It's been a rough 3 days.
Not enough time! We had several things planned this weekend (reminder to self, only one thing is allowed to be planned per weekend from now on). Let me start by saying that sleep is the most important thing in the world to me. More important than coffee or chocolate or my husband. It is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. So staying up late to take care of things is not an option.
We were planning to go out of town Saturday and about Thursday afternoon, I realized I'd have no time to pack because of the tight schedule. Thursday night is Yoga night, which I wasn't going to miss. I ride my bike to the class, so somehow, the whole ordeal takes up 3 hours of my night. When I get home, I only have time for a shower and a smoothy before bed. So I had the 45 minutes before yoga class to try to plan and pack what I wanted to take to Oakland to see Peter Murphy. It's not like I could just throw a couple of things in a bag. I had to plan this.
But I can't actually pack anything, because Pandora would freak out and most likely do a protest pee on the luggage. So I piled things in a pile in preparation for last minute packing.
Friday was ridiculously busy at work and I even had to stay a little late. The last three weeks, I've had zero to do and basically just sat at work all day playing words with friends, but Friday was busy. I got home just in time to eat something and then head out to the SJ bike party ride. It was a 24 mile ride that lasted till midnight. We got home at 12:30 and had to go straight to bed, (despite the fact we were starving) because we had to get up in less than 8 precious hours to hit the road.
Saturday, crack of dawn, we threw stuff in the luggage, (it didn't fit-so we unpacked and repacked in bigger luggage) and drove to Oakland. We dropped off our luggage and car at a hotel, then had to catch the bart, a bus and walk 2 miles to get to an event for the AIDS lifecycle ride. During that walk, little known to us, because of the wind and cold, we were being fried to a crisp by the sun. We are both beet red now. The Picnic, for which we got up too early was really kind of a fail, and it turns out we could have easily driven there, but they made such a big deal out of the no parking situation that we did not. After the picnic, we walked back to a known bus stop and headed for the Haight, where LT sold 3 pairs of goggles to a steampunk store. That's right. They gobbled them up. They are no longer on Etsy. Snoozers are losers.
Then we FINALLY got back to the hotel at around 4:30, completely exhausted from lack of sleep, sunburn and unexpected long amounts of walking after strenuous yoga and a long bike ride the previous two days. We managed about an hour nap and had to get up and eat (starving!!) Then we had to power prepare for the Peter Murphy concert. I was NOT prepared to be bright red on my face except for white circles where my sunglasses were. I made do with what makeup I had to conceal the insanity and off we marched through the vacant streets of Oakland to see Peter. I didn't know there were two bands before Peter, and I ended up standing right up front being crushed and abused for 5 hours. See my FB post for details. The Oakland crowd was rude, drunk and misbehaved, and I think, because of the fights that were going on inches from the stage, Peter pretty much cut his show in half and walked off without an encore. Nice. Thanks Oakland mother fuckers.
We got back to the hotel at 12:47. I thought I could finally catch up on my sleep in the morning (even though I'd have to miss the complimentary continental breaky-which only went from 7-9 (?? on a Sunday??). But no. There was no sleep. There were clubs near the otherwise completely deserted and echoey CBD of Oakland, so there was the usual club noise, PLUS, some lady screaming at the top of her lungs for hours. Was she being murdered? I'm not sure. It sounded like it. And there was the asshole mother fucker with his Harley, who apparently found great great joy in riding through the empty, echoey streets of Oakland, just gunning it over and over and over again for two hours. And then there were the car alarms. Oh the car alarms.
I think all the chaos stopped at 4 am or so. I think I fell asleep then. Doing my math, I noted I would not get my 8 hours before checkout time, but I'd get 7 at least. Wrong. At 9 am, 5 hours into my slumber, some loud ass motherfucking rap started BLASTING in the alley right outside our window. And it didn't stop. And then there was lots of shouting. They had closed the street for some kind of sporting event. At 9am on a Sunday. And the guests in the hotel were also blasting their own music in the hall. Everyone else on our floor was there for a wedding so they all knew each other. It was a hall party. I finally got up, starving, and with a pounding headache I'd actually had since FRIDAY AFTERNOON, and got ready and just got the hell out of there. I'm in bed now, at the apartment in which I live (I can't call it home), and I'm not leaving. At least until work tomorrow.
What have I learned? I guess I better forget about going to burning man next year. There's no sleep there. I better cross it off my things to do list.
We were planning to go out of town Saturday and about Thursday afternoon, I realized I'd have no time to pack because of the tight schedule. Thursday night is Yoga night, which I wasn't going to miss. I ride my bike to the class, so somehow, the whole ordeal takes up 3 hours of my night. When I get home, I only have time for a shower and a smoothy before bed. So I had the 45 minutes before yoga class to try to plan and pack what I wanted to take to Oakland to see Peter Murphy. It's not like I could just throw a couple of things in a bag. I had to plan this.
But I can't actually pack anything, because Pandora would freak out and most likely do a protest pee on the luggage. So I piled things in a pile in preparation for last minute packing.
Friday was ridiculously busy at work and I even had to stay a little late. The last three weeks, I've had zero to do and basically just sat at work all day playing words with friends, but Friday was busy. I got home just in time to eat something and then head out to the SJ bike party ride. It was a 24 mile ride that lasted till midnight. We got home at 12:30 and had to go straight to bed, (despite the fact we were starving) because we had to get up in less than 8 precious hours to hit the road.
Saturday, crack of dawn, we threw stuff in the luggage, (it didn't fit-so we unpacked and repacked in bigger luggage) and drove to Oakland. We dropped off our luggage and car at a hotel, then had to catch the bart, a bus and walk 2 miles to get to an event for the AIDS lifecycle ride. During that walk, little known to us, because of the wind and cold, we were being fried to a crisp by the sun. We are both beet red now. The Picnic, for which we got up too early was really kind of a fail, and it turns out we could have easily driven there, but they made such a big deal out of the no parking situation that we did not. After the picnic, we walked back to a known bus stop and headed for the Haight, where LT sold 3 pairs of goggles to a steampunk store. That's right. They gobbled them up. They are no longer on Etsy. Snoozers are losers.
Then we FINALLY got back to the hotel at around 4:30, completely exhausted from lack of sleep, sunburn and unexpected long amounts of walking after strenuous yoga and a long bike ride the previous two days. We managed about an hour nap and had to get up and eat (starving!!) Then we had to power prepare for the Peter Murphy concert. I was NOT prepared to be bright red on my face except for white circles where my sunglasses were. I made do with what makeup I had to conceal the insanity and off we marched through the vacant streets of Oakland to see Peter. I didn't know there were two bands before Peter, and I ended up standing right up front being crushed and abused for 5 hours. See my FB post for details. The Oakland crowd was rude, drunk and misbehaved, and I think, because of the fights that were going on inches from the stage, Peter pretty much cut his show in half and walked off without an encore. Nice. Thanks Oakland mother fuckers.
We got back to the hotel at 12:47. I thought I could finally catch up on my sleep in the morning (even though I'd have to miss the complimentary continental breaky-which only went from 7-9 (?? on a Sunday??). But no. There was no sleep. There were clubs near the otherwise completely deserted and echoey CBD of Oakland, so there was the usual club noise, PLUS, some lady screaming at the top of her lungs for hours. Was she being murdered? I'm not sure. It sounded like it. And there was the asshole mother fucker with his Harley, who apparently found great great joy in riding through the empty, echoey streets of Oakland, just gunning it over and over and over again for two hours. And then there were the car alarms. Oh the car alarms.
I think all the chaos stopped at 4 am or so. I think I fell asleep then. Doing my math, I noted I would not get my 8 hours before checkout time, but I'd get 7 at least. Wrong. At 9 am, 5 hours into my slumber, some loud ass motherfucking rap started BLASTING in the alley right outside our window. And it didn't stop. And then there was lots of shouting. They had closed the street for some kind of sporting event. At 9am on a Sunday. And the guests in the hotel were also blasting their own music in the hall. Everyone else on our floor was there for a wedding so they all knew each other. It was a hall party. I finally got up, starving, and with a pounding headache I'd actually had since FRIDAY AFTERNOON, and got ready and just got the hell out of there. I'm in bed now, at the apartment in which I live (I can't call it home), and I'm not leaving. At least until work tomorrow.
What have I learned? I guess I better forget about going to burning man next year. There's no sleep there. I better cross it off my things to do list.