A few thoughts on cars, high school reunions & color-coordinated duct tape

Note: This entry is the chronicle of my rather ill-fated trip down to the Bay Area to attend my class reunion. I'll be posting the info about my upcoming surgery in a separate post so that you don't have to dig through all of this to get to it!

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Friday:

Have you ever had one of those times where you just KNOW you shouldn't go - wherever it is that you're supposed to be going- and you go anyway, and everything else that happens from the time you leave the house confirms your first instinct, that you shouldn't go?

I shouldn't have gone. But I did, and here I am, at the beginning of what is proving to be the most expensive trip from Gridley to Santa Clara in the history of the universe.

The drive down wasn't bad at all. I took just about forever to pack, and I think I brought the kitchen sink. After I finally got my shit in gear, got loaded up and got out, I headed out to Yuba City to pick up my favorite vintage 50s party dress at the dry cleaners and get my nails done. A quick trip to Target to wander the clothing department didn't yield a dress alternative for tonight, sadly, but I did find THE best pair of leather gloves in the history of leather gloves. Nice.

I think that during the time I was in Yuba City I almost turned around and went back home about 6 or 7 times. But I didn't. I went.

The drive down actually wasn't bad at all. Shockingly enough, I didn't even have to stop for a potty break! I ran into a bit of traffic just over the bridge, into Concord and Walnut Creek, thanks to two accidents, one on each side of the freeway, in the exact same place! How weird is that? Otherwise, it was smooth sailing in my direction, but looking at the other side of the freeway confirmed that there was no way in hell I could turn around and go home. Ever! Well, it looked like that.

I got to the hotel in great time. Unfortunately, 99.9% of the parking lot was closed off to have the stripes repainted. It would open in the next afternoon, but meanwhile, any parking was the garage behind the hotel.

I pulled up to the valet to get my pounds of stuff unloaded, and, fatefully, rolled down the passenger side window.

THAT was the end of the trip being easy.

Why? Because the god damned window wouldn't go back up.

Not with the switch on my door, not with the switch on the passenger door, not from being pulled up by a bellman, while the car engine was on, and not, eventually, by the nice AAA Road Service guy, an hour+ later, after I had to unload my car down to the registration and garage door opener and everything else in there, check in, get my shit hauled upstairs, call AAA the first time and get left on hold for 17 minutes, call them again and have them not put me on hold, go downstairs again and beg the valets to let it sit in front of the hotel and put into on of the only 12 valet spots they had, so that someone could make sure the car didn't disappear.

There's where it started to get expensive!

But…it's under watchful eyes of the great Hyatt bellmen who know about my window problem, and it's even very easy to see from my window up here on the seventh floor. That gives me some nice peace of mind.

The plan was to first to the smartest thing I can ever do - call Daddy. I asked him if he could come and help me put something over the window, which he could, and then I'd call the shop that the tow truck guy came from first thing on Monday morning to get the window fixed and rent a car to go to the doctor in the afternoon.

Then I came back up to my room, and after eating a little snack, discovered that the tub of fresh mozzarella balls marinated in oil that I had in my cooler had cracked, and my cooler was now an oil slick of seasoned oil.

Later, I barfed a few times.

Saturday:

Well, the next morning, Daddy came to the rescue to help me close up the window with plastic and duct tape. Daddy always comes to the rescue, thank the deity of your choice, and this time he came with duct tape to match my car. How cool is that?

Eventually, it was time to go to the reunion, the whole reason I was here. MY DRESS FIT!! Yes, I was very afraid that it wouldn't, thanks to my weird weight fluctuations! So, I had my favorite vintage party dress, and I felt comfortable, which makes "the" difference in how much I enjoy myself at an event.

Darcy came and I lent her shoes, since hers were way too big. Then I gave her surgical tape so she could tape herself into her dress. These are perfectly normal Darcy-related activities.

The reunion was very nice. It was great to see people and get a chance to catch up a bit. The evening just went by so quickly that is was a blur! There are some truly horribly embarrassing pictures of me out there, mainly because Darcy was doing something to make me embarrassed in all the pictures. Our reunion committee worked their little butts off making the night wonderful. I think, as a former event planner and Certified Meeting Professional, I can say that they did an exemplary job.

Thank you guys. You deserve a big round of applause.

The high point of the evening, for me, was when Pauline got there, because she actually CAME!!!!!!!! We did a lot of sitting and talking, while Darcy did a lot of walking and mingling. I am not so good at mingling. Darcy has no such problems. Unfortunately, the low point of the evening was when I came up to the room mid-party to barf up my nice vegetarian dinner. Minor details, right?

Sunday:

Well, unfortunately, today eventually brought more barfing.

Thankfully, I was able to enjoy a wonderful afternoon with Dawn though, which was another major high point of the trip.

I was supposed to go to dinner tonight with Daddy in Hayward, but right after Dawn left, the barfing started again, along with lots of other things. I was hot flash-y while she was here, and feeling kind of sick-ish, but I fought it off for a while.

I spent my evening laying very, very still and not eating. I actually didn't really eat all day long, which was probably for the best.

Monday…..Tuesday:

I didn't feel any better on Monday morning, but I got up at 6 am anyway, so that I could call the car repair shop, take the truck in, rent a car, and be functional in time to go see my surgeon.

I somehow managed to do every one of those things. The only hard part was not falling asleep in the time between getting the rental car and going to the doctor.

By the time I left the doctor's office, I was scheduled for surgery in November to correct the vaginal prolapse I've developed, which really makes me slightly miserable a lot of the time. I don't want to have more surgery, especially right at the holiday season again, but I have to do it. My next post will explain the details.

By the time I was done at the doctor, my car was ready to pick up. Sadly, it wasn't fixed, but they did manage to put the window up into the window frame in the UP position, so I could at least drive it home safely. Let me tell you, that was a very, very good thing…..

I spent the evening laying around some more feeling icky, but Dawn dropped by to visit again before she headed to work for a night shift and that was very nice.

By the time I got up to leave on Tuesday morning, the monsoon had arrived. Wind, rain, and absolute zero visibility along a very large part of the drive home became the norm. Some parts of Hwy 113 were flooded, and other parts had big pieces of tree blowing across the road. Whee.

Luckily, I got home safely, just very, very tired. If I'd had to make the drive without the window being fixed, it would have been a very different story, so let me give out a big reference for Fortes Auto Repair in Mountain View. 5 stars!!

I am still very, very tired. Today is was Thursday, and I don't even remember yesterday. I've been trying all morning to catch up on "housekeeping" tasks, like calling all my doctors to tell them about my upcoming surgery. I think, now, as soon as I put this entry up on the blog, it will officially be time for my nap.

Stay tuned in the next day or so for the detailed info on my upcoming surgery. I promise the full explanation, but right now, I've got to get some rest.

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Oops. I was so tired I forgot to post this earlier!!