Finally So Cal

Journal Day 1: Still Crave'n

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Sunday morning came bright and early, literally. I woke up by 7:30 after a rather short sleep. While we left the party relatively early (10:45 or so) on Saturday night I still had two loads of laundry to do. I think the laundry finished at about 2am. Another short night of sleep. Oh well, I can spend more time with my folks awake than asleep anyway.

However, Alan won't let me get away without sharing with you the state of my bedroom that he came home to on Saturday night after the party. My excuse(s) are that it was a rather crazy two weeks and who has time to pack nicely (much less use a dresser or closet to store clothes for two weeks when staying in a strange place) when one is thinking about moving to the States in short order. Keep in mind "short order" will be adjusted in future journal entries.

Anyway, this is the state of disrepair the poor boy found on Saturday night when we snuck back into my parent's house:



Saying goodbye to mom and dad was a somewhat teary-eyed affair. Naturally I kept my sunglasses on so it didn't look like I didn't want to move to San Diego. Alan suggested we take a picture of him dragging me into the car but we decided against it (and yes, that's my new Stantec shirt!!!).

At about 1:30 we headed to London Drugs to buy some cheap sunglasses for Alan since he sat on his after the party on Saturday night. Once on the road we made a pit stop in Okotoks to say some more good byes and by 2:45 we were on our way to Lethbridge.

However, about the time we hit Cayley, we realized we'd left something behind. The Crave cupcakes Amber bought for us on Saturday. DAMNIT HELL!!! That's at least 5 times we've been hosed on the cupcakes. So, after almost 8 months of trying, we still haven't tasted them. Mom and Dad enjoyed them that night for us. Apparently they're quite tasty. We'll never know, but that's what I'm told.

We arrived safely in Lethbridge and had a great night out with my sister Gillian and her boyfriend Brad (sushi). Well Brad isn't sushi but we had sushi for dinner with Brad. Gillian, while familiar with sushi, still put on a good pout for us about the ginger. Charmer, isn't she?



We had dessert at Ric's Grill, a restaurant which used to be a "Jail".

Side note:
Until I was 16 (roughly) I thought that water towers were jails. Now, when you're done laughing,come back to this with me. A water tower as a jail makes sense, doesn't it? There's only one way in and one way out. Up the middle. You only need, like, one guard per shift 'cuz he can see everyone all at once form the middle. Plus if someone tries to sneak out it would be pretty easy to hear. "Tink, tink, tink" against the steel sides. They'd know right away that you'd been snuck some outside paraphernalia in that birthday cake your wife sent you (assuming all inmates are males, and have wives, or haven't been left by their wives subsequent to their incarceration).

I'm pretty sure I've got back up on this too. When I was in university (all be it that time was a bit of a blur) I'm pretty sure in one of my sociology classes we were told that some sociologist guy designed a jail that was like a water tower. They had various levels of cells but they only had one guard on each floor because he could see every cell at all times on that floor. Well, he could stand in one spot and rotate 360° and see everyone. Unless they start developing humans with eyes in the back of their heads technically no one would be able to see everyone at the same time... but I digress. Although mothers do appear to be blessed with 360° sight so perhaps instead of hiring big bulky security dudes, they should hire mums with toddlers at home. They see everything.
End side note.

So, the water tower that used to be a jail. Lethbridge has a huge water tower in the middle of town that they've converted into a swanky restaurant. It has three levels. The first level is the "lounge" which simply means that it's the restaurant with a bar. They served everything they serve up stairs but the bar is bigger. Go figure?! The next floor up is the restaurant which has great views of the city (though so does the "lounge"). Then you can go up spiral stair case to the top floor which only has sky lights for a view. Super cool.

Anyway, we trudged back down to the first level (which is technically just the bottom of the water tower bulb) for some swanky dessert. Well all ordered something different so we could all share one another's. Want to know the rip off of all this? I didn't try anyonelse'ses, and neither did anyone else. But they all tried mine; hmph! I think I got ripped off. But, I did order the best dessert, so there!

Alan also got kinda screwed in the dessert department too. He ordered the Peaches and Cream cheesecake. However, unbeknownst to him there was a woman up one floor that just got proposed to. For whatever reason, she got Alan's Peaches and Cream cheesecake. Alan wound up with Strawberry and banana cheesecake which turned out to be pink in color, but tasted like banana. The strawberry part of the cheesecake was half of an overripe strawberry sitting on top of the cake. Poor guy. He figures if she said yes, then she shouldn't get the cake too, 'cuz really, who gets their cake and gets to eat it too, right? But we'll revisit this little theory tomorrow.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. I was in bed, fully clothed by about 10:30. It had been a long and emotionally draining day. The bed, however, was super comfy and I got a decent night sleep albeit a short one since I woke up ready for work at 6:30.

posted by Meg @ 12:29 PM