Friday, February 06, 2009

Craigslist Rideshare

A few days before I was planning to come to AZ for Patricka's wedding the check engine light came on. A coworker found oil in the radiator and told me not to drive the car. I looked into flying, taking the train, Greyhound, and I put an ad on Craigslist rideshare. The best option was looking like Greyhound and I was not looking forward to that. But then some dude named Leaf responded to my add on Craigslist. He was on his way from the Bay area heading to Tucson. He dropped off another rider near my area and picked me up at my apt. Six hours and $20 later I was in Mesa. You can't beat that.
I stayed with Julie and Ted's friends. I got in at around 5am and couldn't go to sleep. I looked at my watch at 5:45am and fell asleep sometime after that. I woke up at 8 am to go take pictures and video for Patricka but they weren't there nor was anyone else. After awhile they showed up. Pat asked me to walk around with Patricia's parents who speak no English and I speak no Portuguese. I was sure happy when Emilee arrived on scene.

Catch up

I figure it's time to update the blog. Over Christmas I hung out with Julie, Ted and family. We went to Universal Studios on Tuesday before Christmas and Sea World on Friday. I drove down to San Diego on Christmas night and stayed with them that night in Emilee and Cody's apt so I wouldn't have to drive in the morning traffic. A quick note: M and Cody have the coolest toilet. It is one of those ones that doesn't work by gravity from the water in the tank but by some insanely powerful suction that if you're not careful when flushing it will pull you down with it. It is frickin awesome!
Sea World was pretty cool. They started the Shamu show out by thanking the troops. I was pleasantly surprised because you just don't hear people thanking troops in LA. That night we went to the Christmas Shamu show and they sang Christmas carols, not just any carols but the Christ centered ones. And then they had the whole audience stand up and sing Joy to the World. I was blown away. I just didn't think that would happen in California.
The next four pictures I think are pretty funny. I put Joe on his back in the stroller and left him in the middle of the sidewalk. I went back and sat down by Ted and the boys while Julie was in the bathroom with Emma. We sat there and watched people's reactions to this unclaimed kid. The guy in the black sweater turned around and saw Joe in the stroller on his back. He rushed over to help but saw that Joe was laughing. The guy looked around and saw us laughing and realized it was a joke.




The following pics are some favorites.






I was watching Emma while everyone else went on a ride. While we were waiting we went into a souvenir shop. Emma made all the employees laugh because she was so excited about all the stuff.



In the following pictures you will see that Ted spent a lot of time making sure everyone stayed dry. He got to the Shamu Christmas show really early and got 2nd row seats in the center.