So I am a big kid now.

I was send on my first ever business trip. Spolier alert, it was terrible and I never want to go again! Mostly, because I am so codependant that I missed Karl so bad the whole time.

We stayed at a hotel neat the LAX Airport. A Holiday Inn Express. It turned out to be ok.

Here was my view of Englewood in the morning. More on Englewood later.

We got in kind of late on Tuesday evening. But we were both starving and I was able to find an Islands near our hotel. I had these amazing pork tacos and spinach artichoke dip. Kyle had the fish tacos, and loved them.

We woke up early to get to our meeting in Downtown LA.

The drive there was…interesting.

I just kept thinking, we aren’t in Kansas anymore.

For example:

The trip had it’s perks too. I drove passed and saw with my own eyes the General offices and distribution center of my beloved See’s Candies. So that’s something.

The city rose through the morning haze as we finally made it.

It took us nearly an hour and a half to dirve 15 miles. Cool.

Where were we going?

LAUSD. Los Angeles Unified School District.

It was nuts. I couldn’t believe that it was a school district office.

We attended a crazy meeting, that I don’t think was confidential, but I don’t feel comfortable sharing any details just in case.

Many hours later, we found ourselves here:

This is Manhattan Beach, a mile down the road from our second appointment. We stopped for lunch at this little Italian place call the bottle Inn.

Right on the beach.

Oh, this is Kyle Russon. He is the kid that I work with every day, and we went on this trip together.

We had our meeting, battled traffic some more, and them made it back to the hotel, only to do more work until late.

I was, of course starving, but not feeling too well, so instead of going somewhere cool, we went to somewhere easy: Jack in the Box. It was just a couple of blocks from our Hotel, and I haven’t eaten there in years. Not really thinking that we were doing anything dangerous, we headed over and went in.

My first sign that something wasn’t normal was the place itself. I thought, something is different, then I saw it. From the sealing to the counter, there was 3 inch think bullet proof plexi-glass. As I was thinking, “Yikes, they must have had some problems with being held up,” I notice a young man come in behind me. He would not stop staring at me. So I tried to ignore him. Kyle and I nervously ordered. While I waited for Kyle to finish, the young man adressed me:

“Red head huh?”

“Yeah,” I replied trying to seem like I was so cool and not totally nervous.

“Red head and don’t care!” He almost yelled at me, laughing a little as he said it.

“Ha, ha, yeah, thanks” I tried to smile back, thinking “Why am I thanking him?”

He continued to stare at me.

Kyle finished and we took our seats, which there were very few of in that particular place. One other gentalman set eating and talking on his cell phone. I tried to start a casual conversation with Kyle, ignoring the kid still staring at us. We talked about the meetings we had that day, when suddenly the kid starts yelling. It took me a minute to realize, it wasn’t at me, but at one of the kids behind the counter, working in the kitchen.

“What are you smiling at? Huh, (Expletive) What?”

The manager approached the counter and asked if he could help him.

The kid yells curses and accuses the store, and demands a refund.

The maneger can’t get the money out of the till fast enough.

The kid keeps cursing making threats and accusations, about racism, etc.

Meanwhile, I try to keep up my conversation with Kyle. Kyle struggles to get a word out, mostly because what is happening is so loud and distracting.

The kid takes his money and runs out the door and across the street.

We both still try to act like, yeah that was totally normal for us. Then a HUGE black escalade drives up, and two guys who seriously look like they were the models for the HOMIES walk in. Total cholos. Nice guys, but it was really crazy. They seriously looked just like this:

We finished our food, and got back to out hotel.

I realized I have grown soft in Utah. 🙂

The next morning, it was time to check out. 🙂

As we left the hotel, I passed this wine glass that had been set on top of a fire extinguisher since we arrived. I wonder how long it had been there.

We turned in our rental car, and made it to our terminal, which miraculously had a Ruby’s Diner in it! We had burgers and shakes, and got ready to get on the plane.

Best part of the trip:

Seeing Utah Valley from the window.

Also realizing from the shadow of the air plane on the ground we were almost home.

Well, that and the new friends we had made at Jack in the Box.