Day #1: Hey Frisco Bay-Beeh

Just as a side note, as I'm writing this entry, I am suffering from a scratchy throat due to cat fur scattered around this apartment and I am listening/concentrating to/on a podcast. Why not turn my podcast off? Cannot do. That is just how I roll.

Sooo.. the day creeped up on us. Monday was the day for us (us = L & C) to say adios to the warm socal weather (yep, still warm/hot/only nice at night) and say hello to the breeziness that is the Bay Area. Let me go on a tangent and mention that every 3 months, me and L have been making trips up north. First was in May when we visited Berkeley for several days, then again in August when we adventurously wandered further up north to Seattle & Portland and now in November, here we are back in the Bay. If my calculations are right, it seems January 2010 is the date for the next north trip. Chuckle..

Anyways, back to the point. We ended up at the Burbank Airport a little too early, but thank goodness for Oprah's Sarah Palin interview being blasted on every TV in the "lounge." That kept us (me?) busy for quite some time. And after 1.5 hours of "lounging," we found ourselves on our hour flight. The flight was pretty much uneventful, except when I was animatedly immersed in a conversation when our wheels hit the landing strip and my throat flew out of my mouth and landed on my lap. Yep our lovely pilot did not warn us that we were landing (and yes I could have looked out the window but I was on the aisle seat). Finally after picking up my throat and shoving it back in, I contently left the plane and was happily welcomed by the breezy, bay weather.

I was unsure how we were going to get from the airport to my cousin's apartment in Oakland, since lil J was coming from NY on a later flight that same day, but I assumed L and I would utilize the public transportation here and probably end up shopping toting our luggage along. Little did I know L & lil J had planned for lil J's friend, A, to pick us up and hang out with. So I was surprised when this man started walking toward us, waving with a giant smile plastered on his face, and went right to introducing himself and welcoming us. Pleasantly surprised, that's how I'd put it. Glad to know I wouldn't be dragging my luggage down the streets of Frisco (<- I'm cool). We ended up in the shopping mecca in Emeryville. A place I've been to hundreds of time. It seems I come to this area more than once when I'm in the Bay Area since you can find everything you need here. We ate burgers at Fuddrucker's. I safely ordered a plain hamburger with lettuce (no sauce, no nothing) and A & L were more adventurous and ordered ostrich burgers. Yup, O-S-T-R-I-C-H B-U-R-G-E-R-S. I watched some football on the screen (Yes, I am a fan) and concentrated on my burger. Wasn't in the mood to talk because 1. I was deathly hungry and 2. I was dadgum tired. Afterwards, to kill time we decided to watch 2012. Ok so I'll be completely honest. I don't like watching movies at the theater unless I plan it 2-3 months ahead. Like Funny People & Where The Wild Things Are, I made a mental note to watch those in theater for sure (tangent: I cannot wait for Brothers and Dear John). I knew 2012 was going to majorly suck, but to not be a Debbie Downer or Whiny Wendy, I decided to fake a smile and say "sure." It was hard coughing up $11 for a life-letdown. Well let me just warn everyone, the movie is definitely not good. Save yourself $11. Go buy yourself 2 Starbucks drink instead. 2.5 hours later (around midnight), we left the theater and drove into San Francisco's Mission district to pick up lil J who was on the BART from the SFO airport. We stopped to feed her sushi, and ended up across the street at Sparky's for some milkshake for A, L, and lil J and peach iced tea for me.

Finally like at 1 AM or so, we arrived at our "home," a lovely, luxurious high-rise apartment in Oakland. Holler. Spent about hours on our computers, smart phones & i-pods (we be high tech gals), then finally got some shut eye.

Tiring day. Oh so tiring.