I have been in Orange County, California (The OC) for the past few weeks. On my drives, I have passed The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Stadium and the Honda Center, several times. Seeing these two sports venues has caused me to stop and recall a fantastic trip that I took with my best friend, Melissa, nearly 12 years ago.
The planning began when I found out that Beyonce would be performing in Anaheim, California. That year she chose not to come to Denver and was touring for her I Am... Sasha Fierce album. The album was my favorite at the time, so I just had to see her in concert. I found tickets online and bought two, not knowing who would be going with me. I asked a lot of friends and no one could afford the cost of the trip or take the time off. Since I had no takers, I decided to treat Melissa. In addition to the concert, I bought two tickets to the Angels game. I had never seen the stadium and wanted to cross it off my bucket list, plus they were playing my favorite team, the New York Yankees. It was the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone AND spend time with my favorite friend. What could possibly go wrong?
We were scheduled to fly out of Denver on Frontier Airlines, the airline that I worked for at the time, on a Friday evening. I would fly for free and Melissa would fly for close to it. The game and concert were on Saturday, so I figured we had plenty of time to get to where we needed to be. We made it on the flight and were buckled into our seats when the plane began to rock back and forth as sheets of rain came pouring down. Thunder roared and lighting struck. The ramp workers all scurried away like cats that were about to get wet. I knew enough to know that if the storm didn't pass soon, we would not be going anywhere. Why? Because I also knew that the Orange County airport had a curfew, not allowing planes to fly in past a certain point in the evening; I think it was 9:30 or 10:00 pm. If we did not take off soon, we would not be taking off. The window of opportunity was slowly closing, one inch at a time.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, the Captain announced the flight had just been canceled and we would all have to deplane. The groans were so loud they were almost palpable. The entire plane, full of passengers just like us who had something to do and somewhere to be, were deflated. We waited for a ride back to my house, sat at my kitchen table with my laptop and hatched our Plan B. I think we looked at Frontier flights, but none of them would work. There were two one-way tickets for sale on Southwest Airlines for a paltry $250 each. I looked at Melissa and said, "What do you think?"
She replied, "It's a lot of money and I can't pay for it. Maybe we just shouldn't go."
In a very rare who-gives-a-damn-about-money moment, I told her I didn't care, it was a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and, in six months, I wouldn't even remember that I spent the money. And, I said, if we didn't go, I would lose the money I spent on the tickets. I got out my credit card, and, less than five minutes later, we were all set.
So, we slept (very little, I might add), got up quite early and boarded our Southwest flight. A side note here: not only was the money thing uncharacteristic for me, flying on Southwest was unheard of. At the time, they were Frontier's competitor and I was all about loyalty to my employer who just happened to be my favorite airline. I despised Southwest, as did most people who worked for Frontier. At one point, when Frontier was going through bankruptcy, Southwest almost bought Frontier and would have gutted Denver's hometown airline, animals and all. Thank God that didn't happen.
Once we landed, we had a few hours to lie by the pool before heading to the game. Even though we were in the nosebleed section, we had a wonderful time, despite the Yankees getting obliterated by the Angels.
After the game was over, we hailed a cab back to the hotel, showered, changed and were on to our next adventure: the Beyonce concert. We had far better seats than we had at the game and the concert was amazing; Melissa was beside herself with excitement and joy, saying, "This is so great, this is so great."
On the way back to the hotel, we were exhausted due to the whirl-wind 24-hour trip, but we couldn't stop talking about the fact that it was all worth it: the lack of sleep, the money spent and even having to fly on Southwest Airlines.
When I arrived here in Anaheim for the first time, back in early December, it didn't dawn on me how close the two venues are from each other. Last weekend, when my husband and I drove past them, I made the comment that they were so close to each other, but we didn't even realize it at the time. They seemed worlds apart way back then, but they are just across the highway from each other.
Yes, being here has really brought back memories. Great memories. A time when we both threw caution to the wind and just lived. We truly lived.
And six months later? I wasn't missing the $500 at all.