continued

Okay. Oakland is scary.

We walked to In-and-Out burger which was roughly a mile from our hotel. No big deal. It'll be nice to get out of our hotel. Well, okay. I almost got hit by a car on the way there. Then while we were waiting for our food, I have my arm on the back of my seat and this creeeeepy man puts his hand on my arm and isn't moving it. I'm instantly like, what are you doing, and take his hand off my arm. Meanwhile, I'm thinking of ways to defend myself and then run. This guy says, "Oh I'm sorry. I thought you were my grand-daughter." I say, "Okay." And this dude continues to explain why he thought I was his grand-daughter. Dude, I don't care, just get away from me. I was completely freaked out. It totally ruined my meal. Then I see him outside with his family pointing at me and explaining what happened and they're laughing. Sir, I don't think it's funny. Go away.

There's a fight outside when we leave. We walk quickly. This is going to sound so horrible and I know that and I'm disappointed in myself for thinking it, but it's honest. We were 2 of 10 white people we saw on our outing. I felt really unsafe. Part of this may be because Josh (our new friend) told us that Oakland is the murder capitol of the US. Gee wiz dude, don't tell me that. So then I'm paranoid our entire walk and wondering if everyone has a gun. That's awful. I know. But it was my reaction to our situation. We walked quickly back to our hotel as it was getting colder, starting to drizzle and get dark. I feel really bad that the main reason I felt unsafe was because of someone's skin color and the way they were dressed. We almost got hit by a garbage truck on the walk back. It seemed like he sped up when we crossed the street.

Okay. We spent the night in our hotel room and ate in the restaurant downstairs again and then watched A&E shows. I love my Intervention and stumbled on a new show, Manhunters. It's tight. I slept SOOO great (which was nice for a change) and woke up to blueberry muffins we purchased on our walk.

We're packing up to leave, take the shuttle, and chill in the airport. Wait. Wait. Wait. The zipper on my luggage just broke. The broke where it comes off track you know? And then it starts opening....ah! What am I going to do! It was on the bottom of my bag too. Great. So we go downstairs, ask the front desk when the shuttle will be here and if they can take us to WalMart to get a new bag. They say sure. Shew! While I had to sell my soul to WalMart (my first purchase at WM in 3 years) to freaking TRY to fly for the 4th time, it was worth it.

Now we're sitting at our gate, crossed fingers and toes that we're leaving for real this time. So far, so good.

PS-plan update. We're flying into Seattle to stay with Carl's dad and step-mom till Monday (so great!) and then taking the Amtrak to Portland on Monday morning. Now if everything will just not cancel, we'll be good. New Years in Portland wasn't planned, but is happenin'. We'll make the best of 7 extra days in the Northwest. It probably won't be that hard.

Bless you for thinking of us as we travel this journey. It's been CRAAAZY! If I don't get to talk to you again,

Merry Chrismahannahquanica to you and Happy Festivas for the rest of us.