California, Here We Come!

Oh wait. We never left.
I decided to put this in chronological order, listing the times first. This will keep me on track, and hopefully will avoid confusion. Some of the times are guesstimated, but everything's pretty close.

Friday
9:30 PM- I found out that some people were driving to LA. I went to talk to the girls, but there was no room in the car for me. Unless they could get one girl who was making plans a little difficult to stay here. I packed my stuff, just in case, because they were leaving at 5:30AM. They would have woken me up at 5AM if I could have gone.

10:30PM- I went upstairs to see if I could go or not. I found that not only was I not going, no one else was going either- the guy who was driving just rear-ended and couldn't drive anywhere. (*phew* I'm glad I didn't go with him!!)

Saturday
12:30AM- I am still awake, running off my adrenaline high of the possibility of going home. Abby comes in, informing me that people had just decided to go, and there was room for me in the car- do I still want to go? Duh.

1:15AM- We leave. We= me, Alli, Merri, Navigator. They inform me that we are borrowing someone's car, and Alli, who is driving, isn't too great at stick shift, but can do it.

7:30AM- We attempt to stop in Bakersfield, visiting a girl who attended the school last year, but moved back home this semester. We get Lost Beyond All Hope, and decide not to visit. We keep going down the I-5.

9:30AM- We get to the pass, and start to cross. Soon, however, Alli finds that she cannot accelerate beyond 35 mph. Seeing that it's not our car, we all panic, especially Alli. We pull off to the side of the road, trying to decide what to do. I was going to surprise my parents by showing up on the doorstep, but we are rather upset at this point, so I call home to see if they have any suggestions about what is wrong with the car. Mom, thoroughly surprised, thinks that the engine is just having trouble getting us over the hill. Some of the girls still aren't sure, and since we don't want to burn up the engine or transmission or anything, we call Jenn (the girl in Bakersfield) and tell them about our predicament.

10:45AM- Jenn and her parents arrive. Jenn's dad drives the car the remainder of the way over the pass, while we ride with Jenn's mom. We get to Gorman area, and Jenn's dad tells us to keep the car in 2nd or 3rd gear, not 4th.

Around noon?- We get to 6 Flags. The traffic is stop and go, and Alli is having problems going from 1st to 2nd to 1st to 2nd gear. We keep stalling, and eventually get stuck in a rut (Ruga!). So we're sitting on the 5 freeway in rush hour traffic, semis whizzing around our little red sports car. How comforting. By this time we are all extremely tired, and Alli is on the verge of a meltdown. We encourage her to just get off the freeway and figure it out from there. For some reason, someone had the bright idea of going a back way. Right. These people aren't from CA, and have no idea where they are going. A back way from 6 Flags to OC area? HA. The navigator refused to let me look at the map, so I had no idea where we were. I probably wouldn't have been much help anyway, but whatever. What was even MORE aggravating, was that Navigator wouldn't even let me call Mom to hear her suggestion. *steph begins to get angry*

Later- we find ourselves in Hollywood. Just the place 4 college girls want to be. The only plus was that I saw the big white Hollywood sign for the first time. However, Hollywood was packed with cars. We kept stalling and stalling and stalling. We finally pulled into a Burger King parking lot and had a breakdown. Against the strong will of the navigator at whom I was extremely angry and was about to defenestrate, I called my mother, asking (ok, sobbing) for help. She can't believe that we're in Hollywood. And she has no idea where in Hollywood we are, or how to get us out. She ended up talking to someone who knew where we were, and we were able to get out. Just take the 101 to the 5 to Rosecrans to Biola, which was our destination.

2PM- We get to Biola and surprise Merri's boyfriend as planned. (That's why the girls were going down- to surprise Jeff).

2:15PM- Mom picks me up. HALLELUJAH!!

2:30PM- We get to the meeting room (church, for all you non-brethren) for Beck's bridal shower. I am exhausted, and still rather upset. Discovering that I have not eaten for 21 hours (except a measly little graham cracker), I eat a few bites of lunch.
I am glad I made it to the Beck's shower, though. I was quite depressed thinking about how I was going to miss so much of the wedding planning/preparation etc! But I made it. She got awesome stuff. Her shower is the first shower I have gone to where I have wanted every single item. And I have been to many bridal showers.

5:30PM- We go to Grandma's house. Mom and Dad were going out to dinner, and the girls were going to Grandma's so I tagged along. I took an hour nap, then did homework.

9:00PM- We got home.

11:15PM- I go to bed. I have no idea why I waited so long. Actually, yes I do. I was talking to Abby for a good long time.
But I survived the day, amazingly enough. Only by the grace of God, let me tell you!!

Sunday
9:30AM- Sunday School at EVFree

11:00AM- meeting

3:00PM- Abby had a piano recital. I didn't know about the recital before, so I was excited to learn of it. She did very well; she was one of the top performers.

4:15PM- We go look at some kittens whose mommy just died. They are 4.5 weeks old, and SO CUTE. We found the one we wanted, and convinced Dad to let us get her. =) She is dark, a black/gray/blue color, with a darker mask. I wanted to name her Emma, but that didn't go over too well. It was between Elinor and Lady Susan (both Jane Austin characters), and I guess Lady Susan is what got picked. I was not there to contribute to the final decision, so it is not my fault. I preferred Elinor. Or Killer. ;)

5:20PM- We got to Grandma's again. We have some dinner and watch "Oh brother, Where Art Thou?" That is the most random movie ever. "I hate cows!!"
I was starting to get a little stressed because the pass was supposed to get rain/snow and might possibly close. I had to get to class Tuesday morning. I cannot skip. What to do, what to do. I have too-late-second-thoughts: Why did I make this trip? I am so stupid. Why did I come?? Why don't I think things over more thoroughly? Why do I make stupid, rash decisions? Why doesn't anything turn out the way I want?? This was supposed to be an easy trip! And now it's so complicated!! AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!

9:00PM- We go home and I start finishing up some homework.

Monday
12:30AM- I finish the homework I was working on and go to bed.

10:00AM- We arrive at Biola to meet the girls on time, despite the heavy rains.

10:45AM- We girls take off, ready to conquer the last leg of our journey. There is slight traffic, but it's not bad, surprisingly enough. It storms, but only here and there.

12:30PM- We stop in Gorman area and have Quizno's. Mmmm... =) All we have to do is go straight up the 5- what could go wrong now? The only thing that could go wrong is taking the 99 instead of the 5. But all we have to do is stay on the 5, so there's no worries in that.
We took the 99. Thankfully, it runs parallel to to the I-5.

4:30PM- Yum! Starbucks!! And there must not be any women in Modesto- we got two honks just walking in and out of Starbucks. Sickos.

5:30PM- We enthusiastically sing along with the Larry Boy theme song.

8:00PM- We pull into school! We made it!! I have never been so happy to be back at school. =)

It was an interesting weekend to say the least, but we made it to and from Southern Ca safely. Again, the Lord was protecting us. We had quite a few close calls, but we were protected. Thank you, Lord!!

And now I am sick. *sneeze*hack*sniff*cough* I am drowning my body in tea, Vitamin C, and zinc. Hopefully I don't get it as bad as Janelle did. Good gravy, she sounds terrible.
Goodnight all! Hope your holiday weekend was superb. =)