8 months and approximately 2 weeks later...dan and i are finally leaving on a plane to go to new zealand. i cannot even begin to describe how excited we are. we have had this trip booked for a while now...and here it finally is. we dont really have much planned except to fly out tomorrow, touch down in auckland, wait a couple hours until the car rental place opens, drive southwest to a beach resort off the coast of bay of plenty. we do know, however, that we want to do a day trip to an island, chill out with some dolphins and climb a volcano. we've got 2 weeks to do it, with absolutely no pressure....which will be nice for a change.
dan has experienced a lot of job related stress. i dont know if i can call it stress really, but he has faced a lot of people being laid off. a lot of these people have been at his company longer that he has with a richer skill set almost. this past week has been a nightmare for him. i sensed it in him all week...so now i think is a great time to break away from it and relax a little. he has some tough times ahead of him this coming year. i know he'll succeed in what ever he sets his mind too.
i, on the other hand, am still here. i've been working my toosh off at work....was even announced employee of the 4th quarter of 2008. the work never ends where i am at. some days i hate it and some days i dont mind it. i've been hating it for the past few weeks now just because of the anticipation of having 2 weeks off. i did tie up loose ends and took care of most everything, so i feel good about leaving.
i am sure i will have a lot of to write about when i get back, but the true test will be, if i even get to it. look forward to some cool pictures of new zealand in a couple of weeks.
paradise...here we come....
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
nightmare
yesterday was quite a nightmare for me. no...wait...the ending of yesterday was a nightmare for me. the day had gone perfectly well, up until the gas pedal stopped working on the I-5 south in santa ana. i'd rented a minivan to carpool my parents and their friends to a gathering in los angeles. the timing of the day was awesome. we had left when i expected and were on the road back home at a descent hour. no complaints what so ever. the auro in the minivan was nice too. everyone had a great time at the gathering and were relieved that we would be back in san diego before 9pm...which i thought was awesome cause that meant i could return the minivan that same night.
it was just a couple hundred feet before we reached the First street/ fourth street exit 104a that the gas pedal stopped working and the check engine light came on. i had no where to go but to pull over on the left side of the highway near exit ramp 55 south, and at that same time the van coasted as far left as i can get her, i instinctively yelled FUCK. keep in mind, the folks in the van are seniors. i had surprised them. i knew at that moment i was up shit creek. it was dark out, cars were zooming by us at dangerous speeds. i quickly grabbed my dads cell phone and dialed enterprises's roadside assistance. i was on the phone with them for no kidding 2 hours. the fuckers kept hanging up on me. the first person i spoke with was mario. he seemed nice at first and eventually hung up on me. i called back and spoke to another person who'd transferred me to ana at AAA who, ironically was the same person mario spoke to when i'd called. so she thankfully knew what the situation was. while on the phone with ana, the line disconnected. so i called back a 3rd time. this time pissed off as all hell.
at this time i had noticed a chp car causing a break in traffic. he came up to the window to see what the hell i was doing. he realized we were in car trouble and decided to push us off the highway. he was nice enough to push us onto 4th street and mulberry. officer peterson was a graet help to get us out of danger. i was very thankful for his aid. he stayed with us for as long as he could - then he left to answer another call.
finally i'd called back and spoke to michael. at this time i demanded that i speak to a manager. i was then connected to michael who works out of Louisiana. he was asking me for my location, i repeatedly told him i was at 4th and mulberry in santa ana. this fucker...had hte audacity to tell me .... sorry i have no idea what you're talking about i'm working out of Louisiana. oh man, my blood started boiling. are you seriously fucking kidding me. you're asking me how far i am from lax? you're the goddamn manager and your asking me to figure out the specifics of my location. bitch plug that coordinate into yahoo and you'll see where i'm at. during this feud, scott the tow guy came to take the van. i told him i was in no way or shape ready to give up this van without a replacement or a cabbie. i was not about to stand out on the fucking corner in harms way in an area where officer peterson told us not to leave our windows open. oh hell no.
scott stuck around. in the meanwhile, i was still on the phone with michael. he had me on conference call trying to get a hold of the enterprise at john wayne. it took him 25 min to finally get through the phone maze. erik from john wayne instructed that a minivan was ready for me. the problem was...i had to take a cab there. ok no big deal until michael said we'd have to pay our fare. seriously? you rented me a fucked up vehicle and you expect me to pay a $50 cab fare to pick up another vehicle? at this time profanities came out of my mouth. i agreed to pay the cab since that would be the only way to get us off the damn corner.
scott asked if i had a aaa card. and of course, i did. he suggested that he can tow me 1 way up to 100 miles. quizzically i asked...can you fight 6 in your cab? he answered, why not? i looked over my shoulder and realized that he had a crew cab. i felt relieved. i convinced everyone that it would be better and faster for scott to tow us down to san diego. so we all piled into the tow truck. i know that what scott did was illegal since we all did not have seat belts, but he was risking that for us. he totally provided great customer service. i was very impressed by him. he was a great guy, good humored and very helpful. he finally got us into the enterprise return lot at 951. talk about bad publicity for your future customers to see that a vehicle was being towed back.
i'd spoken to a brian and told him my situation and he looked at me like i was a lunatic. he insisted on telling me that the car wasnt working because i had the gears in manual. at that time i looked at him and asked him...if the car was in manual, wouldnt you think that the gas pedal would work? i asked him to explain to me how the gas pedal would stop working if the gears were in manual but would work in automatic? seriously this guy was clueless. so i insisted in saying that the gas pedal would work whether the gears were in automatic or manual. it doesnt take Einstein to figure that out. that is driving 101. give me break brian, even the retard of all retards would know a gas pedal would work either way. not so macho now are you? well, brian decided at that point, he would shave off 1/2 the price of the rental. i told him to cash me out and that was that. oh and to make a peace offering, he gave me a 2 upgrade coupon for free. wow, like that was supposed to make it all better.
needless to say, a trip that would have normally taken 2 hours to get home took 4 hours. the night was very eventful. did i mention, that we had to pass through the scales to get weighed on the highway, and that i had to ride bitch between my dad and scott? note to self, never rent a minivan from the san diego branch again. i've been renting from enterprise for quite a few years now, and this was the first bad experience for me. and you know, sometimes it only takes the 1 bad experience to steer you away from doing things another time around.
to top things off...i came down with a cold. what a weekend. i cannot wait for next weekend, new zealand here we come.
it was just a couple hundred feet before we reached the First street/ fourth street exit 104a that the gas pedal stopped working and the check engine light came on. i had no where to go but to pull over on the left side of the highway near exit ramp 55 south, and at that same time the van coasted as far left as i can get her, i instinctively yelled FUCK. keep in mind, the folks in the van are seniors. i had surprised them. i knew at that moment i was up shit creek. it was dark out, cars were zooming by us at dangerous speeds. i quickly grabbed my dads cell phone and dialed enterprises's roadside assistance. i was on the phone with them for no kidding 2 hours. the fuckers kept hanging up on me. the first person i spoke with was mario. he seemed nice at first and eventually hung up on me. i called back and spoke to another person who'd transferred me to ana at AAA who, ironically was the same person mario spoke to when i'd called. so she thankfully knew what the situation was. while on the phone with ana, the line disconnected. so i called back a 3rd time. this time pissed off as all hell.
at this time i had noticed a chp car causing a break in traffic. he came up to the window to see what the hell i was doing. he realized we were in car trouble and decided to push us off the highway. he was nice enough to push us onto 4th street and mulberry. officer peterson was a graet help to get us out of danger. i was very thankful for his aid. he stayed with us for as long as he could - then he left to answer another call.
finally i'd called back and spoke to michael. at this time i demanded that i speak to a manager. i was then connected to michael who works out of Louisiana. he was asking me for my location, i repeatedly told him i was at 4th and mulberry in santa ana. this fucker...had hte audacity to tell me .... sorry i have no idea what you're talking about i'm working out of Louisiana. oh man, my blood started boiling. are you seriously fucking kidding me. you're asking me how far i am from lax? you're the goddamn manager and your asking me to figure out the specifics of my location. bitch plug that coordinate into yahoo and you'll see where i'm at. during this feud, scott the tow guy came to take the van. i told him i was in no way or shape ready to give up this van without a replacement or a cabbie. i was not about to stand out on the fucking corner in harms way in an area where officer peterson told us not to leave our windows open. oh hell no.
scott stuck around. in the meanwhile, i was still on the phone with michael. he had me on conference call trying to get a hold of the enterprise at john wayne. it took him 25 min to finally get through the phone maze. erik from john wayne instructed that a minivan was ready for me. the problem was...i had to take a cab there. ok no big deal until michael said we'd have to pay our fare. seriously? you rented me a fucked up vehicle and you expect me to pay a $50 cab fare to pick up another vehicle? at this time profanities came out of my mouth. i agreed to pay the cab since that would be the only way to get us off the damn corner.
scott asked if i had a aaa card. and of course, i did. he suggested that he can tow me 1 way up to 100 miles. quizzically i asked...can you fight 6 in your cab? he answered, why not? i looked over my shoulder and realized that he had a crew cab. i felt relieved. i convinced everyone that it would be better and faster for scott to tow us down to san diego. so we all piled into the tow truck. i know that what scott did was illegal since we all did not have seat belts, but he was risking that for us. he totally provided great customer service. i was very impressed by him. he was a great guy, good humored and very helpful. he finally got us into the enterprise return lot at 951. talk about bad publicity for your future customers to see that a vehicle was being towed back.
i'd spoken to a brian and told him my situation and he looked at me like i was a lunatic. he insisted on telling me that the car wasnt working because i had the gears in manual. at that time i looked at him and asked him...if the car was in manual, wouldnt you think that the gas pedal would work? i asked him to explain to me how the gas pedal would stop working if the gears were in manual but would work in automatic? seriously this guy was clueless. so i insisted in saying that the gas pedal would work whether the gears were in automatic or manual. it doesnt take Einstein to figure that out. that is driving 101. give me break brian, even the retard of all retards would know a gas pedal would work either way. not so macho now are you? well, brian decided at that point, he would shave off 1/2 the price of the rental. i told him to cash me out and that was that. oh and to make a peace offering, he gave me a 2 upgrade coupon for free. wow, like that was supposed to make it all better.
needless to say, a trip that would have normally taken 2 hours to get home took 4 hours. the night was very eventful. did i mention, that we had to pass through the scales to get weighed on the highway, and that i had to ride bitch between my dad and scott? note to self, never rent a minivan from the san diego branch again. i've been renting from enterprise for quite a few years now, and this was the first bad experience for me. and you know, sometimes it only takes the 1 bad experience to steer you away from doing things another time around.
to top things off...i came down with a cold. what a weekend. i cannot wait for next weekend, new zealand here we come.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
gone with the old, in with the new
2008 has come and is now gone. lets take a glimpse of what happened in 2008 for me. where do I start?
probably the first thing that happened to me was my new job at Kaiser. it came unexpectedly actually. i knew, that i wanted out of the depot, but i never thought that i'd get set up with a new job by the end of the year to start off 2008 with a more stable and better paying job.
the second thing that happened was the move. i had moved around quite a bit before 2008. dan and i decided that we would move to pb to start our new married life together...so we moved right before the wedding.
the third thing that happened was the wedding. the wedding was the icing on top of the cake. it was a royal, and when i say royal, i mean ROYAL pain in my ass. ok...not so much the wedding, but the wedding planning. boy was i relieved when it was over. but i must say, the wedding was the best thing that ever happened to me in 2008. i dont think anything can surpass that...but we'll see what 2009 holds.
the fourth thing that happened...well, this is no fourth thing. i had 3 big things happen all at the beginning of the year. the last half of the year was smooth sailing.
whats in store for 2009? i do know of one thing for sure...and...thats the honeymoon we have put off for so dang long. come february 1st we will be on a long plane ride to new zealand. dan and i can cannot wait. i'm sure i will be counting down the days. its a trip that we have both been waiting for...a once in a lifetime type of deal.
i wish all of you happiness, love and success in the new year!!!
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