LAX

I've traveled a fair amount and have found the getting to quite tiresome. Buying tickets is no trouble at all as everyone is happy to take your money, which buys you approximately 20x16 inches of space for two solid hours. But how will you get to LAX? Will you park at and take the FlyAway, putting your life into the hands of the poor soul who drives this route countless times a day through the cutthroat lanes of the 405, having no qualms about "getting over" anytime necessary to make the schedule? Or will you bum a ride off a family member and offer to buy them a Starbucks’ upside down, skinny, half-caf, caramel macchiato and a pastry? Oh, and don’t forget the “thank you sooooo much!” You can also call for a shuttle. $85 each way. Need I say more? Another option, the option we chose, is to park at one of the myriad parking lots within a mile or two of LAX. The Marriot was the best I could find. $8 a day. Mind you, there were cheaper lots, but their business names alone had my car stripped and dumped in a ditch before we boarded. So the Marriot it is.

This is where my typical getting to experience was turned upside down. We left the house around 8:40 am, giving us an hour and twenty minutes to make it from Valencia to LAX. Oh, and it was a Monday morning. Jeff thought we needed to leave by 8, but always the optimist, I thought 8:30 would be perfect. And so we got on the road at 8:40. Would you believe me if I told you there was no traffic…no traffic on the 405 at 9 on a Monday morning? I couldn’t. We got there in about 45 minutes. This alone had me thinking that something was terribly, terribly wrong. We pulled up at the Marriot hotel and I kid you not, were on a shuttle to LAX in under 10 minutes. We dropped our car in valet, checked in, even used the restroom and the shuttle was just sitting there waiting for us. No hassle, no there’s been a misunderstanding about the ridiculous parking rate, no line. Nothing. Again, something seemed eerily out of whack. Our terminal was the first stop, getting us there two hours and twenty minutes before our plane took off. Thank goodness, I thought. That’ll give us plenty of time to get through that crazy security line. There were two people ahead of us and we were on our way to the gate before we knew it. You can imagine the scenarios going through my head at this point. I thought, If God has chosen this day to take us home, he’s at least made it hassle free. To take my mind off of my mind, I read. I had plenty of time. I just cozied up in the neck pillow I bought at the “we have everything” shop at LAX, sipped on my tea and read Storm Front by Jim Butcher.

All of my family has read this series and I felt obligated. It had its moments. I read while Jeff paced around (I think he was a little freaked out by the smooth sailing too) and played with our new Canon EOS T2i Rebel. I’ll need to take a photography class before I can properly use that thing and all of its workings. Jeff made a friend on board who had the same camera in his lap. I read about wizards while he learned about settings. A green tea, Eboost and tolerable bbq popper chips later, and we’re in Seattle…alive and well.