Not all is lost

The plan was to head out early this morning so we could hit downtown one more time to pick up some more dim sum (I'm hooked) and FINALLY see the painted houses in Alamo Square before we took off back to LA.

I realized this was no longer the plan when I woke up at 10:30 and apparently everyone was "letting me rest". I must admit it was nice to sleep on such a cozy mattress and to let my body recover from the last few days. I still woke up as congested as ever, but I felt better and looked better. I actually looked RESTED. No morning is complete without amazing pancakes for breakfast made by my brother's girlfriend. This morning they were home made chocolate blueberry pancakes that we actually fought for.




After eating what seemed like the entire house, it was sadly time to pack it up, pack it in and hit the road. There was no way I was missing those damn Victorian houses and my dim sum for lunch.

Getting into town seemed easy enough. I think I'm actually getting the hang of the streets now. I managed to get to Alamo Square without a problem and there they were....in all their painted glory. Six nearly identical houses squished next to one another, each wearing a different color. For what I've heard about these houses, I think the anticipation was far greater than actually seeing them in person. After all this, they were just six Victorian houses. Up to this point, I'd seen so many gorgeous Victorians that these just didn't seem to impress me all that much. Never the less, I am glad I finally went and saw them and like every other tourist there, took a picture.

On to the food.

I realized that we need cash before we get to the same place where we'd gotten some amazing steamed balls of bread and happiness. First task, find an ATM....liquor store with an atm inside AND parking? Don't mind if I do! Task number two, figure out where the hell exactly you were two nights ago in the midst of 400 Chinese shops and a million windows with peeled and cooked geese hanging in them.

This is a good time to explain my "system overload" melt downs: this occurs when Linda has too much information being fed into her brain and all the senses are being utilized to process this information and sometimes....just sometimes, the senses get overloaded and the brain goes on vacation and decides its better to just let go of all thinking and processing and just pretend we're there.

At this particular time I was wearing my pajamas still (hey it's not like anyone was going to see me driving for the next 8 hours), thus I had no pockets and I was wearing gloves. In my hands were: a phone, two $20 bills, car keys and change for the parking meter. On my brain was: remember where you parked the car, remember to throw money in there and how much time you have, where the hell is this tiny hole in the wall...I see 30 other places that look just like it. In my ears was: the chit chat of my mom and aunt trying to figure out the same thing...one pointing this way, the other pointing the other way and claiming that she has no idea where it is and probably shouldn't be looking for it anyway, honking and constant chatter of the vendors on the street. Enter System Overload. I threw up my hands, handed off my phone and change to my mom (who had pockets), let them lead the way (which we actually found with THEIR sense of direction) and focused on breathing and not punching the next person to make any noise.

We order a conglomeration of dim sum to eat now and to enjoy on the drive back...the lady at the counter gives me a total...I reach for my twenties....annnnnnnnd they are gone. In the midst of the overload I had dropped, stuffed, stashed, and plain out LOST two $20 bills in the streets of Chinatown. Good luck with finding that. Wallet left in the car and no other cash on us, we are forced to surrender the food and walk back to the car. At this point I wanted nothing to do with food, anything Chinese, or speaking another word aside from "fuck".

I've never been so sharp on directions as I was on the way the fuck out of Downtown and OUT of San Francisco. I'm pretty sure I made record time.

After much calming down from my mom and aunt, I finally gave up on being angry and got on my merry way. (It's a little known fact about me, but I absolutely despise losing things...especially cash).

We had planned to take the coast til we got to Moro Bay but about 15 miles into the coastal drive quickly realized it was a futile effort as the sun would be setting just as we were to pass Big Sur and it would take us an extra 3 hours to get home. It was already nearing 4pm and I was in no mood to drive a huge canyon in the dark. I made an executive decision and back tracked my way to get back to the 5.

There's a huge tradeoff when it comes to taking the 5 freeway down to Los Angeles and through the grapevine. You practically have to give up your sanity to be able to drive and stare at the same fucking scene for 3 long hours with zero turns in the road and the same stupid cars and trucks driving on cruise control. And with such incredibly fun smells rolling in and out of the car from the cow farms and god knows what else. Needless to say, I don't like taking the 5 back home.

If this weren't enough to make me want to slit my wrists with the remaining plastic spoon in the car, when we got to the top of the grapevine we hit MASSIVE fog of about 4inch visibility. I saw NOTHING in front of me nor to the side of me. It was the most intense 45 minutes of my life trying to navigate 5 miles of road and seeing only the tip of my nose.

With all this behind us, the rest of the drive was a piece of cake. It was the first time I'd driven from SF to LA the entire time and my ass, back and legs definitely let me know that as soon as I stepped out of the car when I got home.

By midnight, I wanted nothing more than my own bed and to lay in a coma like state staring at the flickering tv....and that is exactly what I decided to do.

This trip is in the books and it was amazing all around, cold and loses aside.

Just for the wondering few, the Cadillac comes home in a few weeks. Too many people and too much planned to be able to take it home today.

It's sleep time.