"It's the happy moments along the way..."
Well, I've had an eventful weekend. A couple weeks ago Grandma died. This week was the service, down in LA. It was held down there since both her church and friends live there. The family started our drive down Thursday night. Dana and I went in a separate car, so we would have the luxury of peace from the little ones and such. We stopped in Stockton for dinner with Nicole and Emily, my old roomies. We went to the Macaroni Grill, but then the issues started to creep in.
Shortly after we had all ordered, the power went out. Instead of telling everyone to leave, they pretty much ignored us for 20+ minutes while scrambling around. Then they asked us politely to leave. Oh, after paying over $18 for two drinks. After that we went across the street to The Creamery, where we had a tasty dinner. Of course, by that point far too much time had passed and we wound up crashing there. I love those girls, I need to see 'em more often.
Dana and I were up nice and early the next morning and got back on the road at around 7. Ended up at our hotel, Embassy Suites, around 12:30-1. Spent some time in the Brea mall, saying hi to the family that was there, and so on.
I had planned on hanging out with Crystal, an old friend I hadn't seen since the third grade, that night and that nearly didn't happen. Health complications arose, but luckily we still got together latter that night. We hung out with her friend, grabbed dinner, I met her roomie, saw her schnazzy couch, and generally had a nifty time.
Saturday was interesting. First up was Grandma's internment. The pastor said some nice things, and then they buried her right then and there (she was cremated). A bit of a surprise, but it was very respectful and nice.
Then we all drove over to her old church for the service, which we had to stall because Uncle Bruce's flight from New York had been delayed by storms and he had just gotten in. The pastor said some prayers, Uncle Bruce, Aunt Ruth, and a couple others went up to speak, talking of memories and such. Afterwards there was a small reception, with lots of Grandma's friends, several of which I got to meet. Very peaceful on the whole. Not the best way to spend st Patrick's Day, but there are worse than thinking of fond memories of your grandmother and sharing them.
Sunday was Disneyland. That was pretty awesome. It was me, Dana, and Crystal, from 8 AM to midnight. Well, it was supposed to be 8, but we wound up there around 9:30 or so (I think). Oh well. Splash Mountain, sadly, was closed, but aside from that we had an awesome time. Peter Pan, Pirates, the Mountain Railroad, and many other rides. Crystal was trying to consume every Churro in sight, and my sister quickly joined her in the quest. Crystal's friend showed up a bit later and we all went to lunch, quite tasty. Then we headed over to California Adventure, and went on the roller coaster, ferris wheel, and the Hollywood Tower of Terror (the ride of the day). The day progressed in happy Disneyland fashion, and though Muse took off for a bit, he returned later with his sister. We never really got around to eating dinner, but we did make a second trip both to Indiana Jones and the Tower of Terror. Oh, and Space Mountain shut down the first time we were half way through the line (talk about annoying), but we made it that evening. We finished off the day with the Teacups(which I was probably to enthusiastic in) and It's a Small World. Great day.
Monday was time to leave. I missed breakfast, but I got to have lunch with Crystal and Muse and a good curry place. We said goodbye, but we'll hopefully be seeing each other much more often than once every 15 years now.
And then the real issues cropped up. I'm going to paste tem since I really don't feel like typing them twice.
Well, first, after leaving you at lunch, I wound up on the wrong Chapman, and had to spend a while hunting down the folks. Then Dana and I took 57 North (instead of the slightly easier but pontentially longer 5) and wound up turning onto 60 instead of staying on 57
Matt Johnson: didn't realize that until we ran across I-15, so we took that north to 210 and backtracked all the way to 5.
Crystal: Ah. So you took from me my navigational prowess then, eh?
Matt Johnson: Then, on the way out of the grapevine, I turned into what I assumed to be a carpool lane. since all of 210's carpools lanes were divided by a yellow line I didn't think much of it. Turns out it was an emergency gravel pit stop for trucks with no brakes. Yeah, that sucked
Matt Johnson: and then the CHP beat AAA and I wound up with a lovely ugly ticket, and naturally his tow truck was faster than the AAA one and didn't accept AAA in payment so there was an extra 160 for the 10 meter tow out of the gravel. After THAT fiasco we somehow wound up on 99 instead of 5 and at that point, instead of getting home, we stopped for the night
Matt Johnson: Oh, and I hate getting off in Pasadena, because it's a pain in the ass to get onto 210 North once you get off looking for gas
Boiled down: It sucked.
Well, I'm home now.
"The endings are never ever happy, it's the happy moments along the way, that in the end, make it ok."
Shortly after we had all ordered, the power went out. Instead of telling everyone to leave, they pretty much ignored us for 20+ minutes while scrambling around. Then they asked us politely to leave. Oh, after paying over $18 for two drinks. After that we went across the street to The Creamery, where we had a tasty dinner. Of course, by that point far too much time had passed and we wound up crashing there. I love those girls, I need to see 'em more often.
Dana and I were up nice and early the next morning and got back on the road at around 7. Ended up at our hotel, Embassy Suites, around 12:30-1. Spent some time in the Brea mall, saying hi to the family that was there, and so on.
I had planned on hanging out with Crystal, an old friend I hadn't seen since the third grade, that night and that nearly didn't happen. Health complications arose, but luckily we still got together latter that night. We hung out with her friend, grabbed dinner, I met her roomie, saw her schnazzy couch, and generally had a nifty time.
Saturday was interesting. First up was Grandma's internment. The pastor said some nice things, and then they buried her right then and there (she was cremated). A bit of a surprise, but it was very respectful and nice.
Then we all drove over to her old church for the service, which we had to stall because Uncle Bruce's flight from New York had been delayed by storms and he had just gotten in. The pastor said some prayers, Uncle Bruce, Aunt Ruth, and a couple others went up to speak, talking of memories and such. Afterwards there was a small reception, with lots of Grandma's friends, several of which I got to meet. Very peaceful on the whole. Not the best way to spend st Patrick's Day, but there are worse than thinking of fond memories of your grandmother and sharing them.
Sunday was Disneyland. That was pretty awesome. It was me, Dana, and Crystal, from 8 AM to midnight. Well, it was supposed to be 8, but we wound up there around 9:30 or so (I think). Oh well. Splash Mountain, sadly, was closed, but aside from that we had an awesome time. Peter Pan, Pirates, the Mountain Railroad, and many other rides. Crystal was trying to consume every Churro in sight, and my sister quickly joined her in the quest. Crystal's friend showed up a bit later and we all went to lunch, quite tasty. Then we headed over to California Adventure, and went on the roller coaster, ferris wheel, and the Hollywood Tower of Terror (the ride of the day). The day progressed in happy Disneyland fashion, and though Muse took off for a bit, he returned later with his sister. We never really got around to eating dinner, but we did make a second trip both to Indiana Jones and the Tower of Terror. Oh, and Space Mountain shut down the first time we were half way through the line (talk about annoying), but we made it that evening. We finished off the day with the Teacups(which I was probably to enthusiastic in) and It's a Small World. Great day.
Monday was time to leave. I missed breakfast, but I got to have lunch with Crystal and Muse and a good curry place. We said goodbye, but we'll hopefully be seeing each other much more often than once every 15 years now.
And then the real issues cropped up. I'm going to paste tem since I really don't feel like typing them twice.
Well, first, after leaving you at lunch, I wound up on the wrong Chapman, and had to spend a while hunting down the folks. Then Dana and I took 57 North (instead of the slightly easier but pontentially longer 5) and wound up turning onto 60 instead of staying on 57
Matt Johnson: didn't realize that until we ran across I-15, so we took that north to 210 and backtracked all the way to 5.
Crystal: Ah. So you took from me my navigational prowess then, eh?
Matt Johnson: Then, on the way out of the grapevine, I turned into what I assumed to be a carpool lane. since all of 210's carpools lanes were divided by a yellow line I didn't think much of it. Turns out it was an emergency gravel pit stop for trucks with no brakes. Yeah, that sucked
Matt Johnson: and then the CHP beat AAA and I wound up with a lovely ugly ticket, and naturally his tow truck was faster than the AAA one and didn't accept AAA in payment so there was an extra 160 for the 10 meter tow out of the gravel. After THAT fiasco we somehow wound up on 99 instead of 5 and at that point, instead of getting home, we stopped for the night
Matt Johnson: Oh, and I hate getting off in Pasadena, because it's a pain in the ass to get onto 210 North once you get off looking for gas
Boiled down: It sucked.
Well, I'm home now.
"The endings are never ever happy, it's the happy moments along the way, that in the end, make it ok."