So it’s been a while since I updated but it’s been a whirlwind.
11th – stayed up all night cleaning the apt and hanging with the bro.
12th – after one hour sleep, drove to SD with Nicole and got there minutes before Zoo opened @ 9am. Friends met us there. Left around 2:30pm for an international cottage exhibit that was closed but Nicole & I wanted to go clean up at the hotel. We did, then went back to Gaslight District to meet up with Nick & Carrie again, ate dinner (thanks Nick!), and went to HOB to see Apocalyptica for the first time. A M A Z I N G!!!
13th – Wild Animal Park day… got the rudest shock of finding out that the monorail tram that I’d been looking forward to riding again for ages…. had been ripped out the year before. Really made it hard to get through the day cause I was so upset I actually cried for a few minutes after finding out (by not finding the entrance to the monorail, where it was supposed to be). But I did my best to just suck it up and deal cause “it is what it is”.
14th – back at work after a crazy intense weekend but not done yet… Apo again that night at the Roxy. Met up with Nicole & Nancie beforehand at Rainbow for caesar chicken salads (SOOO GOOD! and huge). Lots of waiting but paid off in getting right up to the stage for the concert. WOW all over again and this time got pictures & video! Kept laughing to myself because at times I had to bend over backwards to keep the guys in frame because they would come up and play within a foot of me. At one point, a massive crowd push caused a near face plant into Perttu’s cello strings but I managed to stay upright and pull back. Rainbow again afterwards, never found A though she was sitting a couple tables away with M. discovered this while driving away and decided what the hell… and went back.. and it paid off cause a while after I got back and found them, I saw blond heads moving by the fence… Apo showed… not surprising, they apparently love it there too.
15th – work again but even after all that, I go roller skating that night with Ryan. Which is good cause that was Roxiey’s last night (sweet darling girl who’s been out here as a temporary firefighter helping to clean up the damage from last year’s bad fires).
16th – Been feeling oncoming sickness and it really hit hard… stayed home to rest… only to have insane nasty slumlords come banging on the door and rip up the premises. I remember peering out the window and seeing our nice trees being hacked down with machetes.
17th – stayed home again cause still felt like a wreck. Finally got proper rest to recuperate. It was all sleeping, Tudors, sleep, skip back to where I fell asleep then Tudors again.
18th – dragged myself into work cause I felt better… realized that it was allergies all along that is just very severe this time around. Never had it so bad that I coughed & sneezed a lot plus had raw feeling in throat. However discovered that I broke the laptop cord while sleeping. Damn, that was stupid.
19th – slept in. Thanks to A’s reminding & time pointers, I got the old computer equipment to the church for free ewaste pickup. Then went to Best Buy to see about broken laptop cord and sending the dvd player in for warranty replacement (died after 5 months!). Then Jen’s birthday party! One of those not very fun social situations for me but it got better in the last hour after everyone else left and it was just “us”.
20th – absolutely nothing all day… in part cause NASTY headache 
#$*#&$ allergies!! Did feel better later when I took advil finally and ended up going on a walk through Hollywood at 9pm at night! Picked up Subway for dinner on the way home.
21st – work… hard to focus on what I was doing though. Got the work done though and even finally did the much needed update to FinnishRock so that it was presentable enough for people to look at when we requested interviews. And even though I was pretty sure of getting our first interview, we still needed to actually make the request. Emailed it after I was done.
22nd – Today! woke up feeling “sick” level from the allergies again but this time just soldiered my way into work. I’m about to get a new set of personal days thanks to my 1 yr anniversary coming up… either tomorrow or Saturday (have to look it up) but really I CAN work, just really need to be able to do it from home to better deal with the allergies. Have already sneezed all over my desk several times today and been coughing again
Best part though that helped me get up and get moving was checking email to find confirmation of the interview. Now to get NW & Apo on the hook… and SA as well.
Will try to find time to write more about the SD trip.Will also post separately about the different Mission 101 things covered in these 12 days as well.