Finally out of the USA...

Well it has been an adventure so far as it always is travelling. It is what i both love and hate about the process. I love that you always get to see new things and experience new things and are always suprised in good ways. COnversely you are always suprised in not so good ways too. I always try to think of these things as blessings in deisguise.

Amy and i left early on Monday morning to LAX to find out that my Status on Delta had expired a few days before so the upgrade i was scheduled for didn't go through and i had to pay for our bags. I have a thought here. How do they expect you to travel for any period of time within their weight guidelines and without checking bags. I have a whole rant about the new luggage policies but we will get into that another time. The lady at the checkout was cool and didnt charge me an extra $90 for my bag being overwieght but it was 70 bucks to check out luggage. Then the second part of being a non-statused traveller hit;we had a huge line to wait for security. Not a huge inconvenience but the thing that sucks is that for all the times i have breezed through because there was no line my status never helped but the one time it could have i didn't have it.

We landed in LAX after a direct flight but Amy was feeling really sick(possibly an Ulcer or Reflux disease). I had a plan to check in our luggage to our connecting flight immediately but they weren't open. Since Amy was feeling really ill we were debating going to a clinic but decided against it and instead hit a rental car and the local Walgreens. Kind of a crappy start for Amy's birthday too. We met up with our Buddy Camillo soon after and luckily Amy felt better and was able to enjoy the day. Camillo lives in Venice Beach and we decided to check out the boardwalk there. If you get a chance it is really cool. Tons of street performers and vendors a real people watching treat. We also got to see Chris O'donnell and Mark Harmon making a movie, which was real cool. Then Cam and i decided to get our Medical Marijauna cards at a semi-shady clinic. Aftera brief interview where the doctor and i discussed my anxiety and an even briefer physical i was deemed to benefit from the use of marijauana. Yeah me. Though we found getting me into a dispensary would prove much harder, as i have no California driver's license and was unable to get any "medicine". Well at least i got to check that souvenier off the list.

That night we ate dinner at a GREAT burger place, The Counter where i consumed a 1LB gourmet hamburger in under 5 minutes. Afterwards we went to watch cam's capoiera school and watched them play for a bit.

We dropped Cam off and went for what should have been an easy check in and departure, except my stupid ass didn't have long enough on my passport to get into Indonesia. So we were denied the privelage to board the plane. SHIT! Amy was amazingly cool about it though, probably much cooler than i would have been but that's why i love her and we went right back to the rental car place to check out the exact car we rented earlier.

We found a hotel by the passport office and went to sleep after a very draining and long day.

Next day i went to the passport office and was able to expedite my passport in a few hours and we were back in business. The only hiccup was the lady who yelled at me for cutting the line... hey bitch i didn't cut the line, the lady called me up!

Having several hours till our very late night flight Amy and I went to meet my friend Dave, who lives in LA and is a film maker. Dave it should be said has really pursued his dream and lead the life of his choosing. I am very proud of him for never giving up and makinghis life his own. We enjoyed a great night of Vietnamese food and conversation.

After parting with dave it was back to LAX to check in and take off. This went by with no hitches and we boarded the plane. I fell immediately asleep and didnt wake up for like 7 hours, even slept through dinner. When i went to watch TV my screen wouldn't work, so much for watching Twilight and Paco the Bookmaker, it was the only one on the whole plane that didnt worl. Quick bitch here: What the hell happenned to my travelling luck? Amy was once again awesome and we shared our Headphones and TV and watched a couple of movies, until her screen broke too..WTF?!? I keep thinking that maybe this happenned so i can get refunded all the change fees for the passport incident.

And like most things in my life when something bad comes something good does too, I am sorta like Seinfeld, Break-Even Brian. Now we get to spend a day in Taiwan and see the sights, which is where we are now safe and sound. We even got to check in our hotel early (for a fee of course) and now we are off to shower then go see the sites. We will try to post more often so the posts can be more brief and eventually we will put some pictures. Thanks for reading.