I can't believe I did that!
When I got to work yesterday there was someone sitting at my desk, the person who'd covered for me all last week, and when she saw me she asked "what are you doing here?" She thought I wasn't coming back until today. I told her I wish someone had told me that, because I could have used another day -- big time! Then my boss saw me and asked the same thing. He thought I was coming back today. When I originally scheduled my vacation, I was going to take Monday off because we thought we might drive and would need the time to recover. But when we decided to fly, I figured I didn't need the extra day. Still, something in my head made me set up my out of office assistant in Outlook to say that I would be out until October 4th, and I set that up the day I left. Bottom line: I could have stayed home from work yesterday and no one would have thought anything of it. How did that happen?! I love being on vacation! For the first time in my life, I shorted myself. That sucks!
Anyway, Newport Beach is my kinda town. Except the exotic cars and expensive restaurants. Don't get me wrong: it's not that I don't like those things, but they are WAY out of my price range. We saw Ferraris, Maseratis, Bentleys and a Lotus, just to name a few. I never saw so many Bentleys running around. I guess any place that has a Bentley dealership and a Ferrari dealership on its main drag is bound to be that way. What the hell do all these people do for a living?! Dammit, I knew I should've gotten into real estate 5 years ago. That could be me.
Aside from the fact that a lot of people around there appeared to be dripping with money, it was pretty easy to get around and there were lots of beautiful beaches. The water was cold, but clear and beautiful. We walked around Crystal Cove State Park and watched birds fish for food; we spent an afternoon on the Balboa Peninsula and walked out on a pier, then did our souvenir shopping; we spent a day at Catalina Island, which was cool especially with the hour-long boat ride we got to take to get there; spent some time at Laguna Beach (BEAUTIFUL beach), and generally tooled around the coast. Very nice. And not all of the restaurants were crazy expensive -- there's just an abundance of them. While we were there, we celebrated my stepmother's birthday, my father and stepmother's wedding anniversary, and my father's birthday, all of which occur within a week of one another. Lots of champagne was consumed. And beer. And wine. And whatever. A lot. I may still be drunk, 3 days after getting home. Okay, that might be an exaggeration.
That Orange County airport was a breeze to get to and get through. We were supposed to leave on a 12:35 flight but were ready early and called in to get moved up to a 10:15 flight. That gave us an hour and a half to get from the villa to fill up the rental car with gas, return it, check our bags, go through the security checkpoint and get to our gate. We were sitting at the gate, ready to go by 9:30. Not bad!
I still haven't managed to put the house back together. It wasn't spotless when we left, which is a bummer because it's so much nicer to come home to a clean house, but I just pissed away the time before we went and that's pretty much what I've done since we've been back. I mean what, really, have I done? I've read all my e-mails (this computer is such a time suck), did some laundry (but didn't have that much because we were able to do laundry while we were away), changed the sheets on the bed, took out the trash and ran some errands (bank, minor shopping, post office). Still, there is clutter everywhere I look and I am not that motivated to clean it up. It's kinda making me crazy.
When we got back our cat was meowing through the door. She knew we were there, and was demanding we get into the house. She was so happy to see us! She followed me around for the rest of the day -- I couldn't get annoyed with her, seeing as we disappeared on her, but she was all up in my face. When she found herself alone in a room, thinking we'd disappeared again, she started up with this weird meow that was basically like, WTF? Where the hell are you? I had to go where she was to show her we were still there. Funny. She's such a good kitty.
So I know that's a pretty general description of the vacation, but honestly we spent most of our time relaxing and enjoying the fact that we were not at work (or running around in circles with the 4 other people vacationing with us trying to figure out what the hell to do). It also took us a few days to get our bearings and feel like we knew where we were when we were driving around. We didn't even go near L.A. like we thought we might. We did go visit some friends who live about 45 minutes from where we were staying. We'd never seen their house and they've been to Sacramento a zillion times. That was fun. They made us carne asada and pollo asada. YUM. Still, the TRAFFIC out that way . . . kinda like Sacramento, and that is not a good thing. I'm sure it's even worse on the 405. Of course, since the mountains caught on fire while we were down there, that also kept us from venturing out too far. Who wants to get stuck in traffic with a bunch of people trying to avoid that!
Overall, it was a great vacation. We did like the fact that we were able to hop on a plane and magically appear home an hour and a half later, but it did cost us quite a bit more than if we'd driven. Next time we go down that way, we'll probably drive. Road trip!
Now, I've gotta get my ass into the shower and out the door in about a half hour. I need more time!
Anyway, Newport Beach is my kinda town. Except the exotic cars and expensive restaurants. Don't get me wrong: it's not that I don't like those things, but they are WAY out of my price range. We saw Ferraris, Maseratis, Bentleys and a Lotus, just to name a few. I never saw so many Bentleys running around. I guess any place that has a Bentley dealership and a Ferrari dealership on its main drag is bound to be that way. What the hell do all these people do for a living?! Dammit, I knew I should've gotten into real estate 5 years ago. That could be me.
Aside from the fact that a lot of people around there appeared to be dripping with money, it was pretty easy to get around and there were lots of beautiful beaches. The water was cold, but clear and beautiful. We walked around Crystal Cove State Park and watched birds fish for food; we spent an afternoon on the Balboa Peninsula and walked out on a pier, then did our souvenir shopping; we spent a day at Catalina Island, which was cool especially with the hour-long boat ride we got to take to get there; spent some time at Laguna Beach (BEAUTIFUL beach), and generally tooled around the coast. Very nice. And not all of the restaurants were crazy expensive -- there's just an abundance of them. While we were there, we celebrated my stepmother's birthday, my father and stepmother's wedding anniversary, and my father's birthday, all of which occur within a week of one another. Lots of champagne was consumed. And beer. And wine. And whatever. A lot. I may still be drunk, 3 days after getting home. Okay, that might be an exaggeration.
That Orange County airport was a breeze to get to and get through. We were supposed to leave on a 12:35 flight but were ready early and called in to get moved up to a 10:15 flight. That gave us an hour and a half to get from the villa to fill up the rental car with gas, return it, check our bags, go through the security checkpoint and get to our gate. We were sitting at the gate, ready to go by 9:30. Not bad!
I still haven't managed to put the house back together. It wasn't spotless when we left, which is a bummer because it's so much nicer to come home to a clean house, but I just pissed away the time before we went and that's pretty much what I've done since we've been back. I mean what, really, have I done? I've read all my e-mails (this computer is such a time suck), did some laundry (but didn't have that much because we were able to do laundry while we were away), changed the sheets on the bed, took out the trash and ran some errands (bank, minor shopping, post office). Still, there is clutter everywhere I look and I am not that motivated to clean it up. It's kinda making me crazy.
When we got back our cat was meowing through the door. She knew we were there, and was demanding we get into the house. She was so happy to see us! She followed me around for the rest of the day -- I couldn't get annoyed with her, seeing as we disappeared on her, but she was all up in my face. When she found herself alone in a room, thinking we'd disappeared again, she started up with this weird meow that was basically like, WTF? Where the hell are you? I had to go where she was to show her we were still there. Funny. She's such a good kitty.
So I know that's a pretty general description of the vacation, but honestly we spent most of our time relaxing and enjoying the fact that we were not at work (or running around in circles with the 4 other people vacationing with us trying to figure out what the hell to do). It also took us a few days to get our bearings and feel like we knew where we were when we were driving around. We didn't even go near L.A. like we thought we might. We did go visit some friends who live about 45 minutes from where we were staying. We'd never seen their house and they've been to Sacramento a zillion times. That was fun. They made us carne asada and pollo asada. YUM. Still, the TRAFFIC out that way . . . kinda like Sacramento, and that is not a good thing. I'm sure it's even worse on the 405. Of course, since the mountains caught on fire while we were down there, that also kept us from venturing out too far. Who wants to get stuck in traffic with a bunch of people trying to avoid that!
Overall, it was a great vacation. We did like the fact that we were able to hop on a plane and magically appear home an hour and a half later, but it did cost us quite a bit more than if we'd driven. Next time we go down that way, we'll probably drive. Road trip!
Now, I've gotta get my ass into the shower and out the door in about a half hour. I need more time!
posted by PlatinumGirl at 6:59 AM
4 Comments:
sounds like you had fun!
i have to disagree with arm...
steve and i have spent many, many hours driving and we've always had fun...
although, maybe because i fall asleep for most of it :P
welcome back. and i love SNA (orange county airport), they are so fast with their security checks. i pay xtra to fly out of there and avoid the nightmare of LAX.
your poor kitty made me laugh, the WTF meow. Heh.
at least your cat welcomes you back...mine just looks at me like "oh you're back, you didn't buy that shitty food again did you?"
Wow, I've been really bad about responding to comments lately -- though I have read them all as they've come in. Anyhoo:
Arm: I'm sensing a pattern with you.
Grrrace: The husband is much better about vacations these days -- able to appreciate a change of scenery instead of pining for home.
Tracey: I'd recommend it.
J: The OC airport rocks. And my cat is a nut. She definitely has different meows!
Tracy: My cat probably doesn't care what kind of food we buy -- she horfs it down and yaks it up just the same!
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