Sometimes there's stuff you look back on and think, 'that can't possibly have happened that way, rig

[aruan]

Well, here's my nigh impossible day.

3:30 a.m. EST - 10:00 a.m. PST

Getting on the road at 3:30 in the morning after having gotten exactly 45 minutes of sleep because words were finally coming to you and there were projects to finish before you go gallivanting off to the other side of the continent during the last week of school should've been a good tipoff that today wouldn't be strictly normal.

I made it to the airport with much less than the intended two hours to spare. Honestly, this was the one part of the entire trip I was nervous about so I was a ranting, twitchy mess until our shuttle arrived in front of the terminal a full 20 minutes before takeoff.

The flight was brief and mercifully uneventful with our captain J.T. Wolter at the controls. I didn't figure out that I shouldn't recognize the girl sitting next to me from something - she just looked a lot like Natalie Portman. We had a lovely conversation about music at baggage claim before Schiz of giddyupnow arrived to whisk me away.

10:10 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Aah, Los Angeles. Smog and freeways and I watched the passing landscape as eagerly as if it'd been my first time here. It wasn't really real yet - how bizarre that just a few hours ago, I was in Florida and now we're driving past the off ramp to Santa Monica?

Anyway, once at Schiz's I helped proof a couple of her final papers before we went to drop them off at UCLA. It's the first time I got a good look at her room, and spent about fifteen minutes just poring over her walls. Posters and pictures and such a cool little fangirl abode.

Once on campus, I very quickly came into a flyer advertising a finals readiness workshop tonight with free Krispy Kreme donuts, hosted by Scientologists on Campus. I read it with mild disbelief and couldn't think of a single way this flyer was less directed at me than if it'd been a petition to kill baby seals. And then there was the Fabulous Subliminity of Gay Diva Worship lecture, which unfortunately happened last night but what a topic, eh?

Some coffee and pastries from The Coffee Bean later, we were on the road again.

3:01 p.m. - 4:52 p.m.

Madness ensued as we picked up (sassygurl) and began our southward sojourn to San Diego. I caught about an hour's nap in the backseat but woke to discuss such pressing issues as the evolution of Justin's voice across albums and the possibility of an acoustic reworking of Digital Get Down. Aah, to be in a carful of fangirls.

4:53 p.m. - 6:15 p.m.

Schiz noticed we needed gas as we were coming off the freeway. No problem, we think, we're bound to run into a station in downtown before we reach the theater. Well, we reached Spreckles Theater, brightly flashing neon marquee and all, and that's precisely when the CRV sputtered to a dead stall, in the middle lane of Broadway. As places to have that happen, we could've done a lot worse.

Luckily, our knight in spiffy black leather, without_me happened to be walking past just as sassygurl and I got it pushed off to the sidestreet next to the theater. She was accompanied by the lovely tallories, and together we set off on a mostly more epic than necessary journey to find a gas station.

Nothing about what follows should've been a fraction as hard as it was.

So finding a gas station was a chore in and of itself, but we managed. Anyhow, I walk inside, and there are two guys behind the counter, both of them sparing me a brief smile before moving onto staring stupidly at my chest which they seemed compelled to neither hide nor change. Whatever.

I explain that our car broke down and we need to get gas to take there and do they have any containers, but saw them before either Eegit could reply. The portable canteens came in two sizes, one and two gallons. I was gonna get the two-gallon anyway, but wanted to know how much the smaller one was compared to the $15.99 tag of that one, so I turn to Eegit #1 to ask.

"Could you tell me how much for the one-gallon container?"

*pause*

*Eegit #2 moves out from behind the counter toward the exit* "A gallon of gas?"

"No, the container. How much for the container?"

"Which kind of gas?"

"No, the-- Forget it, I'm buying this one anyway." *sets down the two-gallon container on the counter*

"Eegit #1 looks at it* "That's very expensive."

*I refrain from rolling my eyes* "Yes, I know, but we need to get gas because our car ran out."

*Eegit #1 rings it up* "And would you like anything else?"

*I pause this time* "Yes. Two gallons of gas on, say, pump #3."

"Two gallons?" *Eegits exchange glances then turn to me* "How much is two gallons of gas?"

"I just need the lowest octane gas you have."

"So you want about $1.50?"

*squashes urge to throttle* "No, two gallons of gas."

*Eegit #1 looks at me puzzled* "Maybe $5.00 then?"

"No, just two gallons of regular gas. How much is your regular gas?"

*Eegit #2 moves to go outside again*

"You think more or less? $4.00?"

"I think--" *looks out window* "Okay, your lowest-priced gas is $1.61, so two gallons, so that's $3.22. I need $3.22 worth of gas."

"Okay." *pauses as if he could do the math* "Are you sure?"

At that point I snapped a bit, refusing to deal with the pervy pothead duo for a second longer, and practically slapped down my ATM card. "That's it."

I paid and walked outside to pump my gas. Alicia had witnessed the entire exchange and came out a minute later. "Is it just me, or was that a lot harder than it should've been?"

God, no, not just you.

Anyhow, Schiz calls on our way back, and I'm still mostly incoherent and answer with a, "We got gas, don't ask me how, be there in five" and hung up. Between the four of us minus Alicia who went to repark her own car, we managed to negotiate the logistics of getting the gas into the tank. tallories and I went into some grill called Baja next to the theater to wash off the gasoline now all over our hands and shoes while Schiz and sassygurl parked the car. Since they were single-occupancy and the women's side was taken, we made no qualms about using the men's half, much to the amusement of fans and crew alike dining inside.

We caught back up with Alicia, Schiz and sassygurl and went inside the lobby, loitering for a few minutes just to absorb the atmosphere, deem the picture on JC's t-shirts to be entirely too Timberlake-ian in flavor, even though we understood what he was going for with the forehead-against-mirror effect. Someone needs to smack the makeup artists who insist on applying anything more than some kohl liner to the boy.

The inside of the theater is just as gorgeous as the pictures would have you believe. The stage was totally the cover of No Strings, too, which provided a lovely bit of full-circle parallelism.

7:10 p.m. - 7:45 p.m.

Tony was the unannounced opening act. He played five songs, including one he wrote in a guest bedroom of JC's ("not that he knew that") called Bad Guy and wrapped up his set with a rousing rendition of Hollywood Chain Gang for his California fans. He had a bass and percussion (read: a box) players with him, but otherwise it was just Tony and his guitar. This was my first time seeing him live, and he sounded better than any recording I've ever heard, professional or bootleg. Tony!

8:00 p.m. - 9:20 p.m.

The logo projected onto the theater curtain consisting of his initials all curled together with "schizophrenic" written across the middle looked more than vaguely like Prince's symbol. Which is hilarious given what was to come and a previous conversation in the car that involved sassygurl's woeful tale about trying to get tickets through Ticketmaster and the various and sundry butcherings of JC's name that that involved. We joked that if he knew what was good for his career (or just got fed up enough), he'd be smart to change it to a symbol, too.

Anyway, on with the show!

Comments

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

Heh. Yeah, the logistics took a little effort, but we were in the end triumphant. Go team us!

[tallories.livejournal.com]

No gas tank can withstand our combined brain power. *g* Though I still wish JC would have helped you guys roll the car, man. That would have been a picture.