I think I managed not to be hysterical and my parents were just like "hey we will go back to the store in the cab on the way and you can run and check."
We had a really good cab driver who was incredibly nice, and spoke about how some cabbies will be rude to people, but he thought in his job you get to see a lot and you should enjoy it and the people. I think it's a good theory.
I beleive his name was Johnny Kako, and if you are in Vegas, see if you can get his cab. Listening to someone who enjoyed his job made me calm down. Then when I got to the UPS store the girl there too one look at me and handed me both my picture card reader with card inserted, and my phone. She said she saw that I left the reader connected, and then saw that the phone had fallen under the chair. SO i got both back, and was incredibly relieved and grateful.Even more grateful because if I hadn't dropped my phone I might not have realized I had lost my picture card & reader until it was too late.
Sometimes things work out really well for me in ways that are completely unexpected.
At the airport I talked with my mom more. Over the course of our vegas trip she had told me some things about herself that I didn't know, or didn't fully realize the impact of certain things on her. I want to say this in a way that is respectful to my mom's privacy, but it is also a really important part of the story for me. My mom has had seizures do to medical issues, and they have caused her to lose long term memories.
I have had this lingering feeling that mom doesn't really know who I am, and what is important to me. For a long time it made me frustrated, and at times it made me sad, but ultimately I figured it was just a holdover feeling from adolescence.
It's not.
My mom doesn't remember my life growing up.
She doesn't know who I am because she doesn't have the context I expect her to have without those memories. She didn't know whether or not she was a good mom, and she didn't know how much I can handle things because she doesn't have those memories. She worries a lot about me anyways, so mostly she has just been responding from worry.
It's sweet and it's sad and it gives things a whole new perspective.
But what my mom said at the airport is that, seeing me deal with everything that happened to mess up my trip impressed her and made her understand how well I deal with things. She also said the trip gave her a chance to really see me more, and understand more of who I am. This is the thing I am most grateful for out of the whole trip. If I had to have two of my friends essentially bail on me when I was flying out to see them to get this, it was totally worth it.
My parents flight left about an hour before mine.
I had time to wander around the airport and grab a sandwich before getting on my flight to San Fran.
I flew on Virgin.
I believe Virgin is more expensive on cross country flights because it is direct, but if you can get a short cheap flight on Virgin or if you have enough money so you don't care FLY VIRGIN.
the guy at the Vegas flight desk was hilarious. The flight attendants were nice. They sold headphones that go over your ears instead of ear buds which I prefer headphones 1000 times more, and they have this things in the seat in front of you.
They call it red. It allows you to order sandwiches from flight attendants, allows you to personalize your TV and movie watching with a certain selection free and a cetain selection paid movies. THEY HAVE FREE VIDEO GAMES (they are old school and simple, but they are built into the seat in front of you.). They also have a good selection of the Virgin music catalog programmed into the Red system.
I spent the first part of the flight playing majong, then I got the headphones and started making a playlist. I didn't get even halfway through the playlist before we touched down. I could totally lfy Virgin across the country and be completely comfortable and distracted and not even notice I was on a plane. The only thing they could fix is I couldn't figure out how to listen to music and pay video games at the same time. Oh and by the sumemr they are planning on having internet.
When I touched down in San Fran I felt like it was exactly where I was supposed to be. I felt light. I know I was probably made happier by my flight on Virgin, but it was more than that. It felt right.
Ria had arranged for a shuttle to take me to Monterey because she didn't feel up to the drive. I met a woman there who teaches at Esalen. She was just coming back to the country after doing a workshop i beleive in Bali. She was a very nice woman with a lot of wisdom. When I looked her up online this is what I found. http://www.movingventures.org/
It's her company, and it gives a good description of the good she has been doing there.
We had a good conversation about culture and people, and she gave me two practical pieces of advice, one of which I used on the trip, and one of which I will use in the future as the need arises. The first practical piece of advice is when traveling by plane wrap breakables in a good bit of fabric. The other of which is to as much as possible when looking to fly somewhere deal directly with airlines and try and find someone who is feeling helpful to check into tickets, because you might get a good deal.
The ride was peaceful. After the conversation died down I read and felt calm and good. Ria picked me up and then she had to go almost directly to a women's group she is involved in. Her group is a closed group because women are processing more personal issues, but I was just as happy to sit on Miss Ria's bed and go online and rest and relax.
I ended up calling my friend Meg (See Michigan from last year's trip) at one point and we talked for I think hours.
I made friend's with Ria's cat Kiera, so much so that the usually skittish kitty was all over me by the end of the night.
Ria came back, I think made late night good food and we talked and then crashed.
I was VERY glad to be at Ria's.
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