Quick Trip in Open Diary 2001-2018 (Pre-Prosebox)

Quick trip to San Francisco was a bit wacky.

First of all, I’m now completely spoiled from flying on the corporate jet. Our flight was supposed to take off at 5:30. What time did I get to the hangar? 5:28! As I pulled in, the pilot met me at my car to take my bag and load it on the plane, chatting and laughing the whole time. I never want to fly commercial again (although I’ll be doing just that on Saturday).

We were going to have to stop at some little airport in BFE Colorado to refuel, but the pilot came back and asked us if we wanted to land or go on to California….that we would barely have enough fuel to do it, but it would save us from having to stop. At that point, we’d cracked open the wine (to go with the assortment of cheeses and crackers, mind you) and were having a good old time. Told the pilot we really didn’t care…fly on fumes if he had to!

Flew into some little airport close to Oakland, I think. I couldn’t tell. It was dark and I was tipsy. I was also really tired. But that didn’t stop me from calling LDL once I got into my hotel room.

Mistake. Big one. Because he freaked out to hear that I was just a few minutes’ drive from him. Then my phone cut off (poor reception) and I didn’t call him back because I had to go back downstairs and meet the team for a late dinner. When I got downstairs, I noticed my phone working again. It was just ringing off the hook! I knew it was LDL. Had to turn it off because there was no way I could get through dinner with him calling me every five minutes.

When I got back to the hotel (around 11:30), I turned on the phone to check the voice mail. Nine messages from LDL. NINE!! Each one increasingly worse…and desperate. Shit. He thought I’d hung up on him. I know I should have called him back to tell him that I had poor reception in my hotel room, but just didn’t have time! He told me that he would come see me if I’d just call him back and tell him which hotel I was in. In the following messages he threatened to drive from hotel to hotel to find me. In the last couple messages, he was fake crying (I can finally recognize his crocodile tears).

Now why did I go and open that can of worms?? I feel pretty ashamed. I also fear that LDL has finally completely lost it. He keeps going on and on about the robbery and how he’s not happy in Berkeley anymore. He’s had a falling-out with some of his friends, and he’s just miserable. I can tell that he’s waiting for an offer from me to move here to the great Midwest and rescue him…..and he keeps going on and on about how I never gave him my address or new home phone number.

Well guess what? If I ever thought about giving him that info before, I’m not going to now! I’m honestly a little scared for him. I hope beyond hope that he’s getting some kind of therapy. He keeps laying this fucking guilt trip on me about the robbery and how he thought about me the whole time he was lying on that cold bathroom floor with a gun pointed at the back of his head. What am I supposed to do with that??

Anyway. I had a fitful night’s sleep.

Woke up and got ready for the meetings. Luckily, they went very smoothly. I gave my first presentation as a vendor to a retailer. My boss jumped in lots, because he knew I was a tad nervous. I was a little annoyed because I’d actually worked myself up for this and he stole a bit of my thunder. But actually very relieved by the whole thing. And the buyers were extremely gentle with me!

It felt so good for that to be over! And when it was, we actually had two hours to kill before the other teams finished up with their meetings. So we ran out for a great big lunch and soaked in the warm sun outside. Finally had a chance to sneak away and talk to LDL and hopefully smoothed some things out. Or at least calmed him down a little bit (and no, I did not give him my address).

Then it was back to the little airport and back on the little plane. Nice flight back. Some good conversation with my boss and the big-wig guy in charge of sales. One of the other guys who went with us is really fun and I liked talking with him. He does some local acting and modeling, and he’s hilarious. And another woman who went with us was cool too. She has a horrible reputation for being a total bitch, but she was great with me. I don’t know if it’s just because I’m so new, but so far I really like her. I just have to figure out how to stay on her happy side!

And then it was back to the frozen tundra! Brrrr! Cold here!

I came home and cozied up with the kitty and settled into a nice, warm, deep sleep.

Now up. Whoops! Gotta run. I spent too much time playing on the computer this morning!