Cali Chronicles - Part 1

If you thought the Vegas trip in March was spontaneous, you're gonna love this....

Did I tell you about the weekend in spent gallivanting around Southern California? 

No? I didn’t?

Oh that’s right, it was top secret.

Meh… you know the saying… secrets secrets are no fun.

It had to be a secret at the time though. I may have called in sick to work on that Friday.

From California. 

Yes, go ahead and do the mental math… I set my alarm clock for 3:30am California time, so I could call into work at 6:30am Indiana time. My excuse – a killer migraine. Not a complete lie; after all that 3:30am alarm didn’t really wake me up… we had just gotten back in from the bar, all those margaritas did give me a bit of a headache afterall…..

It gets better. Let me tell you how it all unfolded! A few weeks ago, on a chilly Thursday night, I went to an event downtown with an old friend and 2 of his friends who were in town from California for the 500. D was one of those friends. We all had a blast together and then cheerfully parted ways at the end of the night. I never did see D, or the other two for that matter, for the rest of the weekend.

Skip ahead a few days and I log onto facebook to see a picture of D, posted by another mutual friend, pop up onto my news feed! I want to say that was on Sunday… (keep note of this timeline, it adds to the story). I excitedly exclaim ‘D___! ‘ to myself (his nickname) and friend request him.

.03 seconds later I get a facebook chat from him saying ‘hey call me’ with his phone number.

We chat for a good hour or so that night, and at some point he asks if I’ve ever been to Cali. I reply no, and he follows it up very matter of factly with a “well you should come hang out sometime, you would love it here”, and I throw back a “Buy my ticket and I will!” jokingly. I’m real shy and beat around the bush, can you tell. Ha. I didn’t think much of it, we talked about numerous other things and then said our goodbyes and goodnights.

D works in the racing industry, and travels a lot… so the fact that he was going to be in California that upcoming weekend became a big topic of conversation between us in the next few days. The fact that we both had non-booked weekends approaching quickly led back to the ‘come out to cali’ conversation from that first night, and again I jokingly told him if he payed for my ticket I would. Next thing I know, it’s Wednesady night nearing midnight and we’re on the phone discussing flight possibilities…. I’m lingering, still slightly unsure but then I figure what the hell and within 30 minutes I have seats for a flight out of Indy not even 12 hours away.

I told you I am totally embracing the “you only live once, go for it!” mindset.

So I got off the phone, packed my bags & tried to catch a few hours of sleep before I embarked on a full day of work followed by hurrying to the airport to catch a flight . To say that I was exhausted when I landed in Orange County at 10ish that night (1am indy time) would be an understatement however who wants to crash out as soon as they land… so I conquered the second official meeting of D and off to Cabo Cantina we went! For, the signature phrase of the weekend, ‘just one margarita’.

Well, as it always does, that one drink turned into 3 or 4, and we made more and more friends as the time passed.

I wasn’t even 6 hours deep in SoCal and I was already loving it… 


[Read the conclusion of  Cali Chronicles - Part 2 here]