Yet Another Lesson in Being Short

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How could I be so dumb!?!? I have no clue. The only excuse I could come up with for why I made the mistakes I made that night, July 26, was because I was exhausted. I was woken up before I was ready then I had a very long day on the road, starting out in Santa Cruz, Calif., and pit stopping in Monterey and finally finishing my day in Los Angeles. An all day trip that started at about 9:30 a.m. and finished about 11:30 p.m., including time it took to find a parking space at my friend’s apartment.

I had offered to take my grandpa to breakfast before both of us headed out on our different journeys – mine to L.A. and his to Yakima, Wash., for a family reunion. It was a nice final meal before heading out our separate ways. We chatted about all kinds of things. It was a great breakfast… hanging out at a local surfer’s joint. I definitely am of the thought that local places are better for travel because you get an idea for that place.

After breakfast, I gathered my belongings and headed out to Monterey, the next stop in my travels. I really wanted to get to the aquarium. I love the area and I’d been there before but it’s been a long time. So I decided that I would pit stop in Monterey and then continue to head south. It was a great time (photos and details for another time) but it was time to continue.

The drive to L.A. became longer than I had planned, but there were definite pluses, again to be detailed with photos later. The real focus for the time is what happened once I arrived to the L.A. area. I’m still smacking my forehead with my palm. D’oh!

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I had thought I’d get to L.A. about 8 p.m. but here it was 10:30 or so. I get to my friend’s apartment and have to look for parking. I was already tired so having to drive figure 8s while I found a parking spot for about 30-45 minutes wasn’t exactly in my plans. It was incredibly frustrating, but I finally found a place. It was then my exhaustion must have set in because there was a series of events that was beyond ridiculous.

It all started with leaving my car keys on the driver’s seat and slamming the door shut. I hadn’t realized there was an issue until I was in the trunk getting my belongings for the night. I was about to get my stuff out when I noticed I didn’t have my keys. Oh good grief… really? Crap! Thank God my trunk was open and my car is smarter than me because I realized there’s a lever to open the backseat of my car from the trunk.

So there I was at about 11:30 p.m. or so and having to crawl into my car via the trunk. I can only imagine what that looked like. The good news of course is that i could manage to do it. I realize if i were taller, it would have been possible also but it was easier that I didn’t have long limbs to have to worry about. It wasn’t exactly an ideal situation nor comfortable. Ugh.

I proceeded to have issues with trying to get into the apartment. I kept getting the numbers mixed up… first I went to the wrong apartment building, thinking it was a different number. Then I tried to get into the building with the wrong code because I had the wrong apartment number. I got into town about two hours before my friend was getting off of work but I probably only was in the apartment for about 30 minutes before he actually got home. All that time wasted on looking for a parking space, unlocking myself out (which thank God I could do that because a locksmith at that hour may have been very difficult, not to mention more unplanned expense that I couldn’t really afford), and trying to get into the apartment killed a ton of time., but at least it all worked out for the best.

I was exhausted… but what do I do? Stay up talking with my friend and his girlfriend and watch a movie until 4 a.m. Thank God I’m on vacation.

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