Just When I Was Starting to Like You…

… you start effing with me in a most heinous way. I am, of course, referring to Priceline.com and my most recent experience with them.

If I stand like THIS! You may not notice what a crappy flight you won!

After checking the Southwest flights back in April ($229/OW from Dallas to SF), I decided that I would save money if I booked my flight to SF with Priceline. After battling with the internal guilt of leaving Matt and the boys for so long, I decided I was going to leave Thursday and try to come back on Monday. I put in a ton of different bids, different days… they would offer me something that I wanted and then “Oops! Sorry, that flight doesn’t exist.” Well then why did you offer it to me?!?!

Sigh. And then, after three days of bidding, “Congratulations! Your offer was accepted!” Hmm? What? I couldn’t even remember what offer I put in. $300. Crap. Wednesday departure. Doh! And then the good news. I fly to Oakland instead of SFO via Salt Lake City (wwwhhhaaa?) at 6am. Um, excuse me. Did you say 6am? Yes, Jessielah. We said 6am. On both flights. Getting up early is good for you. Also, since you’re flying on a Nickle and Dime you airlines, you get to pay an extra $25 each way for (how did Delta put this) an Excessive Baggage Fee. Excessive Baggage? Wait. I’m pretty sure I had one checked bag. They’re making me sounds like I’m friking Kim Kardashian. Excessive baggage. Psshaw. Including taxes, I’ll have spent almost $400. For that price I could have flown Southwest, checked two bags, and gotten points towards a free flight. Sigh.

Lesson learned: 1. Buy your tickets in advance and 2. Always be on your guard when dealing with Priceline. They’re waiting for you to get upset and frustrated and overbid.

Suite Jesus in San Francisco (day one)

Matt showed his work in the Suite Jesus art show at 111 Minna Gallery last Friday night in San Francisco, so we decided to make a mini vacation out of it before baby Milo arrived. Solidifying things was a nightmare. Matt needed a way to display his digital art. As his collection grew, we had to forgo flying up to SF. We still needed a sitter for Jaxon – the gallery was also a bar, not a place for babies. And who would keep the dogs while we were gone?

Two days before our departure date, everything fell into place. Alamo rented us a mid-size car (complete with Southwest points!) for under $100. Our vet recommended Fon-Jon Dog Kennel for Bea and Wally – who’d be able to sleep in the same room for 10% off the price. And Priceline.com sold us a 4-star room at the Hyatt for $90, saving us from a possible run in with bed bugs.Fabulous! We loaded up the car and were on the road by 10am. The boys slept all the way through LA, making for a whine-free drive. =) We stopped outside of Tejon Ranch, stretched our legs, and had Subway and coffee. Jaxon ate applesauce and sweet potatoes. Life was good. Since we had upgraded our car to a Prius (it was so bad ass with it’s rear view camera and AWESOME MPG) we didn’t have to fuel up until about half way through the trip. The hours flew by asMatt and I discussed NLP, the election, some crazy brilliant guy, and Tony Robbins. After a crazy bathroom emergency (I won’t go into details) we pulled up at the Hyatt Regency:
View from the 5th Floor Terrace. FABULOUS!!!
We parked (had another bathroom emergency) and unloaded the car. We were pretty much dead tired, but we met up with Ruby & Sara and decided to eat across the street at Sizzler.

Prego me with Sara and Ruby in the hotel room.

The food was gross and bland. Jaxon was cranky, plus I forgot to put a new shirt on him so he was wearing a jogging suit looking like some kind of gigolo. But it was the only time Ruby could see Jax so we just sucked it up and enjoyed the fact that Sara didn’t mind chasing a wild one year old around the restaurant!
After some chatting time with the girls (discussing details about our SPA WEEKEND!!) I crashed with my sexy husband in our fabulous Hyatt bed (complete with white duvet sheets!)

Oh how I’ve missed you SF!!