San Diego, Round 2

So for those of you who were hoping for an uneventful travel story, and those of you who were hoping to hear another painful saga... well you're all in luck! Yesterday I left my apartment in Barcelona at 8am expecting the usual morning traffic on the way to the airport and instead got there in 15 minutes. Awesome. Everyone knows how much I love to spend time in airports!

But actually it was a good thing because we boarded an hour and fifteen minutes early. Seriously. They had a special secondary security area set up inside the hangar and we all had to put everything through the machine again, take off our shoes and belts (I'm sure I'm going to accidentally lose my pants one of these days), and then go through a pat-down! My favorite!

Anyway the 8 hour flight to JFK was pretty uneventful aside from the fact that I was surrounded by Loudest Family Ever. Man, those Spaniards really know how to yell. The movie was The Sentinel, and Michael Douglas's fancy new facelift meant that his face didn't move at all in any of the running scenes, of which there are many since he's on the run. Modern medicine really is a marvel.

Hung out at JFK for a few hours and then boarded my 6:05 flight to San Diego, which was slightly delayed because the incoming plane was late. No biggie, we were on board by 6:30, they closed the doors and then... we sat. For three hours. First, after an hour, a flight attendant finally came over the loudspeaker and said something like, "Ladies and gentleman, we apologize for the delay. We are missing a part for the plane and we are checking with the ground crew to see if it's actually a part we need in order to take off." But there were lots of strange pauses in there. "So, once we hear from them we'll let you know."

Hmmmm. Well the plane didn't have the part on the way in, right? So maybe we don't need it on the way out. Or did it just fall off while it was parked? Anyway, if it's not necessary, why would we have it in the first place? Maybe it's the plane's appendix.

Half an hour later, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have heard from the ground crew that I guess we don't seem to need that part, so we'll push out of the gate momentarily." Interesting.

Half an hour after THAT, the captain came on to tell us that because of the delay we were now dealing with the international flights that leave at night and we were THIRTIETH in line for take-off. About that time everyone started to get extremely pissed off. I yelled, "DRINKS! DRINKS! DRINKS!" And most people cheered in agreement. I mean, come on. They confiscated all our beverages before we got on and then we couldn't have any water for three hours? So the flight attendants started handing out mini water bottles and people started milling around the plane until the captain came back again and, like an angry father, said, "Folks, I told you you could get up an use your cell phones as a FAVOR. No computers, no ipods, get back in your seats and fasten your seatbelts!" That went over really well.

Well fortunately I had stocked up on the important news of the day in the form of "People," "US Weekly," and "Star" magazines. You miss so much when you're out of the country! Kate Hudson cheated on Chris Robinson with OWEN WILSON?!?! So yeah the three hours didn't bother me so much. But the five hours of flying were pretty boring.

Anyway now it's Friday and sunny and I took another trip to the airport this morning to drop off my sister and her boyfriend and then had lunch with my mom. Tonight my friend Robin is having an open house at her new studio and then my friend Sutton's band is playing. What a great start to a vacation week in San Diego!