I hit the alarm at 5:00 both excited and already exhausted by the trip that lay before me. I knew the day would be long, but I was rarin' to go. A quick breakfast under my belt, thanks to my beautiful spouse, I headed to the airport. To my surprise I ran into a friend from church. He works for an airline and was on his way to a business meeting in Florida. We had the same flight to Charlotte so we sat and talked for a bit. While sitting there I happened to notice something on the jet way. I asked him and he confirmed that they were indeed fake owls that the airport used to discourage birds from nesting.

The time there stretched a bit as it turned out that our flight crew had yet to arrive. It sounded like they had had a late flight the night before and were required to wait a certain number of hours before re-planing. Fine by me, better safe than greasy spots. We got to Charlotte on time and before I could grab anything to tide me over we were in the air.

It was a beautiful day for a flight and I had packed my iPod, two good books (Get Shorty and A New Way to Be Human), and my interview notes. I had plenty to do. My brain couldn't settle on music so I hit the notes and finalized my questions. I read some, cat napped some, attempted to lip read the movie (only to find out later that my iPod buds would have worked), and people watched. The time passed all too quickly.

Five hours later and I was on the ground. I got my rental car and headed up the 405 to Universal City. You've probably heard as much as I have about how absolutely HORRIBLE LA traffic is. Everything you've heard? True. Traffic craaaaawled. But eventually I got to my destination. I went straight to the amphitheatre managing to get turned around only once in the process. No parking spots were available though.

I found a temporary spot and stepped out into the beautiful California sunshine. I found Charlie, my contact, and chatted with him a bit. He pointed me to a bouncer looking fellow and indicated that a cone could be moved for my parking pleasure. The bouncer looking fellow didn’t seem altogether cool with that. He and Charlie talked and came to an agreement. As long as I was gone by four it was all good. I parked, grabbed my assorted junk, and went inside.

Charlie showed me my spot. Couldn't have asked for a much nicer liaison. He reminded me a little of either a game show host or a DJ. Maybe it was his hair or his smile, not sure. In any case he did a fantastic job of making me feel comfortable. I grabbed a chair and waited…and waited. I had a serious case of caterpillar stomach (crawlier than butterflies) and prayed and meditated through that. While waiting I received a panicked call from my wife. She indicated that the rental agency had put a three hundred dollar hold on our account. Apparently they do that if you use a debit card. That put us in the negative and if any other charges went through there would be penalties. Not good.

After some frantic phone calls we were all informed that you can't put a car on a different card without bringing the car back in. So I told my wife to hang in there, let me finish the interviews and I would do just that. I did the interviews and those went well (they should be going up soon). All four groups were absolute gentlemen and very professional. I finished them at four on the dot and headed back to LAX. I wasn't real happy about it, but live and learn, right? I got a bit turned around but finally oriented my car in the right direction. Then a thought struck me. I got my wallet out and checked and sure enough, no credit card.

I called my wife and let her know. She found my card and called the rental company. They could accept my card over the phone so long as I could come in and take care of it. They could also remove the hold a long as I again came in and signed off on it. So I continued my jaunt. Did I mention that my sense of direction isn't all that good? And I don't do well in big cities? I finally got to the point where I was seeing exits for LAX. I called my wife to let her know and she told me that I had twenty minutes to get there if we wanted the hold taken off. Great. I got to the airport proper with ten minutes to spare, but couldn't find the stinking rental place. I drove around the loop a couple of times and nothing. I stopped and asked a Security person and in broken English with the aid of a map, he got me in the right direction. I had three minutes and it didn't look good.

I called Leigh and she said that the rental company was able to fax everything to our bank and get the hold taken off and put it on my actual credit card. Without me there. She recommended I stop by anyway and so I did and they said "Everything's fine. We told your wife that." *sigh*

I get back in my little buggy and book it for Universal. The time is now six and it's an hour to the concert. I grabbed a burger (my first food in sixteen hours, not counting airline pretzels) and hit the freeway. Traffic is ugly with a capital UGH. I get back to the theme park, manage to park my car in the hotel, and get out. I'm already a little late. I figure I'll go ahead and check in. I do and then hightail it to the amphitheatre. The music is blaring. I settle in and enjoy the disconnect from all the stress of the day. You can read my concert review and tell how much fun I had on that end. Afterwards I went back to the hotel and settled in, completely exhausted. A good hour later I was fast asleep.