Travel Advisory

New Rule: Beware traveling with Miss Bibliophile Girl!

You may have read our account of the Taxi ride from Hell (click here if you haven’t..I’ll wait)

We got on a shuttle bus with her back to her hotel during Comic Con and at it seemed fine.  We had been walking around for 4 days straight, so sitting in an air conditioned bus was lovely.  The doors close and we’re off.  But then something strange started to happen….the bus driver started talking.

Not talking in a tour guide “See the sights to the right” kind of way.  He was obviously having a conversation with someone in the front of the bus, but he was speaking into the announcement speaker for his side of the conversation, so everyone could hear him.  Here is what we heard:

“Yeah, San Diego has changed a lot…I remember off of  (muffled) street, there used to be lots of them.  I remember the strip clubs and one turned into a Playboy Club!”

“If you all know where you are supposed to be dropped off please let me know because they removed all the signs and I don’t remember all the stops”. (Oh so comforting to hear from your driver)

“ (chuckling) me too..”

“I’m super lucky...(muffled, muffled, muffled) I took a busload of people to LA.  And I took them to the Playboy mansion!”

“I totally bs’d my way in and I spent the evening hanging with the bunnies and I got  play in the Grotto!” (more chuckling)

“Hey, I’m making a turn for the first stop, but after that I don’t know where I am supposed to stop”.

Finally an official announcement: “ I am making the turn to the first stop”.

Followed by:” Here we are at the first stop, please exit here if you want to get off here”.

Everyone practically jumped out of their seats to get into the aisle.  All proper exiting the bus behavior that they teach in elementary school was forgotten in the desire to be off this buss with this skeevy guy. 

From now on I think I’ll just meet her places.

Awkward!!!

I love Comic Con. What other time can you see people dressed as superheroes mingle with movie stars and it’s encouraged? It’s a place where you can see any interaction if you just look around. Which is how I came to witness this really awkwardone…..

I was at the Omni Hotel leaving a press event on a mid-levelfloor. The elevator opens and I walk in,to find a pretty blond woman in a pretty black dress standing next to the button panel. I realize that it is Anna Torv from the television show “Fringe”. I smiled and said, “Hello” as I do when I get into elevators with strangers, but left it at that.

As the doors were closing a guy jumps in and stands rightnext to her. He looks at her a moment and says really excitedly and loudly ,”You’re that girl!”

She had been looking at the floor and looks up and shyly smiled and said,” Yeah…”

He grins and says,” You’re from the show!”

“Um…yeah, that’s me”, she said.

“you’re …um…you’re that girl!”, he exclaims again followed by “What’s your name?”

She tells him her name and he says, “What’s that show you’re on?”

She answers him again and he says,” Yeah, you’re really good in that show……I mean, I don’t watch it…but the commercials are really good.”

A bit startled she say,” Oh, ok..thanks”. Because what can one say to an guy who all but wets himself meeting you and then he blurts out that he has no idea who you are or what show you’re on.

He moves a bit closer to her and she moves a bit further back.

“Are you doing a panel here?” He asked her as we got close to the lobby.

“Yes, I’m going there now,” she replied.

“Yeah, for that show….um, what’s its name again?”, he asked

She replies with the name of the show again and says to bothof us,” Are you media?”

I replied,” I’m a writer” and left it at that.

He says, “I’m a tech guy, I just push all the buttons. They usually don’t let me meet the talent very often.”

Yeah….. that is obvious

Made of Awesome

You know what I love? When something unexpected happens. And that was probably the best description of my day today. Here is a list of the things that happened that I could never have predicted:

I tried alligator – it was fried and tasted a lot like (everybody with me ) “Chicken”!

Went to the theatre and got a pair of welding goggles (who doesn’t?)

Taught complete strangers how to do the "Time Warp" and then made them do it in front of the theatre

I met Dr. Horrible and got my hands on some Wonderflonium

Found the Top Secret Headquarters of the Evil League of Evil

I met a cute young guy who took me up to the rooftop party in a deathtrap of an elevator (I swore it was going to take us into the Twilight Zone like the Tower of Terror)

By the time we got to the roof I decided I loved him because:

He likes theatre

He loves Star Wars

He referenced the “Three Amigos” and “The Three Cabarellos”

He was a math/astrophysics major

He thought I was 26 ( I won’t lie, this gave him major points)

So I did the only normal thing, in the middle of the after party I got down on one knee and proposed to him (FYI: he said “yes” and I did tell him I was currently married)

We figured if we get married in a different state then it’ll be ok, right?

All in all, today was made of awesome...and to think, I have 4 more days of adventure coming up this week!

Let them eat cake!

This week has been an absurd week of everything going wrong, every piece of technology I touched breaking down, multiple people quitting in one day and more drama than you could get if you pitted a bunch of tween Twilight Fans versus…well anyone who reads good books.

At the end of the night Friday (which in a quick recap involved training a new person, 2 weddings – which are drama in their own right, missing confirmations, every employee at one location not doing their job correctly, lost caterers, a frantic bride, a groom tossed into the pool and more broken technology) while I sat at a property, in a moment of rare quiet, someone from one of the weddings brought me a piece of cake. Which was incredibly nice of them and very sweet and appreciated after my day.

See the picture of the piece of cake? What could be wrong with this picture?

Could it be the chopsticks???

I have no idea how to eat cake with chopsticks, so I am going to try. I am good with chop sticks usually, how hard could this be, right? (it should be noted that they apparently ran out of forks and only had chopsticks, so this experiment was being run by many others at the same time as mine was)

Attempt #1 Cake crumbles upon grabbing with the chopsticks. Must try it more gently next time

Attempt #2 Now too gentle and cannot get any cake to stay between the chopsticks

Attempt #3 Aha! Perfect tension has been achieved ...then Fail! Cake almost got to my mouth before gravity made it fall down into my cleavage

While attempting to clean cake from my cleavage the brides father came over to ask me a question….awkward

Attempt #4 managed to get some of the filling onto the chopsticks and attempting to get the cake to stick to the filling – not working

Attempt #5 took a piece from the frosted side in hopes it was sticky enough for the cake to not need to much pressure to stay in the chopsticks

I am short and sitting at a desk…why is this distance so hard for the chopsticks to navigate?

Attempt #6 got a full layer of the cake, but just cake. Frosting and filling decided to not come along on this try

Attempt #7 trying to get a complete bite of cake containing all elements, cake frosting and filling... the cake crumbled as the filling dripped in plops on the desk and my shirt, the frosting held on tight before making a dive for it

Attempt #8 this is a silly way to eat cake

Huh, turns out this is not the best method for eating cake

Thanks for the tip

Helpful strangers…. I love them

I went to a show this evening and as I waited outside for the doors opened I went to the area of tables and grabbed a drink. As I looked for a table this group of feisty older women were at a table and they gestured me over. They asked me to join their group since I was alone.

I told them that I didn’t want to intrude on their “girls night” but they insisted. These ladies were easily 35-40 years older than me but they were hilarious and were talking about how they were going to see the Tempest. I was going to see George Gershwin: Alone in the theater next door. One lady asked why I was alone and I replied that my husband was at work.

Out of no where this lady at another table, not part of the group I was with, said ”Darling, I hate to break it to you…but when your husband Is at ‘work’ it means he’s screwing his secretary”.

There was a moment of stunned silence from the group as they looked at me. I waited a moment to let the woman’s words sink in and then I looked up at her and said in disbelief,” When the hell did he get a secretary?!?!”

I told her thanks for the advice since she meant well, but really people, try to keep your "helpful" impulses in check until you know someone a little bit more.