A Whole New World

Tuesday, March 26th, 2019

Oh boy.

Remember how I said I was “free and clear”? That was not the case. 😑

My day started out with me at my hotel in Oakland. I had decided it was going to be easier to stay the night at a hotel with a free airport shuttle to OAK airport instead of trying to get one of my friends to drive me, or take a taxi/Uber/Lyft 40 minutes to the airport the morning of my flight.

I checked in, got situated, met with my sister for dinner, got to meet her adorable fur babies and husband and it was overall a wonderful last night in the area.

The next morning, I got up and went down to the lobby with my bags, checked out and grabbed a quick piece of toast while waiting for the free airport shuttle to arrive.

I waited anxiously, because my shuttle was due to arrive at 6:39am and my flight started boarding at 8:17am and I had never been to the Oakland airport before!

I waited and waited, and no shuttle arrived. 😓 The front desk called the shuttle driver and there was no response and she apologized; it really wasn’t her fault and I understood that there was really nothing she could do other than what she had done, so by 7am, I had rented a Lyft and has on my way to the airport.

I arrived at the airport, where I was using Spirit airlines to fly from Oakland (OAK) to Los Angeles airport (LAX) and I had assumed that 50 lbs was their limit for suitcases. It was not. The limit as of right now, is 40 lbs. I was 5 lbs over weight! 😧 The lady at the counter said I could try and take the 5 lbs out of my suitcase, but that wasn’t going to happen due to the fact that I literally couldn’t even fit a water bottle in my backpack let alone 5 extra pounds! So, I ended up paying an extra $30. But you live and learn, right?

Yes; it was frustrating. But it happens and thankfully I have the ability to deal with those situations easily!

Upon loading onto the plane, I was met with the tiniest tray table that I had seen in my entire life! I mean, you’d be lucky to fit a book on it, but even that seemed like a stretch; there would be no on-flight computer work done on this flight! 😂

I don't think I've ever seen a smaller tray table.

We flew out of Oakland’s rainy, grey weather and were met with bright, sunny skies over Los Angeles- the perfect setting for a great adventure! 🌞

I stepped off the plane and quickly realized that I was in a different world. Everywhere I looked, there were people who looked like they had just stepped off a movie set; even the guy watching over the baggage claim! I kid you not, he looked like a Jane Austen book character. 😲 Not the perfect setting for a girl with a 18 lbs backpack that was causing her to sweat profusely, no makeup because “Ain’t got no time for that when I was rushing out the door to get to a invisible airport shuttle that never showed”.

I scrambled to the curb, where I was met with the smiling face of my brother, Austin, who was eager to get some lunch. I had forgotten how nice it was to be in a place where it's so easy to eat around your allergies. I'm lactose intolerant, but can have cheese with a lactaid pill; I tend to just try and avoid cheese all together because it's just easier, but in Los Angeles, you don't have to because there's always a plethora of vegan cheeses, sour creams and butters available to you. I actually tried vegan cheese that tasted like real cheese, but didn't bother me and vegetarian "meat" called Impossible meat and it didn't taste like soggy cardboard like I had expected! Woohoo! 🙌

OMG. The apartment. 😍 I could probably do a whole blog post simply about this apartment and complex because holy crap is it beautiful! I literally only have this balcony photo from the first day I was there because I was caught up in experiencing this pretty place!

Gorgeous balcony over-looking beautiful Marina Del Rey

Not only does Los Angeles have beautiful people, but it’s all inclusive apartment complexes are no joke! The apartment I was lucky enough to stay in includes a gym, grassy park with hammocks, tennis courts, free paddle-boards and bikes to use, a rooftop sunbathing/hangout spot, a gorgeous business center/clubhouse, a hot tub and a gorgeous salt chlorine pool that’s always the perfect temperature and honestly to die for because it’s 8ft deep which meant that I could swim with the water over my head!!! I’m sharing this all not to sound like I’m bragging, but simply to try and convey to you how freaking excited I was to be here because OMG I could have honestly spent my entire visit without ever leaving the complex and have been extremely happy about it.

Cotton candy flower patch skies over Santa Monica as we drove to the circle

I was introduced to Austin’s room-mates Alex and Erika and for the rest of the day, I got to hangout and get to know Erika and Alex and went to a channeling circle with them later that night. Erika's friend is also a trance channel and does channeling circles at his home every other Sunday and every Tuesday night. It was really neat to see someone else channel- up until that point, I had only experienced one other person channel the way I do. For those wondering, “channeling” is where a intuitive/medium allows a being to inhabit/take control of their body to relay messages. This might seem really scary to someone who has never experienced either channeling or watching someone channel, but I promise it's actually not as long as you take the right precautions. I've been purposefully channeling for 7 years now and have found how to protect myself and weed out negative stuff possibly trying to get through. I was channeling before 2012, but I wasn't channeling good things because I had no idea what is was, how to use it and how to protect myself. 😬 After the circle, Erika and I met up with Austin at a 24hr restaurant on the edge of the marina and had breakfast for dinner while we talked about life! You really can’t beat that! 🍳

I’m excited to see what else Marina Del Rey/Santa Monica holds for me!