yes, I know that no one is really looking at my underwear while I'm clothed, but I like to know that I look cute underneath it all. Ok, so back to the weather. Rain is in the forecast for every day next week (and beyond, if you really pay attention to weather forecasts over a week in advance).

The thought of more rain just depresses me. I was very spoiled in the OC, what with the perfect 70 degree average temps. When I first arrived in the DC area as an intern, I recall not understanding why my fellow interns from USC had brought umbrellas. After all, it was summer. It doesn't rain when it's warm, right? At least, it's not supposed to. It should only rain sporadically between January and April and then be sunny the rest of the time. Little did I know that the East Coast isn't normal. I now own two umbrellas to match my different outfits.

Anyone else think that the aliens were coming during the freakish lightning storm on Thursday night? Jesse and I were just lying in bed thinking, There's lightning with no thunder just like in War of the Worlds. Any minute now, those pod thingies were just gonna start coming out of the ground.

I sit here looking out my window (while I'm not typing of course) with the occasional lightning flash. I've heard the roll of thunder only twice. I hope the aliens don't attack tonight. I want to wear my new undies tomorrow.