There’s Always Positivity in a Negative, Chaotic Weekend!
When I got into the car at 4:30 am on Thursday morning, I knew it would be a weekend of chaos. I was going to San Francisco for two reasons —
- to pack up my son and take some of his stuff to his friend’s house for the summer and then, take the rest home;
- to meet with a new client.
Before going, I was stressed. There was so much going on between the workload at HJMT, the capstone projects that I had worked on with my Hofstra grad students, finishing up the semester by grading finals, and trying to figure out where to live. It was all so inundating!
When the car dropped me off, I had to “schlep” my carry on bag and a large suitcase, with another one inside to the luggage carriers. The second (and third) suitcase was almost as tall as me and for having nothing in them, they were heavy!
When we landed in SFO and I picked up my bags from baggage claim, I found it difficult to maneuver the two bags up and down escalators, across long narrow corridors and onto the air train to the car rental hub. You should have seen me! I felt as if I were on a reality TV show! People starred at me and when I caught them starring, I just said, “this suitcase is empty!” (Later, I found out the second suitcase was loaded with stuff!)
Once I secured the car from Enterprise Rent A Car and put the luggage in the back, I thought now it’s smooth sailing. Little did I realize that that was just the beginning!
I drove from SFO to UC Berkeley. It took about an hour or so with the traffic on the Bay Bridge. I parked the car across the street from my son’s dorm, which was on a very big hill, with a steep staircase leading up to the dorm. I was out of breath. I reached the top and my son came downstairs to meet me.
We went to his room and it was a complete disaster. I tried to organize the packing in a systematic way but after a few hours, I gave up. I just didn’t have all the supplies I needed to really do it right. So, I did the best I could.
Since Derek, my son, had a final, I left the dorm and went to RoadRunner’s Sports in Berkeley to buy another pair of the custom inserts. (You can’t find these inserts anywhere on the east coast. I use these for my running sneakers.)
After that, my son and I met for dinner back at the Hilton Double Tree Hotel by the Marina in Berkeley and Derek ended up sleeping over. I was exhausted after the long flight and fell asleep by 9 pm (which was really midnight.)
The next day, Derek and I woke up early, had breakfast in the room, and went directly to his dorm to continue packing.
What a process! We were there another two hours and it looked as if we didn’t make a dent.
At 10:30 am, I left his dorm, got in my car and headed to see my new client. I got there about five minutes late and took a tour of their facility. They make infrared saunas and they are pretty freaking awesome. After the tour, lunch and the meeting, I left and immediately called my husband to tell him we should buy one for our new house (where ever that may be…).
After that, I went back to the Hilton Doubletree, checked my emails and then, went for a run. The Marina is one of my favorite places to run. It’s a little hilly but it has a magnificent view of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.
As I was running, the wind was blowing into me. I felt as if I was fighting it. I decided to run on the gravel instead of the pavement because it felt easier for me with the wind blowing. About a half mile into my run, I found a perfect spot for a photo. I tried taking a selfie but when an elderly couple saw me, they said, “hey, we can take your photo.” And, I let them.
I ran for another half mile or so and as I was thinking about all the things going on, I noticed a big rock in my way. I couldn’t get around it, it was too late. I slid across the gravel and ended up on all fours. I was in so much pain. No one was around. I just sat there. A man walked by and looked at me sitting on the ground but just gave me a nod.
I picked myself up and noticed that my leg and my hands were bleeding. I guess that was that, I thought and tried to run back to the hotel. I was only about a half mile away. When I finally got back, I called the front desk. “Do you have a first aid kit? I got hurt and I’m bleeding,” I told the receptionist.
“No, we don’t,” she told me. “We only have one for our staff not for our guests.”
Feeling frustrated, I took a shower and tried to clean the wound as best as possible. When I got out of the shower, my son called me, “do you want to finish packing now?”
I bandaged myself up and limped to the car. I didn’t have time to be hurt, I had to keep moving forward…
Back at the dorms, it continued to be a big mess. The more we packed, the more stuff there was to pack!
A few hours later, we finished and I pulled the car up to the back door of the Bowles Dorm and Derek and his friend, Jon, got all the shopping bags, suitcases, garbage bags, laundry baskets, and milk crates and brought them to the car. I personally didn’t think we would be able to fit everything, but we did… The car was stuffed! There was barely room for Derek and me.
Instead of going to the hotel, we went to dinner with Derek’s friend at Five, a nice restaurant located at the Shattuck Hotel. We all relaxed and ate well and then walked (or shall I say, limped) over to see my sister-in-law, Zoe Lewis perform at the Freight & Salvage.
Zoe is an amazing performer and if she’s ever in your area, definitely check her out. She’s fun. She’s lively and she engages the audience. Her warm up act, Lisa Koch, was incredible too. I never laughed so hard in my life! She was hysterical!
They were both great!
After the show, we headed back to the hotel. I crashed as soon as my head hit the pillow and awoke at 6 am the next day, ready to take most of the luggage to Derek’s friend’s house to store for the summer.
We arrived in Danville at 10:15 am and was greeted by Brandon’s mother. What a sweetheart! I was so grateful to her for storing Derek’s stuff. We sat with her for about an hour or so and caught up. The last time I saw her was last year when we picked up Derek’s stuff from her house.
After that, we headed to Oakley to get something to eat and then went back to the hotel. I was exhausted. The weekend was stressful and exhausting. I fell asleep and was in such a deep sleep, I woke up just in time to go get dinner.
We tried to end the trip on high note, going to the Claremont Hotel for Dinner.
When we got back to the hotel, we packed up and Derek stayed up until around 1:30 pm. Less than four hours later, I was waking him up to get ready to go on the plane home.
Between his exhaustion, my stress levels because Delta told me they were changing my seats and crediting my bag charge, but later when I got to the airport I found they didn’t, I felt high anxiety. I just wanted to cry. It was a long, hard weekend and it wasn’t ending well.
Reflecting back, I realize it wasn’t all that bad! I’m truly grateful for –
- Brandon’s family for storing Derek’s stuff;
- Zoe’s show, which made Derek, his friend and me feel happy for the moment;
- the folks at Road Runner Sports for welcoming me back to the store and making me feel special;
- Enterprise Rent A Car folks for being so incredibly nice and accommodating;
- for Delta in air staff for giving me chocolate and coming over to me after the flight took off to try to comfort me when all I wanted to do was cry,
- for the Delta Assist Twitter folks for trying to rectify the situation,
- for the fact that I didn’t break anything during the fall,
- and for my son for being an incredible person and taking me to some very interesting restaurants and for sharing the experience with me.
What a crazy weekend packing in San Francisco and yet, out of a negative experience, there were a lot of positive things that happened in which I am grateful.
