Where is she now...: I'm here...

I'm finally here and just about settled in but not without a few hiccups on the way.

Currently: 77 F and breezy...
Location: Hotel Lobby

Yesterday (Jan 4th) started like any normal day except for the fact that I was leaving CA FOREVER (I know, dramatic : ) Since the day I bought my ticket, my father has been murmuring that we need to leave EXTRA early as traffic to the bay is no joke. Like any teenage daughter : ) I brushed off every one of his suggestions. Thurs morning my mother woke me up at 4:07AM. I felt like I was back in high school again. She quickly told me to get ready and ran off to make me lunch. YAY mom! As 5:00AM rolled around I choose to ignore my father as he nagged "we're already late." At 5:10AM we speed off only find it raining. LA traffic coming to a halt flashed through my mind and I started sweating. WHY OH WHY did I not listen. But then I remembered we were in Nor Cal and people here are accoustmed to driving in the rain YAY but to my dismay at 60mph rain or shine : (. We'll we were making good time, well sort of, until we headed to the San Mateo bridge (shortcut to the Golden Gate bridge for you non-Nor Cal). My father started murmuring again that traffic on the bridge is the worst as people are heading into the bay. Thanks dad for extra dose of guilt. Well we ended up at the SF airport at 7:15AM and my flight left at 8:30AM. YAY dad! My dad dropped my brother and I at the outside check-in stand to leave my two bags. Much to my dismay and warning from my father, one of my bags was 10lbs over the limit and I was not about to pay the extra fee. I did some slick manuvering and left the bag weighing at the max permitted. YAY me! I did leave my Costco size lotion (that weighed about 2lbs) to my brother to take home. I think the attendent flight bad and he rewarded me by letting me slip in the lotion into my baggage. YAY attendent! By now it was 7:40AM and my father was no where in sight. I kept checking my watch as my flight boarded at 8:05AM. He finally showed up but wanted to sit down and have some breakfast. I couldn't deny him that after he got me through bay area traffic. So we found a cafe right next to the security area so I could dash out right at 8:05AM. As we finished I said goodbye and ran off to the security line only to find a line. Incidently, my brother was asking me if I had ever gotten pulled out of line to be searched and said no and I hope I never well. Just so you know I wasn't pulled out but the person behind me and two people up were. YAY good luck. At this point it was 8:15AM and remembering LA check-ins I thought I had plenty of time. Well as any proper Angelino, I was late but not just "my watch is 10 min slow late," I was A-list celebrity late. I came up to my gate and saw no one around and I freaked. I walked faster to question the attendents but as I came up to the desk the blurted, "Ms. Conner?" me: "No?" them: "Ms. Barajas?" me: "SHIT" them (with microphone in had): "Come with me!" me: "SHIT!!" She pushed open a closed door and I ran down the hall to find a cheery attendent welcoming me to the flight. I didn't even bother to look at everyone already seated I just worried about not hitting anyone with the biggest backpack in the world I happened to be carrying. As I had the my seat at the last row I was a bit worried. I was fine in first class but as I got to coach the aisle was half the size. I decided to adjust the backpack before I began my descent down the aisle when the cheery attendent showed up and decided to punsih me. Boo! As I adjusted, she asked in her very cheery voice if I was the tail of it. Confused and embarrased at the moment I had no idea what she was saying. She repeated herself three times and I finally deciphered that she wanted to know if I was the one that everyone was waiting for. " NO there is still someone else. A Ms. Conner, I snitched." That's when it dawned on me I was standing in front of everyone. Thanks for the extra dose of guilt. I was able to finally sit down and hide from the embaressment.

We arrived to Charlotte, NC first and had an hour until my next flight. Three things I instantly noticed, I only saw US Airways planes and attendents, Bank of America seems to have sponsered the airport as well as the airline and they had rocking chairs for people to sit in, in the middle of the airport. Fun!

Our flight arrived safely into Miami airport and had no missing baggage (my number one fear traveling anywhere). I waited for the shuttle about an hour and a half and then arrived to my surprisingly cute hotel right on Collins Ave. (one block from the infamous Ocean Drive. FYI: My hotel's claim to fame is that it appeared in 8th and Ocean (MTV reality TV show about Miami models).