THEY ARE HERE!!

Well you guys, my Texas friends have arrived!! And WHAT a fiasco. I had my TA meetin' yesterday [Thursday] for our first Memo of Points and Authorities at 4:40. While I was in the meeting, Melanie called and left me a message stating that the airline had informed her that her bag was on the 9:15 plane out of DFW into LAX, meaning that her bag wouldn't be in LAX until about midnight. She stated that the options were to stay and wait for it or to have it delivered. I was torn. I wasn't able to talk to her though because by the time I got out of my meeting and heard the message, their plane had already taken off. Their plane was scheduled to get in at 8:09 so there really wasn't a practical way to wait around out there till midnight so I made and executive decision.

I went to Banana Republic.

I bought her a shirt and some socks etc. This way she would not have to meet the Dean of the Law School feeling icky in the same clothes, and we could have her bag delivered.

I left Malibu at 6:30 and got to the Inn & Out outside of LAX by 7:30, since traffic was unusually good. So, I waited. And waited [I was working on my memo and stuff OF COURSE]. I waited until almost 9:00 and got worried. Then the call came: their plane had JUST gotten in. 20 minutes later I was picking them up at the terminal only to discover that of the four of them, THREE of them had had their bags placed on the later flight by the airline. So, in Jay's words: "At least it makes the decision about waiting or not easier." Clearly.

We met Ryan Mannix at Inn & Out Burger to wait it out. He is the other founder of the IJM Chapter here, and Jim and Joey were going to stay with him. He had been having supper at his parents' house in Orange County and had been the back-up plan for Melanie's bag: he would pick it up on his way back to Malibu. Sinc he was already there by the time we left the airport [flippin almost 10:00] we went ahead and all ate together. On the brighter side the bags were going to be there at 11:00 or so...

We got the bags and Jim and Joey went with him and Tyler and Mel came with me. We took the 405 back to the 10 and decided to do a quick detour through Hollywood. So I took the 10 East instead of West and caught the 110 toward Pasadena to hop on the 101 North. We got off on Hollywood Blvd. and drove it past the Highlands and then turn around and went back. We pulled into campus around 1:30 or, exhausted but happy. Melanie stayed here [she's asleep in my bed right now...] and Tyler stayed downstairs with Jeddidiah.

Today's going to be a long day but WHO CARES??? My Texas friends are here...