LA

So, I'm in LA for the first time for a work conference, and my hotel room has a bathtub in the middle of it and I rode up the elevator yesterday with a gigantic foam foot. If you want to see my digs, check them out here- http://www.standardhotels.com/los-angeles/virtual-tours/huge-room/. I'm in the huge room, and if you want to see the foot, they live in the wow! rooms.

Civil War... The Musical

Last night I went to see Civil War- The Musical. It was actually really good, I have only 3 wee complaints.

1- Costumes. Now I understand the whole dress in modern clothes to make us relate to the characters as real people instead of flat historical characters, but when the dead soldier is singing a love song to his wife from the other side, the armless jean jacket is just distracting.

2- Posed Casualness. Really, when you sit down on the edge of the stage and sling your elbow over your knee as if you show you're just a regular guy listening to your buddy sing- I don't believe it.

3- Costumes #2. This is somewhat tied to complaint number one. Everyone was dressed in "modern" clothes, i.e. leather pants, baseball caps, short skirts- but then after almost two hours in the same clothes, they decided to change into period costume for the last song. Why bother just for the last song????

It's Raining....

Really really hard. And it kind of smells like poop.

Progressive

I got my car back today! And it looks as good as new. The guy called me this morning to tell me that it was ready to pick up, but that I would have to pay the $500 deductible because in order to get it. So I called Lisa, my claims adjuster. I left her a message asking why it hadn't been taken care of with the other person's insurance (remember, I was not at fault here).

I didn't hear back from her until around 4:00- I hadn't thought too much about it given my last insurance company experience- but when she called me back she apologized for it taking so long and that she had wanted to make sure it was taken care of before she talked to me. She had talked to the other person's insurance guy (who also happened to be with Progressive) and gotten him to pay the deductible.

I've got to say that this was all very painless and that I'm quite happy with Progressive.

I heart Aruba

Aruba was fantastic.

Highlights, in no particular order:

-We got there without any problems

-Jen got a blessing from some wonderful church members in Aruba that made it so she wasn't in constant pain from a kidney infection.

-No one got a lobster red sunburn, only a few pink patches here and there.

-Beverli, Jen, and Robin all came away with some new bling

-Jen and Kelly are now certified scuba divers

-We all have crushes on Josue, Osman and Norman

-My favorite dives were on the south shore where we saw two stingrays (one reeeeaaallly big one that flew right under me) a turtle, some cuttle fish, some eels, a queen angel fish, and a submarine.

-Some things that happen in Aruba stay in Aruba.

-Thanks to Demitri Martin we know that it really is true that if you say "laaaadies" after anything it makes it instantly more creepy.

-Kelly was the only one that made it on the flight on Tuesday when we were supposed to go home, and while we missed her dearly, that extra day was pretty awesome.

-On the sunset cruise, we overheard the young honeymooning couples saying "They must be really young" about us. Ahhh it's good to be young at heart.

-We complained enough that they finally let us change our diving reservation the day of to go to the south shore instead of the west shore again. How are you supposed to change it the day before when there is no one at any of the desks at any of the hotels? It pays to be persistent.

-We ate a fabulous dinner on the beach at the flying fishbone. And when I say on the beach, I mean that even though there was linnen on the table and in my lap, there was sand under my toes.

-We saw actual flying fish in the ocean.

-We had a rainy afternoon yoga session.

-Robin bought a timeshare so we get to go back.