The Night Before

As with all my trips, the hour right before I take off is usually a frantic scramble of last minute packing and neurotic worrying of what might have I forgotten to do. Today was no exception, except the forgetfulness started the night before.

I had spent the night at my parents’ home in Irvine, which is an hour drive from my place in South Pasadena. In my haste in leaving Irvine and going back to South Pas in order to start packing for the trip, I stupidly forgot to bring back my laptop AC adaptor. Of course I discover this only after I had already driven back to South Pas at 11:00pm. Since I use a Think Pad, the adaptors are only available online so it’s not like I could just go to the local Radio Shack or Best Buy and pick up a spare. So left with no alternative, I had to make the agonizing long drive back to Irvine just so I could use my laptop on this trip. And of course, I literally got less than 2 hours of sleep the night before at my Parents’ because, well, I just couldn’t sleep. So the thought of having to waste 2 hours just to drive back to pick up a silly little adaptor just thrilled me to no end.

In addition, I had to do this in stealth because if you knew my parents, there was no way they were going to let me drive back to South Pas that late at night so I had to make sure I didn’t wake them when I entered the house to run upstairs to my room. This of course, is easier said than done because of my dog, Bosco.

Bosco is notorious for sensing anyone within 50 yards of the front door and will bark to no end, especially if he doesn’t recognize you. I’ve heard him bark at my dad, mom, brothers, and of course strangers. But with me, it’s hit or miss. Sometimes he’s excitedly waiting at the door when I enter, sometimes, he barks up a storm until he recognizes my scent or something. My only hope last night was that he still remembered that I had stayed there the night before and therefore, won’t bark and wake up my parents. Thank God he did.

I got back to South Pas at 2am or so and then started packing. Good thing I didn’t have an early morning flight