I thought it'd be fun

Ahoy,

Another weekend of jam packed fun has passed. A finished his final on Saturday so we could begin to do stuff again.

I made the long and arduous journey on Friday to go pick up our stuff for the Disneyland half marathon on Sunday. He dropped me off at the airport so I could board a shuttle to Disneyland. There were others that were in the same boat. We boarded this sketchy van. I think this company must just make the rounds ahead of the official Disney Shuttle so he can collect suckers like us first. It's one of those Asian shuttles with drivers that are just really appeasing and a little sleazy, but you don't really know if he is actually agreeing or just trying to finagle business. After getting dropped off, I left our negotiation feeling incredibly unsure of my arrangements with him to get a ride back. Maybe you can understand what happened.

Me: So how do I pay you for a round-trip?
Driver: Yes...
Me: Do I pay you one way now and the rest later?
Driver: Yes...
Me: [hand him cash] Where do I find you again?
Driver: [running away] Right here...
Me: Do you have a card or phone number I can call?
Driver: [running away and jumping back into van, and driving away] Right here... what time?
Me: 11:30?
Driver: [driving away] Yes...

I waited in line for packet pick-up and ran into the expo for the gear pick-up before the door person had time to yell at me. There was an extremely long line also for the expo that I "by-passed," claiming the "I'm a runner and I need to get my stuff" card, along with everyone else who had just picked up their packets. And also, it was hot and sunny outside so I wasn't about to get in line again if I could avoid it. I picked up everything and walked across downtown Disney to the other side of the park because I was not about to wait around for ambiguous driver. I boarded an LA Metro bus to downtown LA. And continued all the way into the Valley to meet some friends that had come in from NYC. And at the end of the day, it was still hot. I finally made it back to Culver City around 10pm.

I'll forever remember this day as the day I took the bus/train all over LA. It's like I was walking around in the desert all day. Because I was. But the RRS took me to get ice cream at the end.

dangerously over-sized,
jt