We're Moving...Again!

The time has come for us to wave goodbye to the clear sunny skies, incredible views and warm beach-bum days of California. We are very excited to announce that I accepted a promotion to Nashville, TN and we look forward to what is ahead. We could not be more thrilled to take our next steps in our adventure together. We have learned many lessons over the last few years in Santa Monica. We have had weeks living off ramen and air (and thank God the air was free), and we have also lived like kings adventuring up and down the coast. We went through 3 cars, adopted two dogs and ate more burritos that we would like to admit. 

We have made lifelong friendships that will continue until I am an old man. And, to me that is priceless. Over the last few years, we have become honorary citizens at Disneyland and if we stayed just a few more years I would be running for Mayor there. I was lucky enough to play and create music with some amazing people all over the city and got to sit where my idols sat playing drums. It has been surreal. I saw Saves the Day play “Through Being Cool” in its entirety and chatted with Dan Aykroyd about how he thought I hit drums really hard. Yes, a ghostbusting, Blues Brother saw me play drums (life goal achieved). Jamie and I have seen Justin Beiber on a hover board on Sunset Blvd and Tim Robbins asked to use my phone because his died. “Here you go Mr. Dufresne.” We even got to see Back to the Future at the Hollywood Bowl on Back to the Future Day. 

I got to go to Namm; Jamie went through a career change, and Adam Sandler and his mom hung out with us fishing off the Malibu pier one day. We got to see the Phillies beat the Dodgers, survived quakes, saw Stars Wars and I joined a soft ball league just for the free beer. I got stuck in LAX for two days, made in on The People’s Court on my lunch hour and drove to Vegas one time to shoot a short with friends. 

We have celebrated birthdays, ups, downs, b-sides and made it out just fine. Reflecting this morning is very bittersweet. We did not plan too, but we may have laid some roots here, this was never permanent. I can not wait to take the next step in our lives together. The memories we have created with such great people in our time in California have changed our lives forever.

California - Thanks for keeping us safe. Keep the traffic and I’ll see you soon.

-YourFriendMatt

I Got Stuck...Part Four...

"Holy shit. How many planes am I going to miss today?" 

I had been at the airport now for close to 15 hours. I slept here the night before with my girlfriend, Jamie. After we missed two flights in a row, spent the night on the airport floor and missed two more in the morning, that’s she finally got out. She had scored the last seat on a direct flight to Philadelphia. I was not so lucky. 

As I continued to hang out in LAX, making friends with whoever would talk to me, I learned that there had been a slew of cancelled flights the day before going to Philadelphia. For what reason? I still don't know, but I do know it was affecting my vacation, bowel movements and sleep habits. 

I did get to meet some interesting characters as I sluggishly crawled from gate to gate trying to get on any plane back to the east coast. I ended talking to one guy who wrote episodes for Are You Afraid of the Dark, including one of my favorite episodes found here. I also made friends with a metal band and got drinks with some sales agents in the worlds smallest beer garden, LAX is hell on earth.

"Hey, I like this beer."

One such character I met was a drunk woman, possible on meth, who could not remember her name, where she lived or why she was at the airport. I was sitting, waiting to miss another flight, as I noticed the woman across from me slumped over, drooling and giggling to herself. I thought, “Well, this should get interesting.” I happily perked up as the LAPD arrived to get this show started.

“Ma’am, whats your name?” The first officer asked as she drooled some more. “Was she like this on the plane?” The officer asked the flight attendant, “She was fine and then someone contacted us when she tried to sell drugs on the plane to any passengers. Then she just took all the drugs since no one was buying and that’s when she started cursing and causing a scene.” I thought to myself, “Man, this lady is awesome. Who has the balls to try to sell drugs in the air and then decides to just take all the drugs if no one is buying?” This is an American hero. The drug dealing woman started to giggle some more and that’s when they pulled out the wheelchair and handcuffs. They moved her into the chair and then cuffed her as she was rolled away.

Just another beautiful morning here in LAX…now, let’s see if I can get on this plane…

-YourFriendMatt

I Got Stuck...Part Three...

“Excuse me, your dog is sleeping on my carry on bag.” She said with a smile on her face. We both turned to random, blonde, LA woman like the little girl from The Exorcist and she shut the hell up.

We had been in the airport for 11 hours. We had slept at LAX on a cold, marble floor. Our bodies hurt. Our eyes red and felt as if they were going to explode from exhaustion. Our hair was greasy and stuck up in every direction, we looked awful, disheveled and smelly. We had missed 3 flights in a row due to cancellations, and now being stuck in the airport was cutting into our vacation time. Not cool.

We had our dog, Piper, with us which added an additional layer of stress. It is one thing worrying about ourselves, but now Piper’s Benadryl was wearing off and she was running amuck. Piper is an 8 pound, brown and blonde haired, scrappy asshole of a dog. I love her. She gets into everything, likes to eat trash and make bed-nest out of whatever is around that you don’t want her making a bed-nest out of…such as other people carry on bags, jackets and neck pillows. She collects them, takes them under whatever piece of furniture she can find and makes a nest. In our current situation, she found a bench in our terminal and was happily making her bed. We didn’t care, we were too tired.

The next flight was boarding and we were waiting to see if we could make it on. Piper, who was now licking some little kids face and barking at things, had to be put back into her travel carry bag just in case we made it on the flight. This is always a scene because she fights like hell against Jamie and I as one of us holds open the bag and one tries to shove her in. “Oh, she’s fine, this is completely normal!” Jamie yells to disturbed onlookers over Piper’s screaming barks, and waves them off with a smile. “Going to Philadelphia? I like your shirt!” Jamie adds for good will.

“Okay, if only one of us gets on you go first and just take all this shit with you.”We discussed as I point to all our bags. “That way everything will just be in Philly when I get there and I will only have to worry about walking on a plane, you will have tons of help at the airport when you land.” Both of our families were anxiously waiting for us on the other side of the US in Philadelphia for our arrival. She would have plenty of help to carry all the bags and Piper. 

The plane boarded and was about to take off. We did not get on. This was the fourth flight in a row that we were not able to get on. The gate door to the plane was closing, solidify the defeating feeling in my gut that we were still stuck in LAX. Just as it was about to shut the gate agent busted through the door. “We have ONE SEAT AVAILABLE, which of you wants to go! Now!” We had our plan and I helped Jamie gather our things and got her on the plane. I watched it take off. Scared for her, but a little relieved that one of us was going home. Now it is time to get my ass on a plane.

The adventure in LAX continues…

-YourFriendMatt

I Got Stuck...Part Two...

"I wonder if we'll ever get the hell out of here?" I stated in uncertainty staring at the clock, begging it to go faster.

It was almost 4am and we had slept in the cold LAX airport on black and while marble floor. Very comfortable and accommodating. At this point a cardboard box on a heating grate in New York would be the Ritz Carlton. Jamie and I stared at each other coldly, hating each other, damp sweat and anxiety poured over us. Silence. We just want to get out of here. "This sucks." Was a common response to our deliriously back and forth conversation as we tried to keep our spirits up. 

The clock stuck 3:45am and we packed up out makeshift bedding of carry-on items. With all the strength we could muster, we gathered our bags, which seemed to weight a billion pound now. We had to get through security. Rounding the corner for TSA we could see everyone was already in line. Another 40 minutes later we were there. The first time we went through security check the day before they pulled Jamie aside to rip her bag apart. She had a camera and a bottle of perfume she forgot to take out that set off certain alarm...and I guess she looked like a terrorist. Just for fun, I took her bag and left the exact same camera and perfume in there, we had time and I wanted to see what would happen. We made it through security without any trouble. Feeling safe at the airport yet? Same objects in the bag, no security stopped us. Wow. 

We made it to our gate. We still had another hour to see if we were going to make it out. We are flying standby so there is no guarantee. We got coffees through the endless line at the only Starbucks in our terminal, returning to stare at the clock again.

The plane started boarding. Our building anticipation deflated as the gate agent announced over the intercom, "Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to begin boarding our nonstop flight to Philadelphia. This is a full flight and all passengers are checked in. We have a full flight. We will not have room for everyone's carry-on bags, if you have a roller bag, please bring it up now to get it checked."

"Welp, we aren't getting out on this one. Maybe we can take a nap." I said, sipping my shitty airport Starbucks. We made a new carry-on baggage bed and laid out watching the happy passengers board their plane tipping our coffees to them. The plane took off and we waved them goodbye.

"When's the next one?" Jamie asked, pulling out her neck pillow and eye mask. "Oh, I don't know, another 2 hours?" I responded. We took a nap and waited it out...

-YourFriendMatt

I was stuck...Part One...

"I left Thursday and I arrived on Saturday. It's only an hour flight. So, no. No. I am not okay." I said to the gate agent.

Over the last few days I got stuck in LAX trying to get home to see my family for a summer vacation. What we thought was going to be a relaxing trip home turned into 3 days of hell in the airport. 

My mother works for the airlines so we fly for basically free. I know, I know. First world problem, right? Anyway, we arrived at the airport Thursday night and expected to jump right on the next flight. This is how it has always worked out and I have never had a problem. Sure, I have missed a flight here or there, but have never spent more that a few hours in an airport. Well, I guess all that good luck ran out because not only did we miss the flight we attended to get on, we miss the next one also.

We had our dog with us and decided to take her out to the baggage claim area, it's not fair to her to hold it while we sit in the airport all night, right? We gather our various, humungous, bags and made our way out to baggage claim. when we to back in TSA looked at us like we were idiots. "Oh, Hey Baby!" The overweight wig-sporting TSA agent squawked at us, "You can't go through here, no sir, we are closed until 4 am, we will see you in the morning baby!" She pointed to the clock that indicated it was 12:15am. We could not get back to our gate for another 4 hours.

It didn't make sense for us to travel 45 minutes back home, to get an hour an a half of sleep to just get up at 2 am to make it back to LAX. So. The bench next to the airport exit door is where we set up shop and made our bed for the night on top of our baggage.

To be continued...

-YourFriendMatt