Post from the Past: Orginially published Jun 9, 2007 on my My Space blog. Current mood:exhausted
Yesterday was one of those days that lasted weeks. It had some serious and ups and low moments respectively. To start off I didn't get alot of sleep, thanks-you know who you are.
I was "on-call" for jury service from Monday- Friday this week. Without fail I'd call the hotline as soon as the info was posted everyday and eveyday it said I didn't have to go in until Thursday night when a cheerful recording informed me I was to report at 7:30am. Woo-Freakin'-Hoo.
So I decided that a 6:30am drive into down town warranted, brace yourselves, my first serious solo trip on the highway! That's right kiddies two years in Los Angeles and I successfully avoided the highway all that time. But no more.
So, having successfully navigated the delightfully empty 101 and arriving outside the court house with plenty of time to kill I proceeded to pass the parking structure. Unfortunately, "I'll just go around the block" doesn't really work to well downtown. It's all one way you can't turn left until you leave LA county apparently.
To make the experience extra special the people downtown passionately love their horns. It doesn't matter if it's a red light with 30 people in the crosswalk and a down power line shooting sparks 20 feet in the air they will honk. Knowing I had to be within a block of where I needed to be but completely flustered and unable to get there I stopped for breakfast.
I ate and then asked everyone in the Burger King in turn how to get back to the intersection where the courthouse was and all of them looked and me as if I had two heads, shurgged and gave some indication that they didn't speak English. I was saved by the lady behind the counter who I suspect has dealt with more then one person lost on the way to jury duty.
I arrived minutes before 7:30 having spent nearly an hour on my little adventure. I made friends with the girl sitting next to me and waited around with the other 86 people praying not to get assigned to a 6 month murder case.
At 12:30 they released us for lunch at which point my new friend and I set out with the worst directions ever given (thanks court security guy) to some food court. We ended up at CPK where we bumped into unquestionably my favorite regular at Blockbuster.
After an amazing salad we sauntered back to the courthouse half an hour late. Just as we settled in some empty sits they released us for the day. I was so overcome with relief I rushed back to my car and peeled out of the parking without so much as a glance at the directions home, clearly a poor choice.
A good 15 minutes of pondering what a left turn would be like when some far off wonderful day I could make them again, I was back on my good friend the 101. I was headed home, but I missed the memo that rush hour was starting early . Bumper to bumper at 2:45 on a Friday, nice.
I made it home in one piece and excited that I survived a round trip on the 101, break out the baby book mom. I came home to find I was being offered not 1but 2 roles in the independent film I auditioned for! That's right I got 3 roles out of 2 auditions. Two words: 1)Super 2)Hero.
I also had an email from Alison wanting to hang out. The original plan was to get the girls together and go out for Mexican to celebrate my awesomeness. It ended being just the 2 of us on an impromtu trip to see her cousin in Riverside.
The trip there was smooth enough and we had a nice dinner, but something told me to pee before we left the restaurant...(insert omnivorous music here). We made our merry way back to the on ramp and were detoured in a ridiculous circle, just a preview of what was to come. We hopped on and went 55 for about 3min before we came to a screeching halt. Dead stand still, gridlock at midnight. I think the circular detour deposited us in the Twilight Zone. The slowest hour of my life ticked by almost audibly as my full bladder became painful and the lanes slowly dwindled down to one single lane. Your garden variety douche bags, who I suspect are serial killers for the most part, were making the merging process more difficult than it needed to be.
Finally, a little over an hour later the pointless detour lead us off and back onto the highway again. We exited to find a bathroom and marvel and the hour of our lives we'd never get back. The gas station was a no go and we wondered whether continuing with our present luck this would be the only Denny's in America not open after midnight. All was well, good old Denny's was there for our needs.
At this point we hopped back on the highway and headed for home. While there was other signs of construction there was none of the incredible congestion we'd experienced previously.
At about 2am I was dropped off at my door. Adventures....
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