Elsja Down Under

The DMV November 25, 2009

WTF is up with the DMV? I know it’s always been a hell hole but I haven’t been there in probably 8 years and I swear it got worse. I arrived at 8:20am and there were literally probably 150 people already waiting. I drove through the parking lot once and then decided to park in some distant neighborhood. The lot was like a mall lot on Christmas eve. People driving around in circles, dodging pedestrians left and right, it was crazy! Inside there were probably 100 chairs set up and they were ALL full. I REALLY wanted to take a picture to show Andrew how insane it was but I didn’t think I’d be able to do it discretely.

Did I mention that they don’t take credit cards? You probably knew that already, but seeing as how I haven’t been there in over 8 years, I just kind of assumed they would be a “modern” organization and take plastic. Do they realize how many poor people come through that place? Some people wouldn’t be able to pay the $28 license fee if they couldn’t use a credit card. (Yes Aussies, you heard that right, $28 for a 4 year license).They take personal checks (which surely bounce ALL the time) but they won’t take credit cards. Idiots. Unfortunately for me, my debit card is back in Australia with Andrew and so I’ve been living off cash and credit while I’ve been in CA. I had $23 bucks in my wallet when I got in line. I needed $28. I tried using my Australian debit card… that didn’t work. She politely said “You can run to the bank and just come back straight to me.”- Yes! That is EXACTLY what I feel like doing. Going to the bank to get out $5 measly bucks so I can come back to this hell hole and pay for my new license from a state that I don’t even live in. Some might say “why bother?” Well, unfortunately some eating and drinking establishments (i.e. restaurants and bars) don’t accept foreign ID and as I’m about to explain, some banks don’t either!

So since I was $5 short, I had to go wait for the bank to open at 9am in order to get cash out. I had to sit there for 25 minutes to get $5. How fun!They didn’t know what to do with my Aussie license, I didn’t bring my passport because I didn’t plan on having to make a trip to the bank that morning and when I showed them my US ID, they couldn’t accept it because it is expired. Duh, that’s why I need the money in the first place! Such a pain in the ass!! Finally I got the cash but seriously, not having my atm/debit card really made things difficult.

With all that said I probably would have been out of there in 15 minutes if I didn’t have to leave, walk to my car, wait at the bank, get money, drive back, park, and wait again to talk to the same lady. Making an appointment REALLY speeds things up. I felt really bad for the other 150 people waiting their turn. I hope they packed their lunches.

Wedding Mania November 18, 2009

When we first got engaged, I was the crazy obsessed bride. I assume this happens to most girls in the month following the proposal… at least that’s what I hear. I read blogs, checked out The Knot 50 times a day, researched photographers non-stop, called vendors and visited wedding forums. Then once I had planned a few things everything totally died down. I had done about as much as I could do from the other side of the world considering we still had a year until the wedding so I needed to chill out a bit. 

Well, once I got back to California, obsession took over again. I met with the caterer Friday and had a tasting. My mom filled in as my surrogate fiance (and as the designated beef taster) and I was really happy with the food. I’m pretty sure we’ll put a deposit on that in the next couple of weeks. I also was able to visit the residence where we’ll be having the wedding as well. I’ve been there a million times but it was nice to see it again with fresh wedding eyes. The DJ came and met me there so he could scope out the setting and determine the equipment he’ll need to bring. In person I am so happy with how I THINK it will turn out. If it ends up how I imagine, it will be beautiful.  

Lastly, I finally got to experience the most exciting bridal task of all – dress shopping!! I really struggled to find anything I liked at first but then I found two dresses I LOVE. They are both beautiful in different ways. They look NOTHING like each other so I really have to decide what type of look and feel I want to go for. I found them Saturday when  I went shopping with my mom, sister and perfect little niece. I was so torn between the two that I went back tonight with my best friend Jen. Yeah, the 2nd trip didn’t make it much easier. I’m still so torn although I am thinking one is starting to take a slight lead over the other. I  know so many girls try on a dress and just KNOW that it’s the right one. Well I got that feeling, but with 2 dresses. How do I pick one without wondering for the next 9 months if I made the right decision??  

I seriously love planning our big day. I will be so happy to marry Andrew yet so sad when the day is over. Kinda like the day after Christmas when you know you have a whole year before you get to celebrate another one. That’s how I’ll feel times 10 because I’ll never get to plan a wonderful wedding where I get to marry my wonderful love ever again. Then what will I have to look forward to?? Please don’t say babies. Waking up 6 times a night to a screaming, pooping baby is not nearly as fun as deciding on centerpieces.

The Long Journey… Part 3 November 11, 2009

So I get to the airport and go straight to the line to check in. As luck would have it, the baggage belts were broken so once I got my boarding pass I actually had to hang around for about 15 minutes with my bags until the belts started working. I then waited at the gate and was seated next to the most obnoxious Aussie guy ever. He just sat there bitching and moaning, saying things like “come ooooonnnn,” “geeeeeeeeeeez” and “hurry up!” (all under his breath of course but just loud enough to be totally annoying). This trip was starting off just as stellar as the first attempt. I almost got up to move but I waited2 seconds too long and got sucked into a conversation with him when he started talking. UGH! Finally some guy he knew (because we were all BFFs from the day before) walked up and that was my chance to bolt. I used the bathroom as an excuse and luckily when I returned we were all boarding (about an hour late!)  To get to the air bridges everyone had to go down one of those people mover escalator things. Well, I think I was the only genius that realized it would take forever to get down that thing when 300 other people were lined up trying to do the same thing. I took the elevator (alone) and walked onto the plane before almost everyone else. Idiots.  Finally we all did board and took off with no more glitches. It seemed as if 99% of the passengers were from the day before; however, there were way less people. I guess there were quite a few people who didn’t want to get back on the A380. I did though, I wanted the flat bed!

The flight was uneventful. Probably the least turbulent of all my flights. I watched a few movies and TV shows and checked out a new bridal magazine. I only slept about 2 hours which meant that when I landed, I felt like a zombie. Unfortunately for my mom all the flight screens showed that we were flying in from Sydney at 7:40am. I suppose technically we were, but she was expecting a flight from Melbourne so when we were over an hour late- she struggled to figure out where we were. It didn’t help that we were flight 11 from Sydney (via Melbourne) but there was another flight 11 from Sydney arriving at the same time.

The whole trip was chaos… but I made it, I finally made it!  Now I am here in Huntington with my family and  friends. I finally get to do some real wedding planning and it’s so much fun!  Only downside? I miss Andrew

The Long Journy Across the Pacific – Part 2 November 8, 2009

As I walked into the lobby of the hotel in Melbourne I noticed 2 things. The first thing was the long line to the desk. Surely this was going to take awhile. The second thing I noticed was John Mayer sitting on a chair to my left. I did a double take and had a momentary “is that really him?” thought run through my head. Then I saw this guy on the right (at least I think it was him) totally decked out in jewelry and sunglasses (indoors at 11:00pm) and thought, yup that guy definitely looks like he’s part of a rock star crew. Once I saw guitar cases I was certain.

I looked around and no one else seemed to recognize him, at least no one was staring. Was I the only one that knew who he was? Maybe everyone else just didn’t care (I’m sure that will be Andrew’s logic), or perhaps everyone else in business class were all too old and stuffy and tired to notice.

After waiting for far less time than I had anticipated, I got to the counter and checked in. As chance would have it, JM’s people finished checking in at the same time and so when I headed towards the elevator he was heading in the same direction. He got there before I did and the doors opened. He was kind enough to tell me to go ahead before him so I crammed in the back of the elevator with my 2 bags and he and two of his peeps entered with their bags. The extent of our dialogue consisted of him asking me what floor I was on, discussing the need to use card keys to actually push the floor buttons and then when I said “it’s been a long day” he sang a little song about the fact that we weren’t dead. It was a funny little tune that went something like this - “at least we didn’t diiiieeee, at least we didn’t diiiiieee.” It actually could have been “at least we’re not deeeead,” I really can’t remember, but you get the gist. Our dialogue ended with saying “have a good night” when his friends and I all exited on floor 6 and he proceeded to head on up to 8.

The next morning I had a bunch of time to kill so I sat down in the lobby area while I had some breakfast and tea and read the paper. I saw some of his group down there but he wasn’t around. Finally I went up to get all my luggage so I could check out. As I stood waiting for the elevator, I noticed that one was on floor 4, one was on 5 and one was on 8. Hmm… floor 8. So The one from floor 8 started heading down and when the doors opened, there he was, all alone with his luggage and massive sleeve tattoo.  So this elevator dialogue consisted of me saying “we meet again” and then we both mumbled something about the flight and  when we got off he wished me luck on my flight and I did the same. Then I said, “I guess we’ll have the same luck” and then he told me they decided to take a completely different flight. I guess they didn’t want to get back on the A380 again. I don’t blame them. My thoughts were confirmed when I read  THIS.

Anyways, after 11.5 hours of traveling NOWHERE, it was a nice little experience to have some brief interaction with a pretty cool singer. Andrew… please no snotty comments on how stupid we all are for caring about celebrities. We all know how you feel already. As much as I realize that celebrities are just normal people with fancy careers, I still like seeing them in hotels after I’ve been stuck on a plane for 7 hours.

Up next: Part 3- finally getting there.

The Long Journey Across the Pacific: Part 1 November 7, 2009

I’ll start from the beginning…

It was a sunny Sydney Friday around 1:15pm and I had just arrived at the airport to check in for my flight to LA. I immediately received a business boarding pass which was awesome considering I was on standby. The plane was loaded in a timely manner but then we waited at the gate for some unknown reason for another 30 minutes before starting to taxi out to the runway. Finally we headed out towards the entrance to the runway where we proceeded to sit for another 15 minutes or so.We thought we were waiting our turn to take off, we were wrong. It was at this point that the captain made his first announcment. “Hi folks, unfortunately we’ve got a problem with the fuel management system that I’m not comfortable with. We’re going to call the engineers but we need to let you know there is a chance that we might have to return to the gate.” It was at this exact moment that I had the feeling I wouldn’t be getting to LA the next morning.

Ten minutes later.  “Ok folks, well it looks like unfortunately we’re going to have to return to the gate to have our engineers check this out. We’ll keep you posted with any updates and we appreciate your patience.”

One hour later (it is now about 5:00, we were supposed to take off at 3:10). “Alright, thank you for your patience. We think we’ve solved the problem… (pause)…put it this way, we don’t see the problem any more so we’re going to go ahead and taxi out so we can be on our way to Los Angeles.” Many people were not very comfortable with his choice of words. I admit, it probably wasn’t the best way to let everyone know what was going on, but I wasn’t worried. I just wanted to go!

About 2 hours after takeoff.  “Hello folks, it’s your captain again, I have some bad news. Unfortunately that fuel pump issue is still causing some problems and we are not going to be able to continue on to LA at this time. We have a few options. We could head to Fiji, but we don’t know how you will be treated there (read this), we could go to Melbourne but we don’t really think that’s the best choice so we think the best plan would be to go back to Sydney, so were going to turn around. Those of you watching the travel route on your screens will see that we’ve already started to turn.”

2 hours later.  “Hello this is your captain again. Well we’ve made it back to Sydney but unfortunately there is some heavy traffic and Air Traffic Control is having us hold for awhile until it clears up. We anticipate that we should be on the ground around 9:28pm.”

9:30pm. “Hello it’s your captain again. Well as you can see, 9:28 has come and passed. Unfortunately while we were waiting to land the weather in Sydney took a turn for the worse. There is a lot of rain and the ground is very wet, so unfortunately we will not be able to land here and we’re going to have to divert to Melbourne.”

Around 10:30 pm. We finally landed SOMEWHERE. It wasn’t LA, it wasn’t Sydney, but it was solid ground and after more than 7 hours in a plane going nowhere, solid ground was nice.

Luckily everyone in business class was told where we would be staying immediately before exiting the plane. This meant we didn’t have to stand in line with 200 other passengers to try to figure  out our accommodation details. THANK GOD! It also meant that I got to walk right across the street to a super nice hotel where I finally checked in  around 11:30pm and the 2nd part of my journey continued. Well, it wasn’t actually part of the  journey per se but some other stranded travellers did help to at least make the night more interesting.

Part 2 coming soon…

In summary:

*Part 1 of the journey- 11.5 hours from my front door to the bed at the hotel.

*Obviously this is all paraphrased but I’m pretty sure I underestimated the number of times “unfortunately” was used and I definitely should have included many more apologies, there were TONS of those.

*There’s a tiny, and I mean TINY, story about the incident here. Evidently the version on the news was much more entertaining. Supposedly we had an “emergency landing.”  The TV reporters clearly did not get their facts straight, what’s new?

Wicked Witch of the Building November 2, 2009

Ok so I promised a story about the neighbor whorebag. Well here it is…

Andrew and I have lived here 2 years. In the 2 years, we’ve never ever had a late night noise complaint. I do specify late night because there was one time when we first moved in that I was on an elliptical machine that was making a horrible clunking noise and our downstairs neighbor kindly came up and mentioned that it was a bit loud. That was totally fair and we made sure to keep it down. That was 2 years ago. Since then, not one complaint… ever!

On the flipside, we’ve definitely had OUR fair share of issues with loud/annoying neighbors. Here are just a few I wrote about…

Sex neighbors

Foreign neighbors

But have we complained? No. Did we call and yell at these people? No. We don’t complain because it’s not a regular occurrence. If it were, we might be ruder.

So imagine how annoyed I am when someone actually calls me to complain on a Friday night at 10:40pm. This lady has serious issues!! There were 5 girls in my apartment playing a board game. Not even a loud game, just a simple game. We were laughing and chatting but that’s it. No screaming, no banging, nothing.

The intercom buzzes. WHO on earth could it be at 10:40? So I answer and this is what I hear (paraphrased):

Slutface (in a snotty, snotty tone): “You guys REALLY need to keep it down, you’re really loud and you’re bothering the ENTIRE apartment building.”

Me: “Oh I’m so sorry, I’ll close the balcony door.”

Whorebag (in a troll voice): “Yeah… and keep it down”

Me: “Yeah ok, I’ll close the door” (that was my attempt at passive aggression by reiterating that the only thing I was going to do was close the door. Andrew thought this was TOTALLY weak and  he would have told her off right then and there. )

WTF??? It was 10:40 on a Friday!! Now, while I TOTALLY respect that some people DO have to sleep at 10:40 on a Friday, I hardly think we were keeping the ENTIRE building awake. I also fail to understand why she couldn’t just say “hey guys, sorry to bother you but you guys are really loud- would you mind keeping it down?”

UGH I hate this evil witch and I would LOVE to know who she is so I could give her really dirty looks.