So...How Was It?--Day One

Well, I'm back from sunny SoCal.  I survived.  The kids survived.  Probably most importantly, my saint of a mother who stayed with 3 teenagers and a pre-teen while I was gone survived.

And people keep asking how the trip was.  So here's a recap:

2.14.13--Day One
Left my house at 4:30 am to catch a 6:30 am flight.  Didn't sleep at all the evening before (too afraid I'd oversleep and miss the plane.  And I still had stuff to do.  Like pack.  And clear a space in my office for my mom to work).  I now know why they say that driving while exhausted is as dangerous as driving under the influence.  Lesson learned.  I'm too old for that kind of thing.

Slept intermittently on the plane to Denver.  Made my connecting flight to John Wayne just fine.  Slept intermittently on that flight.  Did fine.  No problems.

Until we started our descent into LA.  I had a window seat.  As I looked out over the foreign landscape--mountains--and miles and miles and miles of houses, I started to cry.  Completely full flight, so I tried to cry without making any noise. (This always makes my nose run like a faucet.  SO attractive).  It hit me like a Mac truck that those miles and miles of houses contain people.  But even with all of those people in all of those houses, there aren't any that care about my kids.  My family.  Me.

And we have lots of people who care about us here.  

And then a small voice said to me, "Better Half is in one of those buildings.  And he cares about all of you very much."  Fine.  Point taken.  But that didn't stop the crying.

Due to the timing of a meeting, Better Half was able to pick me up about 30 minutes after I landed.  Which was the PERFECT amount of time for me to get my emotions under control, touch up my makeup, and be genuinely excited to see him, even if I was less than excited about moving to California.

Better Half is a very wise man.  Our first stop in Sunny CA was Laguna Beach.  We had a lovely little lunch and then walked to the ocean.  How do you truly hate a place that has an ocean?

You don't.

So after we walked along the beach, we meandered around the shops and restaurants nearby.  And we found this:

Of course, I had to go in.  Sadly, they were sold out of cupcakes by the time we got there.  But they had all kinds of merchandise with their logo.  Since it seemed mildly inappropriate to purchase and wear a T-Shirt with "Casey's Cupcakes" screen-printed across the chest, I left with a coffee mug.

After our lovely afternoon in Laguna, we headed back to Better Half's apartment.  My ability to draw drama like a magnet reared its ugly head in the middle of rush hour traffic on the LA interstate.  Alarms started going off in Better Half's car.  And messages like, "Electrical Failure" popped up on screens. (More on this adventure later) Fortunately, the car managed to get us to his apartment with nothing more than annoying alarms every 10 minutes.

Better Half has a darling little apartment with a beautiful balcony view and these waiting for me on the table when I got there :o)

We went to a fantastic sushi place for dinner and, party girl that I am, I was in bed and snoring by 10pm Central time.  8pm in California.