Went with my mentor aka P-Mac (I’ve told him that I have a site where I just talk smack about all my coworkers and use indistinct names like “P” and “B”) to watch Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Then he dropped me off at San Jose International Airport.
Every flight was delayed. The hills of one of the valleys were on fire, so that might’ve been the cause. People were pissed. I’m with the airlines when they say safety first. And if you actually have to be somewhere when your plane lands to the point that you’re glaring at everyone that walks by, you probably should’ve gotten an earlier flight. After my experience trying to get to Hawaii, I think I have a higher tolerance for airport rage.
Before our plane boarded, a flight to Las Vegas was using the same gate. Before they closed the plane doors, the attendant made one last will call announcement (think Mexican accent) “Cortes, Jennifer Cortes? Nobody? Jennifer? Well Jennifer, no Vegas for you.”
I’ve never flown Southwest Airlines before, but I like it. People joke about the boarding system being a cattle call. You line up and board in order according to your boarding pass. Exactly—it’s basically the same as other airlines. I guess it would be a bummer to be the last few on the plane, but that usually just means you were late.
I’ve also never flown within one state before. It was fast. I was trying to finish Red Mars (the slowest book on the face of…Mars. ZING), but I read four pages, had my beverage, then decided to take a nap. I turned my light off, closed my eyes, then all the cabin lights came back on and they said we were landing.
Flying into San Diego is cool because you descend through what I believe is downtown. Anyway, there are buildings on either side of the plane, and it’d be cooler if I actually had a window seat. Our plan was for me to wear sort of OK clothes (aka not basketball shorts), so that Jason and Wally could scoop me up and we’d head straight out. Except I was late then they were late so we had forty minutes to kill. Where better than Dave & Buster’s! “Hey man I just landed in San Diego. Let’s go to the arcade!” It’s better than it sounds, you gotta trust me.
It’s basically packed with a bunch of asian guys and their girlfriends. So there are a lot of girls. But there are a LOT of dudes. I lied, it’s not better than it sounds. But it was a lot better than trying to find some club, then trying to find parking, then standing in line talking about all the girls we’d pull, then dancing with each other in a 3-person circle for ten minutes before it closed. We ate at Denny’s then headed to Jason’s house. Jason had to wake up at 4:30 so me and Wally slept in a different room. Just like we did driving to San Jose the day after, we burned the midnight oil talking about our feelings.
And that was my Thursday.