Mercury Sable, Pretty Good Bed (Not!)

Yesterday was one of the most tiring days I’ve had in a long time. It all started at 1:30AM when I got home from the Costa Mesa Beercasting Squad. I had been staying in downtown LA the entire time here in Southern California. It’s my partner’s boyfriend’s place and I’m incredibly grateful.

In any event, there’s absolutely no parking available here. I thought New York was bad, but at least there’s a garage if you really need one. No such luck here. I ended up getting to bed at 2AM. Of course, I had to get up extra early for 2 reasons: 1) to beat getting towed at the meter I was parked on (7AM deadline) and 2) to beat the damned LA traffic.

I don’t know about you, but when I have to be up early I keep waking up to check what time it is. I’ve been doing this for more than a week now. On this occassion I started checking at 3:30 all the way up until 5:30AM when I just gave up, got up, showered and left. I was on the road by 6:15AM.

Fortunately, I missed most of the traffic and landed at the Starbucks near the airport where I figure I would do some work before heading off for my 11:35 flight. So I did my work and headed off to the airport, returned the car, and went to check in. Blasted computer won’t take my card so I head over to the counter to check in. Did I say 11:35 flight? Not the one to Oakland (my destination). 11:35 was indeed the time the flight LANDED! I was too tired to look carefully at 2AM and I just pissed away my flight 2 miles from the airport. Though I was annoyed, I was comforted that I made the mistake and that I had until 7PM to make it to the SF Podcasters Meetup so no sweat.

The kind folks at JetBlue re-booked me on the next flight - at 3:40PM. Of course, I just dropped my car off (the weekly rental that I had another day on). So I went into the Long Beach airport and waited. As life goes, as I am waiting there, I see a familiar face. Turns out one of my best friends from college that I fell out of touch with walks by like nobody’s business. I call him out and we get to spend and hour and a half catching up on things.

Great. That got me till 1PM. I then spent another 45 minutes waiting as the painfully slow Internet connection downloaded the 185 messages that had piled up since I check my mail 3 hours earlier. At about 2:30 or so, we’re rewarded with an announcement that the flight to Long Beach has been delayed until 5PM and won’t arrive until 6:20PM. Wonderful.

At this poinnt, I start to do some serious soul searching. My bags are checked and in that neverland we’re not welcome to see. I’m sitting there, waiting for a once-delayed plane wincing that it might get pushed back again. I’m busy weighing if I want to go now since I have to catch a 6:45AM flight BACK to Long Beach to squeeze in a day of work with my partner before I head home later tonight. I get one call from Pappoe. He says screw it and cancel. Save the credits and come back next month (as I need to). I call Zak by chance (he’s slowly worming his way back from San Diego to catch his 9PM flight home). Zak advises that today seems like a day I was destined to go. He noted that being able to meet with other podcasters and to get the SF node started is worth it. He made sense and I decided to go.

Flight leaves on time (the new time). I land at 6:30 and wait another 20 minutes to claim my bag. By the time I reach the rental car area, it’s already 7PM. Then comes the joy of renting from the cheapest rental car company you can find. I had to wait for ANOTHER shuttle from the rental car depot to their offsite location (that’s 2 shuttles). Finally the guy shows up and he’s kind enough to let me know Im buggared and it could take me an hour from Oakland to get into SF. Fun.

I arrive at the rental office and it’s totally ghetto. In fact, I had to wait for another 10 mniutes while the girl in the back deal with her personal calls - I’m on a clock dammit! Finally, another employee comes in from outside. She brings in 2 other sets of people (who were apparently there first). Long story short, it takes me until 7:46PM to get out of the rental office with my trusty Mercury Sable - yep, living in the lap of luxury.

By some divine miracle, I make it into SF in record time. Not a lick of traffic anywhere. By 8:15PM I am on S. Van Ness (going the wrong direction of course), but heck I am in San Francisco. I eventually turn around and correct my heading. I’m in SF Podcasting Land by 8:40PM.

By 9:15PM I have 2 kits setup and we’re getting people moving around. In total, there was 20 people at the event when I arrived. I managed to get about 14 people to participate (it will all get posted in a week or so). The main group left at 11PM or something, but I stayed back with Anthony and Rodrigo to do a couple more rounds. We stayed until past midnight. Another first, I actually dozed off during one of the Beercasts, haha. It wasn’t for long, but it was funny enough.

I was planning on staying on Anthony’s couch, but it was nearing 1AM and I had to be back in Oakland by 5AM. I made the decision that it would be easier and let me sleep longer if I went back to the rental car depot and just slept in the car. Finally, at 1:30AM (a full 24 hours later), I make it to the parking lot and try to sleep for the next few hours until the airport shuttle starts running again.

This time I made my flight on time. I’m here in the same Starbucks, waiting for traffic to die down so I can head up to Marina Del Rey to get some more work done. I’m tired as hell and I look like shit, but that’s life on the road.

So was it all worth it? Hell’s yeah. I met a bunch of the folks I read and hear. I met with people I had met previously but not seen for some time. I left behind one Beercasting Kit with Anthony - he’s going to lead the Beercasting efforts in San Francisco from now on. I’ve booked a tentative date with Rodrigo for the Miami Beercasting Squad (in about 3 weeks).

What else could I ask for in 24 hours?