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! 😂

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!

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.

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!