Renaissance Festival

 

 This past Sunday I went to the Renaissance Festival for the first time in about 10 years. In about 15 minutes I quickly remembered why I hadn't been to the Renaissance Festival in 10 years, haha. Nonetheless, let me tell you about our day.

 

 

The day started out kind of on the wrong foot when I woke up with a sour stomach. On top of that, I decided to not wear a wig at the last minute so that meant I had to wash and curl my hair which caused me to be late to Jackie's house. We carpooled to Michelle's house and then she drove us from there. We arrived around 11am and it was already pretty warm as we entered the fair. Almost immediately people were shouting things and harassing me (this would continue for the rest of the day). I guess I'd get harassed less in these types of situations if I didn't wear a costume and blended more into the crowd but I really only wanted to go so I could dress up as an elf for the day. All day I had to endure, "HEY YOU, WITH THE EARS!" If you have social anxiety like me, you know how much we hate loud noises and how much we reallllly hate loud noises that are directed at us. So all day I was uncomfortable and wished I could hide from all these obnoxious people. :(

 

We watched two shows that day and the first one was an acrobatics show. There were three performers and they balanced on each other and on buckets and stuff. This show made me verrrry nervous. When people aren't nervous for their own safety, I get anxiety on their behalf. This show lasted about 20-30 minutes and the whole time I'm just waiting for one of them to fall on their face. It was not good times.

 

 

The next show we went to was a comedy show called "Hey Nunny Nunny" which is mostly puns about nuns and Catholicism. I'm not really into "jokes" per se so I was probably the only person there not laughing my buns off. People were seriously howling with laughter while I'm like, "Errrmmm..." Idk, maybe I've become a comedy snob. I have a pretty specific taste in comedy (ie: Larry David, Aziz Ansari, Demetri Martin, The Flight of the Conchords, Louis CK) so most comedy is wasted on me.

 

The best part of the day was sitting in these cool Sky Chairs. They were so comfy and relaxing; if I had a porch to attach one to, I'd totally get one. We just sat and chilled in these chairs for about half an hour and it was sooooo nice to be in the shade with a light breeze on your face. I didn't end up eating anything til after we left the park since I still didn't feel so great and all they had to eat was greasy fried foods (not my jam--I'm kind of a health nut). It didn't help that I'm vegetarian either so I just fasted until about 5pm and was near death. But that was a better option for me than hurling at the Renaissance Festival. The last attraction we saw was the "Living Mermaid" which had the longest line. We had to wait for about 30 mostly unshaded minutes and tbh, it was kind of a let down once we finally got inside (this is the bummerest post ever). On the way home we stopped at one of my favorite restaurants, Chopsticks Express, and I got a giant order of honey tofu (which I scarfed down in the car) just before I dropped dead.

 

So yeah, I think I'm good for another 10 years as far as the Renaissance Festival is concerned. Next week is going to be amazing, though. Next Thursday I'm flying to San Francisco to see my bunny Stephanie (Twinkie-Chan) and also to meet my other bunny, Kelly Anne (TinyTangerines) for a girls weekend. It's going to be the BEST. WEEKEND. EVER.

 

 

 

 

TREAT YO SELF

Aziz!

This past Friday I went to see my favorite comedian, Aziz Ansari, at Celebrity Theatre and it was AMAZING! I went with two of my bestest friends, Rosalynn and Ian, and we were lucky enough to get seats in the front row. I'd never been in the front row for anything so this was a pretty big deal. We were so close that the stage was literally an inch from my knees--it was UNREAL!

We got there a little late because parking was a nightmare so we missed most of the opening act but we weren't familiar with the dude who opened anyway so nbd. Since I didn't want to get busted for sneaking in a camera (there was a giant sign outside saying NO CAMERA. NO VIDEO. NO AUDIO.) I didn't get any pictures but that's okay because the experience will live in my memory for a very long time. As soon as Aziz came on stage he asked everyone to take their photos now and get it out of their system so then we could all enjoy the rest of the show without any distractions. He kept moving a lot, though, so everybody's pics came out pretty blurry. Rosalynn took this one here:

Aziz is such an entertainer! Once he got started he never slowed down (and it was all brand new material too!) I love how animated his style is and how he interacts with the audience so much. Being right in the front row I was so nervous he was going to talk to me since he kept looking directly at me when he was talking. I did kind of stand out, though. Since I didn't get to go out on New Year's Eve and had bought a super fancy cocktail dress for the occasion, I figured I'd wear it to this show. Aziz always looks very sharp when he performs so I thought he'd be okay with his audience looking fancy too. However, it didn't really occur to me that they'd be shining lights on me throughout the entire show and my green sequined dress would wind up blinding everyone. Whoops! What was more distracting than my dress, though, was the hottie in the row across from me. This boy was red hot like pizza supper AND I found out from the questions Aziz asked everyone that this dude was A.) single B.) vegetarian C.) a feminist. Can you believe that? UGH! Why couldn't he have been sitting next to me? The Universe can be so cruel. He smiled at me a few times so I was hoping he'd try to find me after the show but as soon as the show ended everyone made a mad dash for the exit and I lost him. Oh, wellz...



Mermaid Dress (Forever 21)

Saturday was a fun day too. I got to see my honey, Michelle, and have a girl's night out. I'm so excited for our Thailand trip (19 days and counting) since Michelle is a guaranteed good time. I always have maximum amounts of fun whenever I see her. First we went to this dive bar Rips but there were only like, 4 cars in the parking lot and it was super early (like 6:30) so we decided to go to Target to kill some time. While at Target we shared some menstruation anecdotes and had a grand 'ol time (and made all of the men in the vicinity very uncomfortable--yes!). Afterwards, we decided to go to Crescent Ballroom instead and see if anything was going on. They were having Mexican wrestling that night but the show was completely sold out so we decided to just get tacos since we were already there (their kitchen has the most AMAZING veggie tacos I've ever had).

After dinner we went back to her house and hung out with her doggie, Bella, who I love so so much and watched tv and ate cookies. I ended up leaving around 1am, which is SUPER late for me these days) and the second I walk out of her apartment her next door neighbors bust out of their room and were like, "Hey, what's up? Where u goin?" and I was like, "Ew!" They must've been listening to our entire conversation and been waiting for me to come out of the door. It was totally gross and made me super uncomfortable. Why do dudes have to be so aggressive and clueless? You really think I'm going to be like, "Oh, hey, baby, how you doin?" It's ridiculous. At this rate unless the Universe throws an awesome man at my feet I'm pretty much doomed. But I'm doing pretty great on my own anyway so WHATEVZ.

Anywayz, I hope y'all are having a good Monday! Take care, bbs!

The Rapture

Last night I experienced the most intense storm of my entire life. A microburst hit North Phoenix where I live and it was the craziest thing I've ever seen. Around 11pm last night I was watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and thinking about going to sleep soon since I work super early on the weekends. Just as I'm about to brush my teeth I hear the thunder outside and decided to go peek at the lightning before bed. The lightning was directly over our house and it was quite the show until quite suddenly there was a downpour and intense winds came. I got sprayed by a sheet of rain that came in and could barely see 10 ft in front of me when I see a critter run right in front of me. Since it was so dark I thought it was a cat but when it ran from me I saw its long snout and bushy tail and realized it was a raccoon!

I ran back inside the house to tell my mom that a crazy storm was brewing when the power went out. I had left the front door open and the wind was so powerful it was hard to shut it. Once I did we looked out the window and the whole house began to shake and we thought the windows were going to blow out. It was like the Rapture had come! All you could see outside was a wall of rain and flashes of light with thunder raging all around. I checked the backyard to see if the patio was okay and I saw the CHIMNEY LYING ON THE GROUND! Since we were down one chimney we had a gaping whole in our roof and the wind got inside and blew the hatch to the attic askew. This storm went on for what seemed like hours. In no time the house got swelteringly hot from the AC being off and the humidity made it so stuffy I felt like I couldn't breathe. I tried to go to sleep since I had to be up at 7am but I felt like I was going to suffocate from breathing in the hot damp air (which made me feel pretty anxious). My dad got home around 3am and I was still wide awake. He got on the roof to access the damage and found that the tv antenna had been mangled, many shingles had been striped off the roof and the swamp cooler had been trashed. Such a mess! When he walked around the neighborhood he saw that many trees had been completely uprooted, windows had been shattered and brick fences had been blown out! For the rest of the night all you could hear were police sirens and fire trucks.

I think I managed to get 2 hours of sleep. I had set my phone alarm to wake me up at 7am since our power never came back on. When the light woke me up I thought, "Nah, it's not time to wake up. My alarm hasn't gone off yet." Luckily, I did decide to check what time it was because it was already 7:10am!! I rolled out of bed and  threw my clothes on. I had to grab whatever snacks I could since nothing in the fridge would be edible now and was out the door. As I drove to work I got to see the carnage in the light of day. It looked like the Apocalypse had come. Huge trees were knocked in the road, streetlights were snapped in half and about 10 houses had their walls destroyed leaving their backyards completely exposed. I cannot believe that microburst was so powerful that it could annihilate solid brick walls.

When I got to work I got a call from a coworker who apparently lives in the same neighborhood as I do and she said that police had just closed down the road that leads in and out of my street and that if you leave your home that you can't come back in. So now I can't even get back into my house until (hopefully) late this afternoon/evening. Luckily, one of my besties lives right by my work so I'm going to hide out at her house until I get the green light that I can come home. Pretty intense, y'all!

At least no injuries have been reported but I am sad to say that the quail family that lives in my front yard had 6 babies as of yesterday and this morning there were only 2 :(

Adventure Time!

Yesterday was a really fun day. I went on a photo adventure in downtown Phoenix and had a swell time.

I've mentioned it in a previous post, but I've been working on a photo project called "Camera Swap" with my three very cool pen pals, Melissa, Adam and Nikolaus. I bought some cheap disposable cameras and have been taking random, kookie pictures of events and places I encounter in my day-to-day life. 

I've lived in Phoenix for most of my life but I'd never really taken the time to explore the downtown area so I thought that this photo project would provide a perfect opportunity to really look around for unique/cool spots in the city. Also, the weather was nicer than it's been all summer (it was overcast and only about 98 degrees instead of 118 degrees we had last week).  It was kind of challenging juggling the three disposable cameras and also remembering to take a few with my personal camera but I think I did okay. I had never really noticed/appreciated how colorful and lively downtown Phoenix is since I'd only really hung out there at night.

 In retrospect, I wish I would've taken a duplicate photo of all of the things I photographed with the disposables since I'll be shipping them off soon and won't get to see the printed pictures (that's the point of the swap, to take pictures of your life, then to give those moments to someone else). However, I'll most likely be doing this project again since it was so much fun and now I know to take backup pictures so I'll know what pictures I took. At least I got some photos, though.

 After I took most of the photos on the cameras, I stopped for snax at Treehouse Bakery. It's a vegan bakery that's right around the corner from Trunk Space and Bikini Lounge. I got a Spicy Hot Chocolate cupcake and an Iced Tea and it was HEAVEN. I had no idea vegan pastry could be so good! And the store is owned by two girls, so next time you're in that area and find yourself with a sweet tooth, pay them a visit! (I should've taken a picture of our cupcakes!)

Anywho, I'm really looking forward to seeing the pictures my friends take, especially since they all live in cities I've never been to. Melissa is from Glasgow, Adam from Plano, TX and Nikolaus lives in Cologne, Germany. As an added bonus, all of these peeps are talented at photography so I'm pretty much guaranteed to get some rad photos. I need to make a friend in France now, haha!

In other news, I've also recently become OBSESSED with the show, Adventure Time! In less than two weeks I've watched all 5 seasons and made 3 embroidery hoops of characters from the show (and I have a list of more characters I'd like to make into hoops too). Here's some pics, they're pretty math if I do say so myself!

All of these hoops are currently up for grabs in my Etsy shop, so take a gander at www.iggystarpup.etsy.com

I'm so happy I finally gave this show a chance because I absolutely love it. The writing and voice acting is brilliant! I'm even thinking about going as Marceline the Vampire Queen for Halloween now.

Okies, well, I better get some biz done before I have to go to work. 

I'll see you in the Nightosphere, you sick freaks!

Phoenix in Phoenix

Last night I saw one of my favorite bands, Phoenix, at the Marquee Theater in Tempe. I must say it was a spectacular show, in fact, one of the best shows I've been to in recent memory. I was worried that they were going to play mostly songs from their new album "Bankruptcy", which is being released soon, but surprisingly, they played songs mostly from their last album "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix". I was hoping they would play my favorite song "Too Young" but sadly, it wasn't included in their set. No matter, I had a great time singing along and jumping around to killer tunes. It made me reminiscent of my younger days bouncing in my seat to Blink 182 and Weezer at America West Arena (now US Airways Arena). Those were some good times. Anywho, Phoenix's vocalist, Thomas Mars, was a fantastic performer. He jumped into the crowd several times and I was overwhelmed with the desire to touch him! It was so weird! I'm normally pretty weird about human contact but having one of my favorite musicians so close to me turned me into a creeper. Unfortunately, my creeper fantasies were thwarted by about 2 inches (I couldn't reach him) but my friend got to. Better one of us did than none of us, I suppose.  Here's some photos from the show:

Photo courtesy of Sharleen Chen

Photo courtesy of Sharleen Chen

 Since I don't have that much disposable income at the moment I'm unable to go to very many concerts so this concert was an extra special treat. When I do have money again I'd like to see these bands/artists in concert (if they ever visit Arizona):

*Foster the People
*Florence + the Machine
*Two Door Cinema Club
*Metric
*The Black Keys
*Ellie Goulding
*Vampire Weekend

Moving on from the music topic, I had a job interview today that turned out not to be for the job I thought I was applying for. I applied for an office assistant position at a preschool and even noted that that was the position I was applying for THREE times on my application. The person who I was interviewing with managed to go through the entire interview without mentioning once that she was interviewing me for a TEACHING position!! ME!! TEACHING!! I thought it was quite odd that she needed me to take a Tuberculosis test as for a receptionist job but then she started asking me what age range of children I'd like to work with...that's when I had to say, "Wait, I applied for an office assistant job. Is this for a teaching position?" It was. And what's really funny is that she was ready to hire me! The World's Least Child-Friendly woman being a preschool teacher. Good grief!

I have another interview on Thursday for an actual receptionist position which sounds a lot more suited to my skills. I hope it goes well. I'm really really tired of being unemployed (although I'm positive I'll miss being unemployed the day I go back to work). 

I'M IMPOSSIBLE!

P.S. 10 day til my b-day! AAAAAHHHH!

Attack of the New Year

Once again, I am absolutely terrible at updating this blog regularly. My apologizes to all of those who were on pins and needles wondering if I ever got back to Phoenix. To tell you the truth, I wasn't too confident that I was going to get back to Phoenix alive. I won't go into all of the details but the return journey was quite the adventure. Here's a brief summary:

Day 1: Went to pick up Pops at the airport. Circled around for 40 minutes until I thought to check the Departures instead of the Arrivals. He was in the Departures the whole time :/ Loaded up the U-haul truck and cleaned up my bedroom. Crazy-ass landlady conveniently wasn't present for my inspection so she wouldn't have to deal with my father. Horrible horrible traffic all the way out of Seattle. Pops asked to switch drivers after it got dark; the moment I took the wheel I lost control of the trailer and nearly crashed the truck. We switched drivers again. Stopped in a town called Kelso, WA for the night.

Day 2: Drove to Eugene, OR when Pops decided he wanted to ditch the trailer that was pulling my car, meaning I would have to follow him the rest of the way home. Was not thrilled about this idea but wasn't given any choice. On the bright side, was looking forward to listening to my Harry Potter audio books (the U-haul truck had no CD player). Torrential rain and crazy sick fog all through the mountains. Drove white-knuckled for about 400 miles. Stopped in Medford, OR for the night.

Day 3: More torrential rain ALL day. Immense stress following my Dad because he had no cell phone and wouldn't be able to contact him if we got separated. Dad decides to get off I-5 and switches to a different highway. Almost made it to Fresno when traffic comes to a standstill. Stuck in traffic for 3 hours!!! It turned out that there had been a gas leak on the freeway so they couldn't let anyone through. When we finally got off the freeway my windshield wiper broke. Had to locate an auto parts store through flooded streets. Once windshield wiper had been replaced we drove to Stockton, CA then called it a day. Not a very happy pappy by this point.

Day 4: Rain Rain Rain again alllllll day. Add crazy California drivers to the mix and you've got one tense Mama! Drove until I thought I might pass out. Stopped in Bakersfield, CA and counseled with Pops on where we should stay for the night. We found two Super 8 motels on my smart phone, one in North and one in South Bakersfield. We decided on the southern one since it was closest to the freeway. I told my dad three times to exit onto the 99 S but before I knew it he was getting on the 99 N. I honked my horn at him but he exited anyway and the thing I had dreaded had happened. WE WERE SEPARATED. I didn't know what else to do so I continued to follow my navigation system to the motel. When I got there, it wasn't even a Super 8 but a Roadway Inn & Suites so if my dad tried to call the Super 8 in south Bakersfield I wouldn't be there. I pulled over anyway and prepared myself for an epic meltdown. All I could think was "What am I gonna tell Mom?" It was the one of the most terrifying 10 minutes of my life. I had lost the old man. But then my cellphone started ringing; it was the front desk of the north Bakersfield Super 8!! I couldn't believe my dad had A) found the other motel completely on his own and B) remembered my cell phone number was in his wallet. I used my GPS to find the other motel but was still very shaken for the rest of the night. Also of note, we had the worst pizza ever for dinner.

Day 5: Woke up to SUNSHINE. Had not seen actual sunshine in about a month. Kept getting cut off by truck drivers and there was a lot of screaming going on in my car. Drove to Needles (that's where Snoopy's brother Spike lives) and stopped for lunch at Denny's. We had grilled cheeses at Denny's almost every day of the trip. >___< After lunch we switched to a different highway which turned out to be a nightmare. Constant bumps and winding roads for almost 2 hours. Once it got dark I almost fell asleep at the wheel--very scary! Had to turn off audio books after that and crank my I-pod for the rest of the drive. I could tell we had entered the Phoenix city limits when folks started driving 85 mph on the I-10 and I was getting constantly cut off by Honda Civics. I did not miss Arizona drivers one bit. No, sir. Arrived home about 10:30pm and felt close to death but thankful to have made it home ALIVE.

In summary, I felt like Frodo trying to get the ring back to Mordor this entire trip. I honestly didn't think we were going to make it home. It was just one unfortunate event after another. I am glad to be home though. I missed my people here sooooooo much. I've been doing some hardcore hanging out for the past 8 weeks. It's been the cat's pajamas. 

Tomorrow I leave for Florida with my very dear friend, Heather. We are going on our long awaited Harry Potter Land/Disney World trip. It's going to be EPIC. I'm super stoked! Once I return though, playtime will officially be over and I'm going to have to make a real effort to find a full time job. But I'm not gonna think about that now, gonna just focus on VACATION...it's all I've ever wanted ;)

SO LONG STINKTOWN!

R. Crumb

Since my last post a lot of shit has gone down and as a result a very important life decision was made.

It's funny how something as insignificant as a few crumbs forgotten on a counter top could turn into the catalyst that changes your life. I'll never look at crumbs the same way again.

About a week and a half ago I came home to a very long and very passive-aggressive note addressing all of my foibles. It was brought to my attention that I number one, (yes, this note included bullet points) leave a trail of crumbs everywhere I go and fail to clean them up in the appropriate amount of time. Number two, I get tiny splotches of spaghetti sauce on other people's tea kettles and fail to read their minds when they put said tea kettle on "my part of the sink" to communicate to me that it needs to be cleaned. Number three, I own too many pairs of shoes and hog the shoe rack (when there is ample empty space on said shoe rack even with my plethora of shoes). Number four, I feed hungry cats who do not belong to me as not to wake their sleepy owners and change their water dish when it is empty or filled with mud. What a terrible human being I am! I'm so grateful that all of these faults have been brought to my attention! And in such a polite and courteous manner to boot! 

Christ Almighty.

After reading this lovely piece of wisdom I decided it was time to leave this bat-shit crazy house. I immediately set to work looking for a new place of residence. But to my displeasure, all of the available rooms in the area were just as unaffordable as my current sublet. Regardless, I went to look at another room in Redmond. The ad promised a large room in a large, luxurious home. All utilities would be included with the $500 for rent with the addition of free maid service. Wowee! I woke early in the morning, bathed, groomed and optimistically made the short drive to what might be my future home. I walked up the driveway not knowing what a treat I was in for. The carpets looked as if they hadn't been cleaned or vacuumed in 20 years. This "large" house turned out to be very small and was covered in old plates, food, and beer bottles. Could it get any worse? Of course it could, silly goose! The landlord escorted me to the open room and asked me to forgive the "mess" and informed me that the maid would be in soon to tidy up. Maid? WHAT MAID?! The room was small and dank and looked like some poor beast had come to its unfortunate demise in there. The carpet had horrible brown stains all over it and was caked in mud and clods of dirt. And all of this for the low price of only $500 a month! I spent a grand total of 45 seconds in this house before I quickly turned tail.

Since I had planned on this interview to take more than one minute I had about 40 minutes before I had to be at work. A lot of thinking and soul searching was done in that 40 minutes. I saw a glimpse of my future, moving from room to room to room like a gypsy leaving a line of asshole roommates in my wake all while my savings continued to diminish. 

I went into work with a heavy heart. Where would I go? What would I do? I had 4 weeks to figure it out. The stress was making me nauseous and I was filled with despair. On my lunch break I called my dad. I told him I was reaching the end of my rope and was contemplating accepting defeat. Washington had beat me. He told me what I had been thinking since the day I left Arizona, "Come home." He said he could be here by the end of the month and not to worry anymore, that this nightmare would soon be over. 

I accepted this offer.

There comes a time when you have to sacrifice your pride and admit you made a mistake. Seattle was not the place for me. As much as I hate to admit it, Phoenix is my home. It's where I belong. I had everything a person could need in Arizona and it was all right in front of me. I was blind to all that was good in my life. But I think I needed to come here and experience all of this adversity and loneliness so I could be truly grateful for all that I had in the desert. I've learned that in life where you are is less important than who you're with. I need to be with my people to be happy. Emails, texts, and phone calls can't fill your heart the way physically being with the ones you love can. And now I know that first hand. It took two moves to learn this very important lesson. 

But don't get me wrong, this is not an anti-Seattle post. Seattle was great and I met some wonderful individuals here. It's a beautiful and exciting city and I'll remember it fondly. It just isn't home. And it's time for Mama to get back, get back to where she once belonged.

So Arizona, get ready to see your little adventurer again! The Old Man and I will be setting off at the end of this month. It'll be nice to be home for the holidays and bring in the New Year with all my friends. I've missed you all more than you could ever know and you all mean the world to me. You guys ARE my world. 

See you in December!

XOXO!

Your friend,
Courtney

P.S. Here's some pics of my Halloween costume as Bellatrix Lestrange in case you haven't seen them yet!

The Bad Beginning

Hey! Look! Lemony Snicket wrote a book about my first week in Seattle!

So I'm finally in Seattle but it wasn't easy getting here. I never thought my journey here would go so awry. The first unfortunate event was that my old man canceled renting the U-Haul truck 2 DAYS before we were supposed to leave. Part of me knew he would back out of it from the beginning but I was hoping that he wouldn't live up to my expectations of him. Nonetheless, I was very upset when he told me because I had been packing for weeks so I had to go through every box and decide which of my possessions I'd take and what I'd leave behind. This process also took away from time I had planned to spend with my friends so that only added to my discontent. 

We began our journey from Phoenix to Seattle on May the 29th around 12pm. I must say, I am very skilled in the art of car packing. I loaded up every possible nook and cranny. I finally got to apply my Pokemon Puzzle League skills to a real life situation!  Luckily, I remembered to pack my Harry Potter audio books because otherwise I think I might have gone insane from the drive. Sitting in the car for extended periods of time is very difficult for those of us with anxiety disorder so the audio books proved to be a wonderful distraction and a great way to pass the time. We got through almost all of the first three books throughout our journey.

So that first day we drove to Phoenix and the drive went pretty smoothly. We stayed at the Super 8 because we stayed there last time we went to Disneyland and it was comfortable for the price. All day I'd been looking forward to swimming in the pool but when we got there 3 huge buses full of brats pulled in. By the time we got to the pool, it was like the apocalypse had arrived. Brats were everywhere. There was not a foot of space left in the pool and it was utter chaos. I couldn't handle it. We sat in the hot tub for about 5 minutes before I freaked out and had to get out. My dad suggested then that we go to Downtown Disney for a spell and I was totally keen on this idea. I had never been to the "World of Disney" gift shop there and it was pretty overwhelming. It just went on and on and on and on...I was good though. I only bought one Thumper pin to add to my pin collection (I get a new pin every time I visit Disneyland). After that we had dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant in Anaheim, Los Sanchez. When we finished our dinner the fireworks show had just started at the park so we watched it from the parking lot. I think I appreciate fireworks more from a distance. On our way back to the motel I convinced my dad to stop at this Italian ice place that I'd been wanting to try since I was a little girl, Joe's Italian Ice and Ice Cream. It was really good. Not as good as Bahama Bucks (back home) but it was a nice treat after a long day.

We got up pretty early the next morning and were back on the road at 8:30am. I'd been dreading that day of driving the most since that stretch of California is not much to look at. We drove for about 9 hours that day. My dad had wanted to drive all the way to Redding but decided to stop for gas in Willows first. When we pulled out of the gas station, the second unfortunate event occurred. My car started shifting funny. It would sort of jerk every time it would shift gears. I knew this was bad so I talked my dad into staying in Willows for the night. There was a Super 8 right next to the gas station so we decided to stay there. Sweet baby Jesus, what a dump. The tv barely worked, the batteries in the remote kept dying, there was a beetle in my bed, the whole place smelt like curry and the light in the bathroom was shaky so it totally messed up your vision.  The next morning my dad called the tow truck guy and he said he could tow us to Chico, CA. Apparently, my car was too loaded up for him to bring his regular truck so he had to bring this monster old one with no air conditioning, no seat belts and it only went 35 mph. It took about an hour for us to get to Chico and a bee landed in my lap along the way and scared the bejesus out of me.

When we got to the transmission shop they were just clocking out to lunch so we had to wait an hour in their waiting room. When they came back it took them about 2 hours to inspect my car and after they did they said my transmission had to be rebuilt. This process would normally have taken 3 days but since they had started on it so late in the day and would be closed on Sunday he told us it wouldn't be ready til Monday. It was Wednesday at this point so I was completely devastated that we'd be stuck in Chico for 5 days MINIMUM with no car. It was all I could do to not start bawling in the transmission shop. The owner was nice though, and dropped us off at yet another Super 8. This would be our home for almost a week. Again, I had the good sense to bring my N64 and Majora's Mask with me or else I might've lost my damn mind. I came pretty close too. It was hot as ballz in Chico the duration of our stay so we were pretty much trapped in the motel all day. We filled the time by either sleeping, flicking through bad cable tv or playing Nintendo for hours at a time (dad slept during this activity). It was so frustrating; I had a pretty steady panic attack those 5 days, no...6 days. They didn't wind up finishing til 4pm on Monday so we ended up just staying another night. Thank God Chico had a Trader Joe's within walking distance of our motel or I might've starved to death. If anything, this horrible experience made me at least feel grateful that I wasn't born in Chico.

So the money that my dad thought he'd be saving from not renting the U-haul, he spent that and WAY more on having my transmission rebuilt and spending 6 days in a motel. Tuesday morning we got the car back and were back on the road by 8:30am. My old man couldn't bear another night in a motel so we decided to just drive all the way to Seattle. We were on the road for 13 hours. It was god-awful. My body ached for days afterward. We got to Seattle around 9pm and it was dark and raining like crazy. I still can't believe that we were able to find the apartment in the dark. Google maps had told us that we would be able to make a left onto the street that I lived on but in reality you have to turn 2 streets before that and then make several other turns to get in through the back. When we found the correct cross streets we had no idea which complex was mine. I'd seen a pic on Google Streetview so I knew I was looking for a white building. I decided to just get out of the car and look. I was wearing flip flops and a light hoodie (with no glasses) and I had to walk down this hill that was at nearly a 45 degree angle. I'm amazed I didn't slip and fall to my death. When I had tracked down the right apartment I knocked on the door but no one answered. Dad and I figured we could leave her a note and just wait in the car til she got home. I wrote a note but tried the bell one more time and she answered. 

My first impression of my new room was less than desirable. The closet was broken and the former tenant had left tape all over the walls and my roommate had just fed her cat so the place smelt like cat food. On top of that I had no bed so we had to sleep on air mattresses for 2 days. The next day we went to have my brakes looked at since my apartment is surrounded by huge hills and my dad was worried my brakes would give out. They had the car most of the day so I set up my computer while my dad waited at the Econo Lube. The day after that we went mattress shopping. There were about 5 mattress stores on the same street and we went in all of them. We wound up going with the last shop on the block. I'm pretty pleased with my bed. Mama needed a firm mattress. 

We called my mom pretty much everyday since we'd left and she sounded worse every time we talked to her so my dad decided it was best if he went home on Saturday. This was a bummer because we had planned to do all of the touristy stuff here together. It was also a bummer because I still had no furniture in my room other than my bed and wasn't at all confident that I'd be able to build it myself after he left. When I moved to Oregon in 2008 he bought me a bed and then left me there with no furniture. It was totally uncool. I had planned on getting all of my furniture at IKEA but the moment we walked in the door he was like, "This is all junk. I'm not buying anything here." Personally, I like IKEA. I like the simplicity of their designs. Anyway, so Thursday we went to Goodwill (which was a bitch to find) and they had NOTHING. It was the worst Goodwill I've ever been to. We went to a couple stores after that and nobody had anything. So Friday was our last day to find me some furniture so my dad agreed to try IKEA. This time he had a much better attitude (I think he also knew he'd be in dutch with my mom if he came home again without buying me any furniture). We looked at EVERYTHING in IKEA and it turned out to be really fun. He got me a dresser, a desk, a desk chair, a lamp and some other various whatnots. We even ate at their restaurant and had some yummy lentil soup. 

When we got home we took a break and watched some "Breaking Bad". We watched like, 15 episodes in the 3 days that he was here. I'm totally addicted to it now. We didn't start building the furniture til about 7:30pm and I was really doubtful that we'd finish it by the time he had to leave but we did it! We built until 1:30am but we finished it! We'd never built anything together before and it turned out to be a lot of fun. It was a total team effort too. He said he wouldn't have been able to do it without me. He said it was a "two brain project" :) Now whenever I look at my furniture I can think to myself, "Team Price built that shit!" 

The next morning was hard. My dad's flight was at 11:10am so I dropped him off at the airport at 9am. It was so difficult saying goodbye. I'm crazy about my old man. He's amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better father. Through this whole adventure he was so kind, generous, supportive, and just wonderful. When I drove away from the airport I got super emotional. I'd gotten so used to having him around 24 hours a day for the past 11 days and now I'm alone in a city I don't know. I bawled for about 2 hours when I got home then I watched some more "Breaking Bad". I had ordered a cell phone the day before and I paid for overnight shipping so I was hoping it would come that day. It didn't.

So began the third unfortunate event. I had decided to go with Boost Mobile since I was very intrigued with their shrinkage program and being able to have unlimited everything for $55/month. If you ordered online you could use a coupon to get $20 off so I decided to go with that instead of buying it at the store. Man, I wish I'd just bought it at the store. I paid extra for the overnight shipping so it would get here by Saturday...I didn't wind up getting it til Tuesday. And I had a hell of a time tracking it down. Fucking FedEx. FedEx is pretty high on my Enemy's List now. I was able to track my package so on Monday when I checked on its status it said it had been delivered and signed for by a J. Florez. I was like, "Why would somebody else sign for my package? I've been here all day?" So I started knocking on doors hoping that someone in my building would have it. Since it was about 1pm naturally nobody was here but the repair guy saw me knocking on a door and was like, "Do you need some help?" I explained to him that somebody had signed for my package and I was trying to locate that person. I called the property manager to see if she knew of anyone by that name. She didn't answer so he left a message and said he'd come get me if she called back. I waited around some more and emailed FedEx a nasty email saying that I didn't understand how a third party was allowed to sign for my package and if my package didn't get returned to me I was gonna raise hell. After a few hours I decided to knock on some more doors. No luck. I ran into some other dudes in my building and they let me use their phone to call the manager here. She was totally bitchy and said that there wasn't anyone  in the building by that name. Great. 

By this point I was thinking, "Some asshole stole my phone!" I didn't know what to do and I couldn't even call my parents to tell them what was happening. That night FedEx wrote back to me and said that they don't mail to specific people, just to whatever address is on the air bill. They also said that often with apartment complexes they'll send it to the main office of the apartments then it's up to the office to distribute them to the tenant. The office that my package wound up at isn't affiliated with my complex whatsoever. Fucking FedEx. The next morning I was hell bent on finding the phone. Of course it was raining that morning (it hadn't rained in days) I found the apartments but there were about 5 buildings and I had no idea where the office would be. So I'm wandering around (with no glasses again because it's raining) all while being illegally parked because I thought I'd just be in and out. I asked some construction guys if they knew where the office was. Of course they didn't. I was about to give up when I saw a dude walking down the stairs. I asked him if he lived there and he said he did. I told him how my package wound up at this complex when I didn't even live there and he showed me to the office. That's one thing that I like about Seattle, a lot of people have been really courteous to me. When I went into the office there were two old dudes there and I explained about the package. They said they'd never gotten any mail from my building and how weird that was. Yeah, I know. It was bullshit.

So, in conclusion, my journey to Seattle had a very rocky start and there's been some bumps in the road since I got here. But everyone keeps telling me that it'll get better. And I'm assuming it will. Every day I'm getting a little more comfortable with the area and I haven't gotten myself too lost yet. The traffic here is bananas and I totally wasn't prepared for it. The streets here are super narrow and everyone parks on the street too which makes it tricky to get around without hitting someone. And then there's the inevitable loneliness that comes with moving to a new city. I haven't found a job yet so I'm home by myself a lot. I miss my family and my friends like crazy. I hope they don't forget about me...

Welp, that's my story about my journey to the Pacific Northwest. Let's just hope that it has a happy ending!

Laters!

P.S. Here's a pic of me in my new apartment and one of my new room: