The trials of travel

Well, the other morning I woke up in Rodondo Beach, CA. Sounds cool and fun, right? It's not too bad. I was staying at this neat hotel, the Portofino. It's all sailing themed. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself - let me tell you about me getting here.

Tuesday morning I got up in NY and packed. I should mention here that I have a packet of copies of papers I need for my presentation Wed. morning. I put this packet not in the very front zipper of the suitacse, but one of the ones further back - but not in the main compartment. This was a mistake... I then went for a quick run, took a shower and left for the airport. (I added the running part, not because it's essential to the story but just because I wanted to.)

I get to LAX, rent my car and go meet Christy and Ann for a bite to eat in Santa Monica before heading to my hotel. We had GREAT mexican food. Christy said that it's good but there are better places... I'm just excited to get mexican food! Syracuse's idea of mexican food is Taco Bell.

I drive down to my hotel and check in. By now I'm exhausted. It's about 8:30 but my brain thinks it's 11:30. As you know, anything past 10 is way too late for me... I get to my room and start to unpack a few things so I can get ready for bed. The first thing I pull out are my copies for my presenation the next day. They are sopping wet!!! Apparently someone at the ariport decided to leave my suitcase on the tarmac in Philly where it was pouring. So now I have to make new hand outs before my presentation. Ugh!

Next I pull out my nifty little Lands End toiletry bag and immediately I sense that something has gone terribly wrong. It's wet. I'm thinking it's because of the rain in Philly but I'm stumped as to how it penetrated that far into my bag. (I dont think the airport guy left it on the tarmac now, I'm thinking he dunked it in a tub water....) I pull out a t-shirt and give it a smell, Just water. huh - how 'bout that. THe rain did penetrate into the main compartment! I then take my toiletry bag to the bathroom and in the process notice that it's slippery. I give it a smell. Not just water... smells flowery. I open it up and sure enough the inside is SOAKED! The top (not just the lid, but the actual top) to my brand new mousse bottle is gone. I pull the bottle out and it's EMPTY! It was brand new! apparently in-transit the top popped off and mousse has been dumping into my toiletries case the whole trip. Although now the mousse-y part is gone and everything is slicky wet. I'm tired, I want to go to bed. But alas, I start pulling everything out and rinsing each item and setting it out to dry. I hung the case in the shower- I decided to deal with it in the morning. I needed to go to bed.

But, even though I'm exhausted I realize I need to check my clothes and be sure I have something to wear to my presentation the next morning. I go through everything in my suitcase, sorting between "good to wear" and "wet with water" and "wet with out of control mousse". I had something to wear the next day - I decide to worry about the rest later.

I love traveling....