MMR: San Diego and Me - A Love/Hate Relationship

I love San Diego. San Diego hates me.

San Diego is a gorgeous town with amazing weather. The vibe is pretty chill. There are plenty of pretty ladies walking around pretty much everywhere. The beaches are numerous and nice. It’s an awesome place. Going there should be awesome. However, San Diego hates me.

San Diego’s distain for my presence there has been expressed in a variety of ways over the years. Back in 2007, I ended up in the emergency room for a few days after my throat swelled up from a bad allergic reaction to walnuts. Not good. I was under and on a breathing machine for a full day and then some. And it was during 4th of July, my favorite holiday. The walnuts were snuck into some pesto sauce on my dinner the first night in town, and it was not mentioned in the menu. Not good.

Then, in 2009, I was there and came down with a nasty case of swimmer’s ear. My inner ear swelled up so bad, it was throbbing in pain. The flight home was excruciating. Had to spend more time with a San Diego doctor, got some ear drops. So I didn’t really get to enjoy that trip either.

This latest trip that I just returned from was actually pretty nice. All was going well…until I got to the airport to come home. My 5:50 flight home was delayed until 10:05. Yes, a 4 hour, 10 minute delay. Ridiculous. I try to get on the earliest flight I can as a standby, a 4:30 flight home…didn’t make it. And the next flight to San Jose didn’t leave until 8:30. So my parents picked me up…and in the meantime, my flight’s delay pushed out to 11:05…making it a 5 hour 10 minute delay. Which is just ridiculous. It would have also meant I would not have been able to retrieve my car from the valet I was at, because they close up at midnight. So I would have been back late, with no car, and having to get up for work early in the morning. I was not amused.

I went back to the airport to try and make the 8:30 flight on standby.

Here’s where my luck changed a bit. They called out 7 standbys, none of them are me. Then they call out three more…none of them show up. Then they call out three more…and all of them show up. Damn. That’s 10. Then they start calling names one by one, and I’m thinking “great, they’re almost full up, no way I’m making this.” One name, he’s here. Another name, he’s here. Another name…waiting…not here! And then, in an amazing stroke of luck, I was the next name on the list, for the very final seat on the plane. I literally made it because the last guy they called wasn’t there to hear his standby name called.

My luck continued on the plane, as the last available seat was a middle seat between two guys who were friends flying together, and they just moved to the middle seat and gave me the aisle…which is awesome. And the last spot for my bag was in the overhead compartment right across the aisle. So I made it home, got my car, and got home in time to eat some dinner (I hadn’t had a bite to eat since lunch at the San Diego Zoo), and get some sleep.

And to top it all off, shortly after I landed and checked in with the internet world as to how the Sharks were doing, Jumbo Joe Thornton scored the game winning goal in overtime to clinch the first round series for the Sharks!

So, maybe my San Diego luck is turning around. Who knows. I do know that the city and I have a rocky past, and a tenuous relationship at best. Maybe I’ll avoid that place for a while…