last night i came back from the dominican republic. yay for good times!

man, i don't even know where to begin. so many things happened. but i'll start in the beginning.

GETTING THERE. the day before we left for the trip, Sucker at Life got in to a car accident. for a second i thought we would have to cancel the trip, but he was fine and the trip was still on. then The Lion got me snorkeling stuff. (note to self: pay him back all the money i owe him.)

then the morning of our departure came. we were scheduled to leave LA at 9:15am so we wanted to be there before 7. we didn't want to get held up at check-in and security because that would suck. but it was already 5:20am and Advocate of the Serious Face was still in irvine and packing her stuff. i was like, man, you've got to be kidding me. i was starting to get nervous around this time. she came to my house a little after 6 and then we drove really fast to Sucker at Life's house in bellflower. from there his dad took us to the airport. traffic on the 105 sucked like an angry girlfriend and i was starting to get super nervous and i actually thought we wouldn't make it. but we made it with some time to spare.

checking in was a bitch. the check-in person was apparently only being trained so it took her about half an hour just to take our bags and gave us our boarding passes. and yeah, we had to pay $20 each person per bag checked in. it was horrible. we didn't even know. anyway, security wasn't so bad. there was a line but i expected worse so it was all good. we made it to our departure gate with enough time to get starbucks.

then the most horrible thing happened. five minutes---no kidding---before the plane took off, we got a call from the airline and they told us that our connecting flight from ft. lauderdale to the dominican republic was canceled and asked us if we would like to cancel the trip. wtf!!?!? cancel the trip when we were already in the f---- plane and it was about to leave. i told them it was shit and that i had to hang up because the plane was about to take off and that i would call them back soon as it landed.

and i did. or at least i tried. we landed in detroit and i tried to call back the airline and figure out what we should do about that canceled trip. i was on hold for about half an hour---no kidding---and still no one picked up. so we ended up asking the airline people at the airport and for some reason they didn't seem to know that our next connecting flight had been canceled. so apparently they couldn't help us. so then after the long ass delay, we finally flew from detroit to fort lauderdale. this was 9:45pm (eastern time) and if you do the math, at this time we'd been 'traveling' for about 12 hours since we left Sucker at Life's house around 6:30ish that morning. and yeah, food was horrible. the hotdogs were tiny and still had the casing on.

we landed in fort lauderdale a little after 1am (eastern) and the airport was closed, of couse. i mean, you could still hang around but the food places were closed. i only had that tiny hotdog in detroit and i was starving. but at least our connecting flight from there to the D.R. got fixed---thanks to Sucker at Life's unmatched patience and diplomacy. i called the airline again to ask what was going on with our messed up flight and apparently they didn't even have a record of us being on their stupid plane! i mean, they had me as going to LA, Advocate of the Serious Face going to vegas and Sucker at Life didn't even exist! i was angry and cussing and loud and Sucker at Life told me to go sit. anyways, we had to wait until 6am for the connecting flight to the D.R. so we just sat there, tired and hungry, for about 4 hours. and yeah, The Lion called us and said he and his gf weren't coming anymore. apparently his passport was at the bank and his flight was supposed to leave at 6am but the bank wouldn't open until 9. it was such a bummer. all we could think about was it couldn't be happening. we just couldn't believe that he didn't have his passport in his hand the whole time he was reminding us that we should have our passports ready. we were pretty much delirious by the time we got to leave.

no problem getting to the D.R. except that the resort was a 2-hour bus ride from the airport. then we had to wait 4 hours to check in because we couldn't check in until 3pm. so we ate and took a nap at the beach. in conclusion, from the time i left my house to the time we actually got in to our room at the resort, i had been walking, waiting, flying and 'traveling' for about 30 hours.

NIGHT ONE. we were exhausted from all that waiting and airline problems. the first thing we did was get a round of margaritas. it was good. i was halfway buzzed after that first drink. maybe because i was hungry. then we ate, checked in, went to our room and took a long ass nap. we went to dinner, got drinks again, then went to see this michael jackson show. back to our room, showered. i don't remember what we did next but we were up pretty late. we didn't wake up until around noon the next day.

NIGHT TWO. what is breakfast anyway? we had a really late lunch. it was obvious that Sucker at Life was depressed about The Lion not being able to come. Advocate of the Serious Face and i were bummed out too but we tried not to miss The Lion too much and tried to make the best out of our trip. we got drinks, chilled at the beach, snorkeled for a bit, got more drinks, chilled at the pool. and let Sucker at Life on his own, still depressed about the passport thing. then we came up with a mission. we decided to do everything to entertain Sucker at Life so he wouldn't be so depressed about not having his buddy. he always talked about not having anyone to drink with and outdrink him because The Lion wasn't there. so back to the mission. that night we went to this dominican restaurant at the resort (we didn't leave the resort at all because we were scared of getting mugged out in the streets and also because we didn't know enough spanish to survive). i think we had drinks there too, i don't really remember. then we went to the sports bar and played pool and i had beers with Sucker at Life. those 2 beers really messed up my bladder because i was peeing until about 3am. we were going to stay for the "disco party" but there were too many old people---really old, like retirement status---so we just left and chilled at our room.

NIGHT THREE. had a really late lunch again. by this time, we figured it was natural to sleep in until noon or later so we didn't really try to wake up early for anything. Sucker at Life told me my mom called that morning but i was still asleep so we paid for internet to send emails to our families to let them know we were doing good. we could have called but it was a lot more expensive, $1.50/minute! then we did archery, played mini golf, chilled at the beach again. we didn't snorkel or anything. we just chilled in the water and talked and talked and talked some more. after that long talk in the water, we were pretty much bonded. i learned a lot about them and im sure they learned a lot about me. then we went back to our room to rinse off all that sand, went to dinner, got drinks, played pool. i think this was the night i beat Sucker at Life at pool, but my victory was short-lived because he demanded a rematch and i got beaten pretty badly.

NIGHT FOUR. we got wasted. and that's all i'm going to say about that. i honestly don't remember much. we got wasted. i think this was also the day when we snorkeled for a long time. but i don't really know. that could easily be on a different day.

NIGHT FIVE. i woke up early that morning with a really bad headache. my head was pounding. i went back to sleep and woke up feeling like nothing even happened. we went shopping for souvenirs and gifts for our families. then we just chilled, went to dinner one last time, then packed. i know they stayed up all night because they were afraid they wouldn't wake up on time. our bus was scheduled to take us to the airport at 4:30 in the morning. but i took a nap. i knew they'd wake me up. haha. so i got it easy.

OTHER STUFF. some nights we played clue and i always lost. we met this random girl in the bus from the airport and it turned out she was in the flight as us. we also met this other asian group. then we met this couple from northridge and they were very chill and friendly. we met their son too when we went to use the internet. over all, i think we accomplished our mission. Sucker at Life thinks i'd make a bad wife and bad mother because i don't know how to make filipino food.

WE GO HOME. going home wasn't so bad. we didn't get delayed and there was no airline drama. but it somehow felt like it took longer than our 24-hour flight a few days before.