Life As I know It: California Trip

So, I went away on my 1st business trip ever!!! Finally after almost four years of hard work, dedication, and being passed over by 3 new employees’s (of which only one is left at the office). The conference was put on by a company called Aderans. They sell products from Revlon and Rene of Paris. It was overall a really neat experience. The neat part about it all is that I was able to go with my mom. It’s not every day that I am able to spend some quality time with her because we both are typically so busy.
We flew in on Saturday morning. It was really hectic trying to get there. We had left the house about 6:45am. The roads were bad, slippery, slushy, and covered with mud and dirt. I even ran out of window washer it was so bad. By the time 10am arrived, I was just crabby and hungry. I was supposed to meet a friend for breakfast in the cities and was not able to find the exit (simply because it was not marked on either side of the interstate). I have decided that MapQuest is no longer my friend after two bad sets of directions… so, on that note I can’t wait for my GPS for Christmas. What a waste of a good hour and a half that could have been spent with a good friend.
Our flight into LAX went very smoothly. We were able to get to our ghetto motel and then from there we were off. Unfortunately for us, most of the people that we ran into in L.A. only spoke broken English. It was very frustrating to try to communicate and get directions. I would say that majority of the people that could speak English fluently were either crazies, just plain mad at the world, or from some other planet. We were very lucky at times to run into some people who were nice enough to direct us.
The first lesson that we learned the hard way in L.A. is that “downtown” is NOT Hollywood. We got on a random bus and asked for downtown and that is where we were brought to. We ended up being the minority in that part of the city. There were so many homeless people, people fighting, and probably people doped up on drugs. We were advised by a very nice man to not get off the bus and to stay safe. After talking with the bus driver and realizing our huge mistake, we were able to get safely to the metro and figure out how to get right in the heart of Hollywood and to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. After that, L.A. was a blast at night. Next came figuring out how to get back to the motel, which we eventually did.
On Sunday, we spent most of the day playing tourist. We went back to Hollywood and did a two hour tour. We went and revisited Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, Rodeo Drive, Hollywood, etc… We went and saw the homes of Christina Aguilera (Ozzie’s old home), Paris Hilton, Tom Cruise, Hillary Duff, Halley Berry, Bill Cosby, Michael Jackson, a couple of Frank Sinatra’s old homes, Marilyn Monroe’s home, and much more. We also saw a bunch of famous restaurants and clubs.
Monday was spent on being at the conference. My only regret is that it was not two days long. There was so much information squeezed into five hours that it was overwhelming at times. On a good note, that was the perfect day of 70 degree weather. There is nothing more confusing to a body in December than leaving home with a foot of snow on the ground and having it be 16 degrees outside and then traveling to California with very nice weather, no snow, Christmas trees and decorations out, and Christmas music being belted out on the speakers of outdoor malls. My other sad regret is that we had to leave right away for the airport. Outside of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, they set up the red carpet premieres for The Fighter and also for something else…. I just can’t remember it right now.

Now that I am home, I have to face the reality of cold weather and finals. I can hardly wait for winter break!