Finally San Diego

Friday, February 9, 2024

We made it! And the weather is beautiful. It’s nighttime, but no coat is necessary. We are at a Holiday Inn Express downtown and it is lovely. Rachel at the front desk gave us an upgraded room with a king bed and a couch and a jumbo balcony. Too bad we will only be here one night. (We are not going home tomorrow. We are going to Oceanside – a bit to the north.)

Leaving on an evening flight is weird. There is absolutely no reason you can’t do all the things all day long, but I never do. I just waste time, thinking I should be doing something about the trip when there is nothing left to do. That’s dumb. I will make a memo to self not to do that next time. We did drop my birthday flowers at the neighbors because they were too beautiful for someone not to be enjoying them. Alexander dropped us off at the airport, then he was heading to the Chatterbox Pub to have (heavy) macaroni and cheese (his choice for the three mix-ins – pulled pork, bacon, and ham. Apparently, his m&c is brought to him by the Pork Council). He said he thought for a while how he could treat himself for being in the south metro at dinner time and Chatterbox was a great idea.

Watching movies on planes is my idea of luxury. There is nothing else I am supposed to be doing (I always think I should be tidying up or cleaning or doing something useful. I am rarely actually ever doing any of those things, but I am always thinking I SHOULD be) and I can just scroll along and pick any movie I want. I do realize I could do that at home, but I have never, ever done it. I can only turn on the TV by talking to the lady in the box (Alexa) and she usually answers, “okay!” when I ask her to turn on the TV or go to Netflix or whatever, but then she doesn’t actually do it. But that’s not why I don’t just sit down and watch a movie in the middle of the afternoon. I just don’t. Ahhh, but on a plane? The plane is still parked at the gate and the other people are getting on and I am watching my first movie. Heaven!

We watched She Came to Me, a decidedly odd movie with Peter Dinklage, Marissa Tomei, and Anne Hathaway. We both really enjoyed it. Then we watched Jules, about a UFO that crashed in Ghandi’s (what’s his name? Ahhhhhh. I know it. You know it. Ghandi. Ben Kingsley!) backyard and the alien guy (who looked a lot like Brick Heck) and Jane Curtain and Beebee from Frasier. We liked it so so so much. Sweet movie that made us laugh out loud (it is always funny when you realize you are laughing out loud on an airplane) (I watched several episodes of Friends on a plane once. I got the giggles as successive episodes got funnier and funnier and Keith had to cut me off because I was embarrassing him). I watched the beginning of The Guy Who Saved Pinball (or something like that…with Pinball in the title) with my last 30 minutes. I was really enjoying it. Mayor LaGuardia is the bad guy, and to quote(ish) the movie, “The villain is not only dead, he has an airport named after him.” I look forward to finishing it on the trip home.

We had a great Lyft driver. He retired from the army a few years ago and he was very easy to chat with while we waited for a long train. We are trying to keep to Central Standard time, so it is after midnight and I should get to sleep. There is touristing to do tomorrow!