standby...music to my ears

I couldn't sleep.  It is as simple as that.  I woke at 4:44 am knowing the time difference was to blame for facing the bleak reality of a dark snowy scene outside my hotel window.  I turned the TV on.  To my delight a movie was just beginning "The Legend of Bagger Vance", so I watched the entire thing before showering and dressing.  Now what to do?  I don't have a book, because that would involve carrying extra weight.  So, my choices are the Bible or the phone book.  I chose the phone book in an attempt to find something interesting to do in Reno for the next two days.  Everyone in my hotel seems to have either skis or a snowboard with them...I have neither.  I have my phone book.  In the course of an hour I have decided on sushi for tonight's dinner and a day at the movie theater.  I board the hotel shuttle with 5 people headed for the airport.  In an instant I change my mind and decide to get off at the airport.  I wait in line for 15 minutes (directly behind Audrina from MTV's reality show "The Hills")to be told I can ride standby on either the 10 am or the 12:10 pm...it is currently 9:02 am.  I rush to the curb to catch the next hotel shuttle...but there is a shift change and it takes 35 minutes to get to the hotel.  I pack and checkout in a rush...and I am back on the shuttle to the airport.  I check my bag with the uncertainty that comes upon one when they realize their luggage may make it to San Diego, but they may not.  I attempt to get through security...I mean...it worked yesterday.  But, I forgot to empty my nalgene water bottle, so security pulls me aside, searches myself and my bag and tells me to get rid of the water.  I chug it. What else is there to do with it?  I am allowed to cut the line, and I race to the gate to be put on the standby list.  I am second on the list...there is hope for me.  My flight number is the same as yesterday...as though I dreamed the entire layover (which is exactly 24 hours).  When the time comes to board, they call 8 names...of course they can't pronounce mine!  Then the surprise...everyone else on the standby list is cleared all the way to San Diego, but I am told I am still on standby from Oakland to San Diego.  argh!  I ride between the same two guys I was seated with yesterday (they are headed back to the Naval base in San Diego...with apparently half our flight which consists of about 25 pole vaulters from Annapolis looking forward to a major track meet in San Diego with their oversized luggage).  We laugh about trying to hide me if they call my name in Oakland to get off.  I mean, no assigned seats...how would they ever know I am Jessica Gauvreau?  It doesn't matter...they have plenty of room when we arrive in Oakland and I am not called off the last leg of the flight.  I later find out that the extra room on the sold out flight was from security taking about an hour for each person in line...and most people missed the flight because they were standing in line waiting to be screened.  It is a miracle...I made it to San Diego.  I do the usual...wait an hour for my luggage, then take a bus to downtown before taking a bus to Pacific Beach.  However, I was standing on the wrong side of the road to catch my bus, and I just missed it.  Thinking another bus was coming soon, I crossed the road and waited for another bus.  The bus apparently broke down and I ended up waiting an hour for the next one...but at least it seems warm here...about 67 degrees...who can complain.  Now, I am at a crazy place called the Banana Bungalow in Mission Beach, San Diego with an eclectic bunch of international travelers who drink continuously from 4pm to 4am from the daily keg on the porch.  It is one interesting place...with the highlight being it is located directly on the beach...and at high tide I am a mere 4 feet from the water's edge. 

Everyone else has skis or snowboards with them...I have neither.