and sometimes you say to yourself... how did i get here?

After waking up at 2a.m. to drive to Charlotte Douglas International, checking our 49.5 lb packs and paddles and saying some happy slash worried goodbyes we set off on our journey..... Flying standby was sweet although i was the very last person to board the plane, the flight attendant hooked me up with the best seat on the plane outside of first class..... i dont think they allow mulla-hawks in the plush cabin.....something about being too cool to fly first class. but 90$ and a short nap later we arrived in LAX. Sunny LA.... hmmm what to do.

Hey did you know you can buy liquor ANYwhere in this city.... including Rite-aide which had a selection so irresistable and with prices so resaonable that welllll..... i pretty much had to buy a bottle of rum. Conner who was diligently guarding our lifes posseions on the UCLA campus was as delighted with my purchase as i was... so with a Cheers our crazy time in L.A. began.

It was noon.... we were waiting on some friends of some friends to hopefully come pick us up somewhere and take us somewhere... (This is generally how i plan things. (and it always works out)) To pass the time we caught some public transports and eventually found ourselves on Venice Beach to watch the sunset.

Venice Proved to be everything i expected.... a big beach in DT LA where the freaks come out at night. well not so much freaks as just interesting folks who were.... welll very interesting. They played gituars in ways i have never imagined with tunes too sophisticated for my brain to understand their rythms. Our bottle was laid to rest and things got fuzzy, like the hazy heaven above. soon i woke up, i was not dreaming, i was in a strange little apartment with a new pair of sunglasses, less money, and many questions. Yet as my brain slowly unravled and piced together the bits of my memories still hazily lingering from the night before i discovered we were safe... More than safe actually. We made it to LA!!!

Our friends of friends who somehow found and rescued us turned out to be genuinelly wonderful hosts. As we began talking it quickly became apparent that they already knew everything i had to tell them on account i rambled repeatedly all the way home the night before. ohhh well.... the point is.... everything worked out just as i planned and i had already made many new friends. Life is so easy...........