About My Very First Solo Trip (Pt. 1)

So let's talk about the beginning stages.....




2016 was a very hard year for me. From moving to a new place, city, school district. Going through a custody battle that was initiated as a means of punishment for requesting child support (more about that here). Difficulties with both my mother and father. The end of my confusing 4 year relationship. Deaths of family members...




I was really determined to make 2017 MUCH better than 2016. And after the custody battle was over I felt that I deserved to treat myself.




Now before I go any further, Bone Thugs N Harmony are my favorite group! Why not make 2017 great by making it a point to see my favorite group LIVE!




I searched their tour dates to see if they'd be performing close to home. Unfortunately not. I did see, however, that they would be headlining a concert in California with a dope line up.




Now that my destination and activities were settled upon I had to figure out what to do about my kids. Who's going to watch them? My initial plan was to leave on Friday evening and come back on Sunday night, but there were two problems with that... The possibility of my daughter's dad picking her up on Friday per his visitation order (although he hadn't in the past 3 months) and then there was a thing of my brother not wanting to keep them for that long. Even though it was literally only a weekend.




I instead changed the time frame from Friday evening through Sunday night to Saturday morning through Sunday night. What in the hell could I do in the span of about 28 hours? I didn't know, but I'd find out soon enough!




I asked my brother if he could keep my kids that weekend. He said that he should be able to and to remind him when the time nears. YES!!! I immediately went to book my concert ticket because I needed to be as close to the stage as possible.




The countdown began! 2 weeks until take off!




I excitedly told my coworker that I would be going to Cali to see them perform. She could understand my excitement because I'd recently shared with her that Mr. McCane himself (Bizzy) liked one of my pictures on Instagram. It's the small things yall!!




Anyway, down to a few days and my heart is racing thinking about the fact that I'm really about to travel to the West Coast on my own to attend a concert on my own to see one of my many favorite groups!
I mapped out places to hit for food and maybe to sightsee. I knew I wouldn't be there for long, but I wanted to make the most of my time.




With a makeshift itinerary in place I convinced myself that I was finally ready to take on the feat. Let's get it!!




That evening before my flight my brother asked me to watch my nieces for a couple of hours so that he and my sister in law could go somewhere. I said okay knowing that this would be my payment for him watching my girls.




I figured that I'd be able to get my light packing done. I also began washing a couple of loads of clothes in order to make Monday morning much easier for me and the kids. While I did accomplish these tasks it wasn't without the extra-ness of my kids and nieces. These kids spilled bubble solution all over my floor, they left pieces of eaten candy in very discreet hiding places, trails of all types of crumbs.




After my nieces left and after I finished cleaning up after them while completing the things I set out to do, it was almost 12 am. I hopped in the shower for about an hour to try and relax because an overworked me never produces good results.




Fully refreshed now, I turned off all of the lights downstairs, double checked to see that I had everything I needed and then slid into bed.




Before dozing off I decided to check my flight itinerary. I wanted to jot down my flight confirmation number so that I could easily access it instead of having to scroll through my email on my phone while at the airport. I went to search for my confirmation aaaaannnddd...... It's nowhere to be found!




Oh no! My email is tripping because I KNOW for a fact that I booked my flight! I even bought travelers insurance because I wasn't sure if my brother would say yes to watching my kids at the time.




So I'm scrolling frantically!




"There's my hotel itinerary!"




"There's my concert ticket receipt!"




"There's my travelers insurance on my ticket!"




"Wait, where's my insurance for my flight?"




It finally dawned on me.... I didn't book a flight! AND I ONLY HAVE 6 HOURS BEFORE I'M DUE TO HEAD TO THE AIRPORT!




I am freaking out and scolding myself. "See I knew this was a bad idea! You don't have any business going out of town on such short notice. There's not even gonna be any flights that aren't at least $1,000!"




I finally pulled it together enough to actually start browsing flights. I looked on Frontier first as this was the carrier I'd initially planned on using. "Okay the ticket price is roughly the same price as before and the time I'm looking to leave is still available."




Should I have snatched it up immediately? Yes. Did I? No.




At the risk of not getting the time and price needed I browsed Priceline and a few other carriers. Frontier had the cheapest price going one way at the time that I was looking to leave. So luckily (with only one seat left) I grabbed that ticket.




Whew!




I have a way there now. A little pressure off of me. Now what about going back?




I searched and searched. The only other flight that I could find was a one way at the time I wanted, but it was damn near $500. Omg! I did not plan on spending this much money on a literal day trip, but at this point I had no choice. It was either suck it up and get it or miss out on something amazing. I went ahead and bought the ticket.




Upset that I just dropped almost $700 in total on plane tickets, yet happy that everything is finally squared away, I went to sleep...

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