I love L.A.

• Howdy doody. I'm back from my little 3 day vacation to Southern California. I'm way tired, but I had a blast. Friday morning I left for Stockton right after work. I stopped for gas in Tracy, but eventually I got to Stockton. Then we grabbed Sonic for breakfast and headed on down. I got a few hours of sleep, which I really did need. Sandi did all the driving, by the way. I woke up around Bakersfield and pretty much stayed awake the rest of the trip. There was traffic in L.A., but what else is new? No matter what time of day or night it is, the L.A. freeways are busy. We finally arrived in Orange around 3pm. Sandi gave me a tour of Chapman University, where she went to college. After the nice tour and exercise, we went to an international street fair right down the street. They had food from several different countries. We had some type of pastry balls dipped in honey from Greece, but I can't remember the name of them. Next we hit up Downtown Disney. It was Labor Day weekend and neither of us felt like shelling out $80 to go wait in 3 hour lines for rides inside Disneyland itself, so we figured we could at least do some shopping and have fun. I bought way too many souvenirs and enjoyed watching the fireworks show from Disneyland, it was awesome. Instead of staying in a hotel, Sandi's friends from college, Jen and Julie were letting us stay there for a few days. We went back to their place in Santa Ana and I slept in the recliner. That was the end of Day 1.
  
• We woke up pretty early on Day 2, and I had a Charlie Horse in my left calf from sleeping with my feet elevated for so many hours. Other than that I felt great. This was the day we were going to visit Hollywood. Well for half the day anyway. First stop was Riverside Drive, where the defunct University Medical Center is located. This is where they film Scrubs. We weren't able to get through the gate thanks to the lovely security dude, but I took some pics and a cool video featuring some sweaty guy with man boobs. I was like way too excited to be anywhere near where they film Scrubs since it's my favorite show. Well besides Sesame Street. Oh yeah, big shout out to Manley, he plays Snoop Dogg Attending (I always want to say Snoop Dogg Intern) on the show and he added me this morning, probably because I commented on Zach Braff's page. Either way, holla! Okay I'm digressing. So after I drug poor Sandi through my Sacred Heart Hospital worship session, we went on over to Hollywood Boulevard. It's fun, but parts of it are ghetto. Yes, for those who aren't aware, there are even crappy parts of Hollywood. We stuck around the mall at Hollywood and Highland and took great pics of the Hollywood sign. Oh yeah, before we even parked we randomly drove through the hills for about half an hour trying to find a closer view of the sign. It was fun but the hills were steep and the streets were narrow. So we hung out at that mall, and it was pretty hot and muggy. Sandi dared me to run through the water fountain, so I did. Haha. We had lunch at Johnny Rocket's, then took pics with random folks in costume out in front of Grauman's Theater. I took a pic with Elmo of course, Jack Sparrow from Pirates of The Carribean and that creepy dude from Scream that walked up and put his knife to my throat randomly. Haha. Then we walked further down the street and checked out all the souvenir shops and had a lot of fun. We still had extra time on our hands so we drove down Sunset Boulevard and ended up in Bel Air or Beverly Hills, one of them fancy neighborhoods. Then we drove up Laurel Canyon to Muholland Drive and checked out the awesome view of Los Angeles from the Hollywood Hills. It was breathtaking. Soon after that we headed back to Santa Ana to have a girls night with Sandi's college friends. It was pretty cool. We watched the first season of The Office, ate spaghetti and salad for dinner and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream for dessert. We were watching some taped episode of So You Think You Can Dance or whatever it's called and I started falling asleep. See when I fall asleep, its embarrassing. I don't just nod off like everyone else. The second I'm out, I snore like a chainsaw. A few times in college I was sitting in class, and the next thing I knew I woke up with drool on my notebook and people staring at me. Again, I'm digressing. So soon after we headed for bed, and that's how Day 2 ended.
  
• Day 3 was our last day. Well obviously. We had to get up at the buttcrack of dawn, and of course I took a while in the bathroom. Then after we packed and said our goodbyes to Jen and Julie and got to my car, I realized I left my camera battery charger in their living room and had to go back. Then we got Taco Bell for breakfast but I talked Sandi into taking me to McDonalds for iced coffee. So you can say we had kind of a late start thanks go me. Whoops. Anyway, we made it to San Diego at little before 10am, and spent some time shopping by the water. They have some cute stores. Then we went on a tour of the U.S.S. Midway, and that was really neat. We got to see where they slept, ate, went potty, where the prisoners went, all kinds of stuff. I liked the half naked mannequin in the shower. Oooh baby. I wish we would have had more time there, there was a lot we didn't get to see. Oh well. Then we had to go get ready for Sandi's stepsister's wedding. This was the original reason Sandi came down this weekend. We ended up changing our clothes at a Wendy's then doing our makeup in the car. Well I did my makeup and Sandi watched. I really don't think I'm the one you should get makeup tips from, dear. I am no pro. Anyway, after that we went to the ceremony in a very nice church. The reception was at some clubhouse that was on military property. I enjoyed myself there even though I was really bored the last hour or two. I liked the appetizers and the dinner. I loved my cake. I even found some of the random dancing amusing. After a while, I was tired. I still had a fun time, even if I was wearing a dress. We left the reception at almost 10pm, and began our trek home. We got to Orange about an hour after that and got gas, then got chicken to go at Dennys and changed our clothes there. Then I got a giant iced coffee, and we hit the road for the long stretch. I made it all the way to Fresno without falling asleep while Sandi took a nap. Once we got to Fresno we pulled over at a gas station so I could pee and we could switch places. I snoozed for about an hour and soon enough we were in Stockton, at Sandi's house. After our goodbyes I headed for the drive-thru Starbucks so I could get something to tide me over on the ride home. I was home a little after 6am, and got right in bed.
  
• Okay well that's my story. Not much else going on. We got a new couch, one of TJ's friend's moms gave it to us. It's very comfy. Today I get to work both jobs, and I'm exhausted. Can't wait to go home in an hour and hit the hay. See y'all on the flip side.