#ugh sorry i am just very frustrated right now and have nowhere else to vent

[iamanartichoke]

This has been the Mondayest Monday to ever Monday, ugh.

[allet-space]

Steven’s Ramblings (Prickly Pair)

(A compilation of everything concerning that Steven says in the entire episode, SPOILERS, plus potential meanings, analysis)

1. “[Cheerfully] These Perenials ALWAYS come back. That one’s Sadie...”

2. “[Cheerfully] I named this one Lars. [Motheringly] You’re stuck in the ground aren’t you? Not gonna zip right into space and leave everyone behind, isn’t that right?“

These two are pretty obvious: Steven doesn’t want them to move on and leave him behind. He wants them all to stay right here, by his side, quiet and rooted to the ground with nowhere to move, like a plant.

Kiiindof a disturbing metaphor if you ask me. Kindof like the diamonds used to treat gems: The Empire never changes, and only responds to their wants and changes and needs.

3. “Sighs. What am I doing? Is this really my thing now? [voice slightly sad and cracked] Plants!? Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl aren’t even impressed. Guess plants aren’t as cool as liberating the galaxy...“

He’s been breaking at the seams the whole time. He wanted to impress the gems, and despite very positive feedback from them (Pearl says its great, amethyst says its cool, they generally support him) he doesnt feel like it’s enough compared to saving the galaxy. He seems to compare everything to what he did to save everyone, and everything pales in comparison.

4. “[Nostalgic] This beach... it never changes. I mean, a lot HAS changed. I’m trying to be cool about it but it feels so weird. [Ranting, worried] Everyone is moving on and, I should be too! I gave up running the school, but now I don’t know what comes next! ...Y’know? It’s probably better I’m not running the school anymore. Who am I to decide what’s best for all those gem students? They’re better off learning from Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl. [Getting more worried, cracking voice] I used to be helpful, but the gems don’t need me anymore. [Frustrated] URGH! Why do I need to be needed! ...Stevennn, pull it together!!! [Calmer]....I’m so sorry to dump all of this on you.“

Again, he doesn’t want anything to change, anyone to run off. He exhibits low self-esteem in not seeing himself fit despite spending so much time on it (Snow Day). He still very moch looks up to his gem family.

After having to be their braincell for most of his life, after making them dependant on him in an unhealthy way, now that the dependancy is gone, he feels empty. He’s used to spending all his energy to carving himself out for them, and now he doesn’t know what to do now that they don’t need that anymore.

He gets frustrated at not being their unhealthy neccessity anymore, and then he gets frustrated at himself for being frustrated. In addition to that, he apologizes for venting, regrets it, feels like he never should have let these feelings surface in such a way.

5. “[Cheerfully] Good morning Ronaldo! Good morning Nanafua! And a special good morning t- ugh!”

He’s pretending it’s all fine. Pretending he’s 14 again, running through town greeting everyone he passes. Except these plants will never leave. They wiill grow, but never outside of their designated pots. He can control them, they obey him. Feels a lot like he’s talking to himself, like he would be in his room.

6. “[In response to Cactus Steven, but now alone] What was that? Why’d you say that stuff, huh? (Why’d you say that stuff, huh?) Because I thought I could talk to you! I can’t tell Pearl how I feel, cause she’ll blame herself and spiral out of control and I’ll have to pick up the pieces! And I don’t want any more high and mightly advice from Garnet. [Getting angrier] I just... want to know better for once. [Mockingly] And I’m so sick of Amethyst acting like she’s sooo mature now! (She’s sooo mature now!) Pft, I know, it’s like, get over yourself. Gasps Please don’t repeat any of that. [Places box over Cactus Steven] (Why’d you say all that stuff? Whyyy’d?!) Oh you know why’d!“

LOT to unpack here. One, he doesn’t want to open up to the gems at any cost. ANY cost. He then goes into why he doesn’t want to open up: He feels Pearl is still too dependant on him needing to fix her, and seems to be quite annoyed by the fact that Garnet and Amethyst both have their lives together. Which one is it? Do you want someone dependant, or someone better off?

He wants to know better. Im just going to say, I CALLED IT HE’S QUOTING WHITE DIAMOND ON HER HAVING TO “KNOW BETTER” aaAAAAA

7. “[After closing the door to the diamond base] I can’t let anybody find out about this. (Amethyst: Find out about what?) [Nervous, panicking] D-d, n-nothing! (Are you okay, Steven?) Y-y-yeah! Uhh, um, bep, Whhhy do you ask? (Ummm, well, it just seems you’ve been having a hard time...) [Steven continues to insist he’s fine and says he knows they can help.]“

The gems are there for him, but he has his own, logical reasons on why he can’t talk to them. It’s not just botteling up, it’s because these feelings involve THEM. He doesnt want to talk to them because they’re a part of the “problem”. He has strong, new opinions on them while angry, but is far too afraid to be mean to them. Which is why he chose CS in the first place: A third party unconnected to anything else happening.

8. “[Sitting in the dark, worried] Sighs, now the gems are all worried about me. [Cactus steven yells, kicks his box off] Oh no, Cactus Steven! You’re all messed up! What’s wrong with you? (What’s wrong with you?) [Yelling, Angry] What’s WRONG is that you’re making me look like a FOOL! (Fool!) I wish you wouldn’t talk! (I wish you wouldn’t talk!) [Turns Pink] Urrrrrghh, STOP IT!“

He needs anger management, did I mention that yet? Also that panel of him turning pink with a pitch black background looks... oddly eerie. Very eerie. Don’t like it one bit. Fear. One Fear. Many Fears.

He doesn’t want them to worry while he feedback-spirals his own anger out of control...

9. “[Steven tries to get the gems to leave before they can even say anything. They proceed to see him get beaten by Cactus Steven through the large glass windows.]“

Other than being hilarious, this really, really drives home his dynamic. As well as his later way of “dealing” with his Cactus Clone, the episode is left open. He says he’s said enough, only half a minute after the gems even just got the memo that Cactus Steven was repeating thoughts that Steven had told him. This boy needs to talk.

Things are looking bad, the corruption theory is looking truer by the day, and these episodes are shifing from light-hearted and resolved in Little Homeschool to eerily unresolved and upsetting (in a good way.)

[cgstark27]

The World is Changing Too Fast

At well past ten, I heard the door in the foyer shut heavily. "Cadence?"

When I heard no response, I left the library on the third floor and walked toward the stairs, but she was halfway up the first flight. She toted her backpack with her, leaning on the banister, but not particularly struggling with the stairs themselves. "Hey. You're home."

"How about that." There was an edge in her voice, and a rather sharp one at that.

"What's the matter?" I turned and walked with her, trying to keep pace. She was not keen on me keeping up with her; I let her get a few steps ahead of me, but I still wanted to hear her.

"A lot."

"Do you want to --"

"No."

"Okay."

"I'm just really upset at work and people right now." I followed her to her room, where she dropped her backpack just inside the door, then turned and went back up another flight of stairs. I had no idea where she was going, but I was going with her. She said she didn't want to talk about it, but I still wanted to hear it.

"Something happened?"

"I was literally halfway out the door when someone calls and tells me they can't find the requisition for a manifest we received from Ontario, and all the blame falls on me for losing it and having to find it. So I have no choice but to start tearing through all the work I've done for the day trying to find one piece of paper that I never had in the first place."

I followed her up to the third floor, then the fourth. She kept climbing stairs, and I kept following her.

"By the time I left, it was ten minutes to five. I had to be halfway across Manhattan at five thirty. I had plans to go get something to eat, and I had been looking forward to this ALL DAY -- and thanks to this stupid manifest someone ELSE lost, I didn't get to eat. Oh, and then I made the mistake of venting to my coworker who's fresh out of high school, and she felt the need to ask me, 'So you go to a restaurant and eat all by yourself? Why?' Because I'm a loser who has no friends, that's why. What other reason do I have?"

I wanted to ask her if she had eaten, but to interrupt her would be... dangerous, at the least. 

"I bend over backwards," she said, climbing up to the fifth floor finally. "I take data and turn them into systems that work, I know where to find anything that I've had my hands on. But if I was gone tomorrow, would they care? No. I'm replaceable. I'm nothing. I'm just a number cruncher. I have no value as a human being."

She sat down on the floor facing the window. The moon was full.

"I didn't hear from you today," I mentioned. "I was a little concerned."

"Well, where have you been today?" Cady snapped.

"I was at the medical school, and then here..."

"Because I didn't hear from you today, either."

I had to admit to myself she was right. I had caught myself waiting to hear from her, but I'd never sent her a message to see how she was doing. Come to think of it, she usually was the one to initiate conversation between us when we were apart.

"I just got a lot of the 'nobody gives a damn' impression today, you know?" Cady didn't make eye contact or look my way, but her words were very sharp and short. I knew she was frustrated, and rightly so. Maybe if we had been sending a few messages back and forth today, she wouldn't be nearly as stressed right now. But she had been bottling up everything with no release, shaken up with unexpected changes, and now she was exploding.

"That's fine. Whatever. I just won't eat. I don't need to eat anyway." She rose to leave.

"Cadence."

"Don't 'Cadence' me, Stephen." She started down the stairs.

"Just tell me you ate something."

"Cheese and juice. Happy? It's all I had time for."

I watched her walk down to the second floor by herself.

--- An hour and a half later, Cady did end up crawling into bed with me. I was still up reading when she came in. She looked very down, eyes red from crying, her cheeks splotchy. I made eye contact with her, but she didn't speak; she just silently crawled into bed and curled up by herself.

"Baby, I'm sorry about everything that happened today."

She didn't respond.

"I feel like if I had talked to you more, then maybe it would have been a little better, at least. And I'm sorry I didn't. I don't know why I didn't text you, I just... I guess I assumed that if I didn't hear from you, everything is okay."

I heard her breathing in the silence, the clock ticking down the hall. Her words earlier... the more I think about them, the more they seem concerning to me. She needs some more attention from me.

"Everything's not okay, is it."

Slowly, she shook her head.

I put my book aside and lay down with her, but I left the light on, hoping she would talk to me. "I know that you've been having trouble communicating lately, but that shouldn't mean that I stop trying. I took your silence to mean that you wanted to be left alone. But you don't. Am I right?"

Cady nodded.

"I'm sorry, Cady."

I heard a sniffle.

"I'm... honestly not really sure what to do now, or how I can help, but... I don't want you to shut down on me. I don't want you to feel like you have to choose that. I want to meet you where you are right now, Cadence, wherever that may be, with whatever you're struggling with."

"What if I don't know what I'm struggling with?"

"I can try to help you figure it out."

I noticed her starting to rock herself from side to side.

"I can read your mind... I don't particularly like doing that, because I feel like it can be very invasive... but if that's something you want me to do at any point, just tell me or show me. I won't do it without your permission, though."

She nodded. I reached out to stroke her hair, and this got her attention. She looked my way for a brief moment, tears in her eyes, then hid her face from me again.

At length, I whispered, "What's wrong?" I kept stroking her hair, playing with the curls that fell behind her ear. "Tell me. Show me. Please. So I can take care of you."

After several minutes, she raised her right arm and showed me a large red bump hiding there. Another staph infection.

Without a word, I went to the bathroom, returned with medication and gauze, and dressed it for her. She rolled over toward me and I expected her to reach for me, but she pulled back the covers to show me a large red mark on her left leg. 

"What happened there?" I whispered.

She pointed to herself.

"You did that?" She nodded. "To yourself? Why?"

Her expression sank heavily into sadness. Instead of speaking, she placed one of my hands on her forehead.

She showed me a memory, or she tried to. Her mind was crying, and if I tuned out the noise, I heard her loud words to herself, calling herself names, blaming herself. Angry at her coworker. Lonely, stupid, and lousy! Can't do anything right! Ugh, people suck. If they only knew how they made you feel. You don't need to eat anyway. Suck it up, buttercup! came the last snide remark, then a heavy-handed slap on her left thigh.

Cady was so very angry, and with nowhere to release those strong emotions, they had to manifest somewhere. The sound exploded in my mind's perception of the sound, followed by a strong memory of steadily increasing rage and deepening depression.

It had taken just fifteen minutes for her mood to move from calm and focused to crimson-shaded anger. The world is moving too fast and she completely lost control. A very brief fleeting consideration of suicide haunted my mind, and she tried to hide it from me... but it was too late. Who would miss me here? Who would care at work if I was gone?

It took moments for that to happen.

She never thought of me at all. There was just so much anger. I took my hand away from her forehead.

"Cadence."

She looked up, so tired.

"If you ever feel that way again... call me immediately."

She cocked her head to the side, dark circles under her eyes now.

"I won't lose you, Cady. I can't. I need you. I will do whatever it takes to help you through whatever you're going through, but I don't ever want you to be alone and feeling like that. Wherever you are, whatever is happening -- I will come find you. Do you understand me?"

She nodded. I realized I was crying too, now, only when she reached up to wipe away my tears.

I pulled her into my arms, cradled my beloved to my chest, kissed her, and refused to let her go ever again.

--Stephen

[kitcatcait]

Traveling adventures: July 17, 2016

My last 30 hours of travel home: I leave the hotel in a taxi the security people approve of. I get to the airport at 1:36pm for a 4:47pm flight. There is no one at the Volaris check in counter. I was told they'd be there at 2pm. So I start the line and hang out. 2:17pm people finally show up and about 5 minutes later check my bag in. I go through security easy and kill lots of time doing nothing. There's only four gates and I keep checking for my flight info. Nothing. Finally, as it's getting close to boarding time, it appears and says on time. Awesome. Suddenly it appears again and has estimated boarding 35 minutes delayed. I go to talk to someone at the counter. He says it's an hour delayed not leaving until after 6pm and his supervisor will come up to talk to me since I was concerned about the connection I have at 6:57pm. 20 minutes later a girl finally asks if I need something. I explain the situation, she looks it up on her computer and says the connection appears to be on time but maybe it's not updated, maybe it's delayed too and to just go on and wait to see, that it'll be fine. I land in Mexico City a few minutes before my connection is supposed to leave. I have hope. Then we sit on the runway for 15 minutes and that hope slips away but I remain optimistic. I tell the main guy at the door I have a connection that supposedly left 20 minutes ago at this point and he made a face then smiled and said he'd check on it but that it'll work out. The stairs finally pull up to the plane and when I get off he says to check with the representative at the bottom of the stairs. I ask that guy and he says he'll check but to go ahead and get on the bus. I get on the bus, it fills up, the guy walks away and the doors close. No answers. We are driven over to baggage claim/connections. I go up the stairs to connections and have to wait in line for security screening. Again. The guy manning the X-ray machine is on break apparently and all the other security officers are useless to answer any questions or do anything until he returns. I get through that and one person finally said "I don't work for Volaris, Miss, you'll have to go to their counter at the other end on the left." I walk a quarter mile and see an info booth in the middle, stop and ask that lady if the flight left or was delayed and what gate. She says it left an hour ago and told me to go to the Volaris booth almost another quarter of a mile away on the left. I finally get to the damn booth and the guy says he can't help me but to go down the flight of stairs, turn right, go past gate 12 then go down another flight of stairs, go left past baggage claims, exit through the doors go right and find gate 6. Wait, huh? So a girl comes over thinking his English was bad and tries again. Their directions were terrible. Well, probably fairly accurate but I couldn't comprehend them. I get down to baggage claim and see a Volaris booth at the very opposite end another quarter mile away and make my way there. The chick sitting there just glares at me, puts a finger up and gets a co-worker. He finally comes out and tells me to exit baggage claim, turn right, find gate 6 and they can help. I ask him about my checked bag since it was supposed to go straight through to my destination but we didn't make it in time for the connection... So where is it and should I pick it up? He said yeah maybe get it first but it'll be a 15 minute wait but maybe I should get the bag then go to the other booth at gate 6. I wait and everyone else's bags come and they turn off the conveyer. I panic a little wondering what the hell. At this point it's after 8:00pm, I haven't eaten since breakfast, I strategically used all but 37 pesos expecting to be on a flight home and I'm exhausted still hoping there's another flight out tonight. The guy from the counter a quarter mile away sees me asking the security guy about my bag and comes running over and says no to wait at baggage claim number 6 instead of 5 because my bag was in the connection area instead of with everyone else's. He can tell I'm getting frustrated and bordering on falling apart so he says to wait another 10-15 minutes and he'd go track it down. I show him my little bag and said it's the big version he's looking for and he leaves. Eventually he comes back and goes through security, says it's there, points to the other baggage area where I see nothing coming out. He then decides that it was a bad idea to point at nothing since I'm a little fragile and he walks over there to get it for me from behind the rubber tassel things. I thank him profusely, fighting back tears, clarify where I go to get my flight changed and exit to turn right and find gate 6. Apparently I was at gate 1 and had a looooooong way to go. Plus, I might add, they weren't really gates, they were exit ports on to the street that were kind of well marked but I didn't know what I was looking at since they weren't gates per say. So I walk for what seems like a mile and see a Volaris counter. Eureka! I show the girl my boarding passes and ask for assistance and she says I need to go down to gate 6. Are you bloody serious?! I haven't seen a gate number yet but apparently it's down there somewhere. I ask her to be more specific with her directions and include landmarks because this is getting ridiculous. She says to go past the escalator and on the right is Volaris across from Viva or something and they can help at that counter. I finally find this illusive place and ask the guy greeting people, tell him my situation, show him my boarding passes. He says just a minute and takes them then wanders around with them for 5-10 minutes talking to people, greeting people and doing other things. Finally he gives them to a girl (8:30pm) and she asks for my passport and says it'll take a while and leaves!!!! With all my important documents!!! Like left the counter and wandered down towards the direction I had come from into never never land. I try not to panic too much and have faith she'll work things out while whatsapping my concerns to my folks which helped to vent a little. 20 minutes later she comes back and says she has my boarding pass for the same flight 24 hours later and that it's the only flight daily, nothing sooner. Ugh. Heart sank a little. Then she says the airline will put me up in the hotel Camino Real attached to the airport, feed me and I'll check in for my flight tomorrow. A little better. I sign her form, take my copy and her instructions to go up the escalator, turn left, go down to the second bridge and take it across to the hotel, give them the paperwork and settle in for the night. I'm thinking, okay, maybe I can do some exploring around Mexico City and things will be fine. I follow her directions, get all my crap to the hotel and the guy says that the form she gave me from Volaris needs to be stamped over the signature and that they can't take it. Are you kidding me right now?! It's after 9pm, I'm exhausted and I almost fall apart on this poor guy. I tell him I'm exhausted. Take a deep breath and I ask what I need to do. He says go back to the booth and have them stamp it. I asked if there was any other way around it, that I can't even bear the thought of going back over there, he said no he needs it stamped and that's the only way. I must have looked like I was about to clock him because he quickly signaled for the concierge to come over and offered to have them hold my bags while I went back. Well, thank goodness for minimally small favors! I take my purse and little backpack, leave the big and little luggage there and make my trek back to the damn counter by gate 6 which has become my nemesis. I tell a different girl at the counter now the situation. She looks about as dumbfounded as I am, then she realizes what I'm saying and what's missing but can't seem to locate the bloody stamp. The girl who originally helped me joins the party (there are like 6 employees at the counter) and the one with my paper looking for a stamp shows her it wasn't stamped. They stamp it, she gives it to the girl to give it to me and she says "sorry Miss." Yeah. Sigh. Thanks. The coworker giggled and made the hand motion like she was smacking her around for screwing up. They all giggle. I try to find it funny but can only muster a smirk and an eye roll as I leave with the stamped form to make my way up the escalator, down the walkway, across the second bridge, back to the hotel and wait in line to be checked in. Some random dude is standing in the middle of nowhere acting like he's been there all night and no one was in line and he's next...and cuts in front of me. Fucking figures. Whatever. Some new lady helps me check in, says to give my room number to the food places and they'll be billed to Volaris. I ask her about my bags that were being held there at the counter and she looks at me like I have two heads and said she doesn't have my bags. Meanwhile my first guy had come to make sure I got the correct stamp on the form and wandered off, so I told her to ask him where the bags are. She did, he got someone to bring them out to me and I go up to find my room. 6th floor, farthest far corner from the elevator, overlooking the street and airport. Noisy and smelled super musky. Whatever. I go down to eat. It's about 9:45pm. They give me a menu. Then when I say Volaris is paying they ask my room number, take the good menu away and give me a crappier menu. I couldn't make this shit up. Fine. I order, I eat, I go up to my room about 11:30pm to crash. My checked luggage had been zip tied together, there was no way I was getting into it. Plus my clothes inside had been carefully bagged because a previous room had bed bugs and I didn't want to risk any stowaways or eggs so I bagged all the clothes up tight anyway. I slept in what I wore all day. Awesome. I was awakened at 8am by housekeeping entering my room "Buenas Dias!" I grumbled something and she left. Then at 9:30am housekeeping broke in again and I grumbled something else and she left but I couldn't get back to sleep although I tried. The Frida/Diego museum I wanted to see was a half hour away per maps, opened at 10, I'd have to find a taxi and pesos since my 37 pesos wouldn't cut it. I still needed to eat and clean up and check out by 1pm. They wouldn't give me a later check out without another voucher from the Volaris counter at gate 6 and let me tell you how badly I wanted to go back down there! So I blew off Frida. I went down to the lobby, asked someone at the counter for scissors to cut off the zip tie on my luggage, who reluctantly let me borrow them. I went back to my room, cut off the zip tie I had earlier tried to nibble off with my teeth, laid on the bed with a cold wash cloth on the puffy eyes and relaxed a bit. I put coconut oil on my peeling face, went downstairs to return the scissors and get breakfast. It's about 10:30am. It's a buffet and the food was good. The girl gave me a table and put a ticket there with my room number and Volaris on it. I go look around, the chilaquiles were out so I asked a guy to refill it, wait, finally get those but no protein on them so I wait for the custom omelette/scrambled egg guy who thinks I want mushrooms not bell peppers so he had to remake it. I finally go to my table and the lady is seating someone else there. I just put my stuff down and sit, she realizes her mistake and leaves. I eat my now cold chilaquiles and scrambled eggs. Then I get up to get something else and a guy rushes over with my tab. I tell him I'm going to get fruit and I'll deal with that later. I get juice and fruit, sign the tab, try to relax, grab a churro and then head to my room to clean up. Another cold wash cloth on my puffy eyes, shower, same clothes I've been wearing for 24 hours, minimal makeup and more coconut oil all over my sunburned/peeling body. It's 12:30pm so I laid down until I had to check out at 1pm. I take all my crap down, check out and sit on a chair with all my bags around me and use their wifi for a couple hours. I make my way across the bridge to the airport, go to the Volaris counter and apparently it was the domestic flight counter not international counter so I'm sent another half mile away back upstairs. I finally get there, check my bag, get a temporary gate number to check in at and find out my actual gate number 50 minutes before the flight (WTF) then make my way through security. Apparently the little onyx lamp I got looks suspicious in the X-ray machine and they asked if I was bringing someone's ashes back. They did a chemical test swab, scolded me for checking my voicemail while waiting, then I opened up my bag, showed him which souvenir bag was the lamp, he unwrapped it. He and his coworker admired it. Then he put it back half-assed so I had him wrap it better, and he sent me on my way. Oh joy. I get to my temporary gate, chat with a friend who is moving to Hawaii via whatsapp which can be a challenge in and of itself, get my actual gate number and it's in a whole different wing. I make the trek over there, charge my phone and wait. Of course it doesn't board on time, someone says their gate was moved so I gather my stuff and go ask at the counter if it's still the right gate. The guy says yes it's the right gate so I wait. They announce everything in Spanish which is to my disadvantage since I only understand about 1/4 of what's being said. I hear the flight number, I heard the zone so I gave the lady my boarding pass to get on. She said zone 4 hadn't been announced. I said I just heard all zones, she said I had to wait. I move aside. Then I heard two lines so I got in the one closest to me. Well, that was a connection line to be searched apparently and I needed to be in the other line since I had a direct flight boarding pass. Of course! So I march to the end of that line 40+ people deep. I finally get on the plane 24 hours later and the customs form for the US I have to fill out to claim stuff etc I get from the airline is in Spanish and when I ask for it in English they say they have to track down an English form for me at the back of the plane like it's a huge inconvenience, but I have learned I sure as hell don't trust my limited Spanish well enough to complete the form accurately and sign my life away in Spanish. Good grief. It's been a super fun adventure but it'll be nice to be home! I was the third off the plane, first through customs, then waited 20+ minutes for my bag to arrive. I wait in line about 30 people deep for the bag check to exit. I get to the bag check lady, told her the only food I have are tamarindo candies and she told be to get out of there! Off I went. I went out to the curb and sent my request for an uber ride to Alameda. I make my way out of terminal 1 to section 2E which is set up only for app rides. As I walk up rolling my bags along, I hear a guy yelling at his lyft driver "We are here, where we are supposed to be for app drivers but you aren't here! Where the hell are you?! Everyone else is here but you! I'm the guy raging mad in a green shirt and my girls are in pink. Yeah. Okay. I'll still be here waiting for you!" I chuckle and wander down to the ladies in the yellow vests working and say "You girls must see it all here on this curb! I hope you write a book!" They laughed and said "Girl, you have no idea!" Well, I'm pretty sure I do, actually! So I wander back and track my uber guy on my phone...1 minutes away and right next to me...but he's not there. He calls. We talk, I ask him if his car is blue. I see him through the glass wall at the first curb looking over his right shoulder for me. I tell him to look left, the other left, turn around.... I wave to him so he sees me and direct him to loop around to the second curb to 2E. I watch him loop around on my app. Then he pulls up to the third curb and gets out of car and comes to the 4+ foot high fence and waves. The ladies crack up laughing and say "Oh my gawd, he's over there now! How'd he get there? I even heard you tell him directions!" I crack up and say "Sorry, girls! I hope it's okay that I hop the fence or I'll be here all night! Add this to your book!" And I wheel my bags across the road, heave my 55 pound bag and carry on bag over the fence, climb up and hop over and off we went! Turns out this was his first day and he had never been to the Oakland Airport! Hilarious. We finally find my car, I get my key from the hiding place, load up and hit the road. 80 miles until my gas tank is empty. Well this could get exciting but I have zero desire to stop for gas at this point so I make the trek home. When I was 8 miles from home, I had 5 miles to empty so I stopped for gas at a place that keeps their pumps on all night thankfully. I made it home just after midnight and boy was I happy to see my parents (who chatted with me on the way home and waited up for me next door to greet me) and my sweet cat! What a couple days of travel!