From my trip with Alisha to LA

6.15.2005

I spent the last few weeks searching for the PERFECT hotel in the Los Angeles/Hollywood area for me and my high maintenance best friend. And by perfect I mean convenient to where we were going (Hollywood) and high-end (see previous sentence on high maintenance) and cheap (aforementioned high maintenance friend is also broke). I scoured all the travel sites…Travelocity, Expedia, Hotwire, Priceline, hotels.com, the specific hotel sites themselves and came up with nothing.

I thought I'd give Priceline one more shot. I selected my area and put in my price and again got nothing. "Did I want to expand my area?" Priceline asks. Ok, so this is where I get screwed. It's just like when you've been shopping forever to find the perfect outfit and then you end up spending more on something you don't even really like because you just need to find something to wear THAT NIGHT!!! Without even really thinking that I hadn't searched around for hotels in downtown LA, I check that I want to expand my area to downtown LA. Thinking back, I had a bad feeling about this move when I did it, but I continued on anyway. Well guess what??? It accepts it and I am now the proud owner of a 2 night stay at the Mayiko Inn in LITTLE TOKYO!!!! Gulp! The good news is that it is quite convenient to where we are going (6 miles away). The bad news is that I am staying at a hotel that caters to Japanese tourists, has a Japanese restaurant (neither me nor my friend are big fans of Asian cuisine) and has a Karaoke bar (think William Hung). Not to mention the fact that I have no idea of the safety or cleanliness of the area.

Naturally, I'm just all upset about this. Not just, "Well that sucks" kind of upset like most people would be, but "calling Priceline crying to the Customer Service Agent because they won't give me a refund" kind of upset. Irrationally upset compared to the seriousness of the situation. I was depressed all day yesterday thinking my two day trip to LA is going to be ruined because of the less than perfect hotel room I got. Then for some reason today at about 3:00 p.m., I decided it's not such a big deal. "It is what it is", I thought to my self. I told the story in the lunchroom and everyone laughed when I said, "Little Tokyo" so at the least it is a funny story to tell people. Then taking this very unimportant matter to an even deeper level of thought, I decided I am what I am. My husband asked me what I learned from this situation. Knowing the answer he wanted is that I would be more careful when using Priceline, I brattingly pouted, "That I'll never use Priceline again because they have poor customer service!"

I AM WHAT I AM and I'm the girl who…

Tries to tackle too much on her lunch break including picking a new car battery for her work horse car and ends up getting battery acid all over the seat of her husband's truck (How was I supposed to know to make sure it didn't turn over)

Takes on the task of paying all the bills and carefully enters all the expenses in a spreadsheet, but uncarefully accidentally pays $8000.00 instead of $80.00 online on her Sprint bill (It was all resolved without any costs to us!)

Has a super terrific day at work writing a terrific report that she had to show to many upper staff members, then gets home and is told by my roommate that her red and white panties are showing through her pants (the pants were tan, why would I think it would show through tan!!!????)

Has a nice, romantic vacation with her new boyfriend in Mexico and then leaves the passports in the taxi (all is well that ends well, right?)

As the maid of honor, is bound and determined not to let her friend the bride get wet on her wedding day so pulls into a tight spot right by the covered walkway and scratches the side of her car up (The bride didn't get rained on, did she?)

And the list goes on….

I am what I am, now if I can only get the nerve to tell my friend where we are staying!