after that ridiculous party saturday i decided to sleep till 4 and then wake up and finish packing. i stayed up the rest of the night since i'd have to wake at 5am for the flight. martin was cool and kept me company until he passed out. after seeing what he looked like as i shook him awake at 6 i was glad i stayed up.

i guess this blog would be about how it's great to have friends you can't count on, there were a few who really helped not just the one in the title.

first, before i left i had to get my dad's car back to him. unfortunately i had to keep his till the very end, because more tragic than my car getting smashed was the time it took for the garage to get it fixed for the price they ax'd. so i drove up to the valley and hitched a ride back with david. turned him on to drayton sawyer gang. rawk.

left my wallet in david's car. got martin to take me to get over-the-counter drugs and my wallet in quakertown. got martin to take me to the airport. bought him breakfast. drove through a fucking hailstorm on the way. left my coffee in his car. check in was alright.

flight was crowded. couldn't fit the carry on bag. it was hand checked. taxi'd(sp?) to the runway. pilot informed us that there was heavy traffic adn we were 15th in line to take off. that took 2 hours. the flight attendant told me we can make the time up in the air. .....but we didnt'. we landed in san francisco with 13 minutes to catch the connecting flight to Incheon(Korea). the flight attendant decided the way to catch the flight was to have the konnecting koreans push their flight attendant button, so the light could tell the other passengers who should go first. of course, some assholes were in my way as i joined the other dozen little shovelheads running like retards to a flight they'd never catch.

so we got to the gate and there was nobody there and nobody would tell us what we had to do. so i guided the menospeakyengrishys to the lobby were we learned that the next flight to korea wasn't for 24 hours.

it was exactly 24 hours after the flight we missed. i made sure everybody knew what do and what hotels they could stay at. what pissed me off was that i spent all the time translating and booking hotels for the airline's customers, and they stick me on a different flight than everybody else. i had to leave two hours earlier, and then sit around in tokyo for three hours for a fucking layover to seoul. FUCK THAT. i even had to pay for the hotel cause United considered the delay a weather problem.
and the cherry on top was that nobody could locate the bag that i checked at the gate. somebody said it was here in san fran, but anotehr person said it went to seoul on the plane we missed? all i knew is that i was to spend a day in san fran in my pajamas.
yeah, i figured flying for 24 hours shoudl be comfortable so i put on athletic shorts and a sweatpants, a t-shirt and somehow managed to work in my leather jacket. yeah, quite a site.

the day was about to be a disaster, all my medicines, clothes, vitamins, contraceptives were in my missing bag. thank god i slept on the plane and had my laptop with me. i went to the best western, the cheapest place with a shuttle to and from, internet, a restaurant, and a pool

upon arrival at the hotel i noticed the pool was outdoor, and that it was also rainy in SF.
had to authorize a $50 hold on my card to enable the TV and Phone lines.
got intot he room and spent 15 minutes enjoying a bed. opened my bag, internet didn't work. made a call to India for customer service(you know how fun that is) took his advice to get the USB adaptor to enable connection. i assumed his intentions were better than his english.

found out from the front desk that the 4th floor doesn't have internet. problem solved, changed rooms. failed at napping, ordered a few drinks and watch game 2 of the playoffs. didn't realize that was the last i'd see for three weeks. but was good. during halftimes i made a few toll free calls, one that got me off that stupid flight to tokyo so i could arrive early and direct to incheon. and i got confirmation that my bag was on its way there, would be locked up and held for me until i got there tomorrow.


fortunately got a call back from someone i left a message for when i first learned of the 24 hour layover. a good friend from high school still lives in San Mateo(15 minutes from SF) and was out of work at midnight. what luck, i got an awesome first experience of jambalaya at the restaurant she manages. i even got to have an Anchor in the city of its brewing. i then got a nice dose of smoke free california. drinking is so awesome when someone isn't blowing shit in yr face. so after all that shit, i made some good. i spent $70 on chocolates that i knew the ladies out here would love(it was a hit) if yer in SF go to See's Candies, they're great. luckily i had one next to my hotel.
and i got to see Cynthia whom i hadn't in five years.


got tot he airport on time. almost checked in late cause two dozen germans cut in line. fortunately i heard them say that "united" didn't look like "lufthansa" yeah, i sent their asses back to deutschland in style. anyway, thank god for e-check in. cause those 24 sheisters were nothing compared to the 200 shovelheads that were manually checking in 3 bags each. got to relax before boarding, even ran into the ones who were stuck in SF for the night too. found out i was upgraded to economy plus. TOTALLY worth it.

actgually my head is spinning now. i can't look at monitors after flying, getting a bit dizzy and i just wrote too much, so here's the scoop:

if you go to korea, either do it direct(17ish hours) from DC, or NY(nothing in philly)
Asiana and Korean Air have great service. UNITED SUCKS. last timei flied it they forgot my vegan meal and i showed up to tokyo thin as a twig.

DO NOT layover at Narita(tokyo airport). it's only 2 hours to Incheon(seoul) but those two hours are painful cause you just spent the previous day flying as well. and once you land in incheon, you have to go through immigrations, customs, get your bag, exchange your money, and then get a ride to seoul that takes almost an hour.
if you fly to Japan, stay there a day or two, get over the jet lag, relax and see the country.
otherwise, this extended layover in CA was good, i got to forget about flying, rest, and even see some stuff.

but i will add that when i landed in incheon this time, my bag wasn't there. all of the people who missed the connection in SF on monday were missing the bags that were checked at the gate. so junghwa and i did a little shopping. i got my first pair of jeans in ten years! yeah, i look like an asshole.
and then my bag was found/delivered last night.


by far my worst storytelling.