What a long weekend! I left my little Luke (the boy I nanny for the last two years) and his darling family in Seattle at around 12:30 on Friday. I picked up my mom in Long Beach, Washington and we headed out to Californ-i-a. As we were passing through Oregon it was warm and beautiful outside and I was nothing short of excited to finally be moving back to LA, not to mention a huge weight had been lifted for getting everything squared away (thanks to my mom for checking out and finding me my apartment). Driving down I-5, I spot an outlet mall, my eyes went wide and my mom was looking around to figure out what it was I was gawking over. OUTLET MALL and even better in OREGON, tax-free! It’s a quarter past seven when we pull into the mall parking lot and start checking out the stores. I really wanted to check out Guess and Northface which were at the end, but I didn’t mind checking out all the stores in between. It’s 7:45 and we’ve only gotten through the first leg of the mall (out of like 8), we pass through a few more stores (quickest shopping my mom and I have EVER done) and once we finally get to Guess, its closed! No freakin’ way! It’s 7:57pm and it’s closed. Apparently the outlet mall closes at 8pm, but even then Guess closed its doors several minutes early… what if I wanted to spend $500 on a purse or two?!?! That would have easily paid for all the sales associates’ hourly wage in just my transaction alone and within 5 minutes to boot. If Guess was closed, then Northface which was still several stores down would also be closed, bummer…. Guess it just wasn’t meant to be. On the other hand my mom got a hot dress for her 50th birthday party in August. Off to Cali we go, my GPS says our arrival time will be around 9:30am Saturday morning. As we pull into a gas station (our 3rd one) to fill up, my landlord calls me and tells me where she’s placing my key – a rush of happiness runs through me. We get back on I-5 and my mom takes over the driving while I try and take a nap so that I’ll be able to drive in a few hours while she naps. About 4 am as I’m driving once again the sleepiness kicks in and I find myself having a hard time staying awake. I see that the nearest rest stop is 10 miles away (longest 10 miles ever), so I punch my leg till I get there to keep me awake (yes, I have a bruise, but it was worth it vs. the other that could have happened). I set my phone alarm to go off at 5 am, so that we can keep trucking along. 5 am comes, my alarm goes off, I hit snooze for another 10 minutes. Nope, still not awake enough to drive, I re-set my alarm for 5:30. Nope, still not awake enough, but this time it wakes up my mom. She’s awake and will take over the driving for a few more hours. I pass out in the passenger seat as she drives away. I woke up at 8:30, hungry. My mom and I see a Denny’s and decide to pull over for some breakfast, with only 2.5 more hours to go! Denny’s is packed, which is weird since we’re in the middle of nowhere. Obviously they didn’t expect this either, because they only had two waitresses working, the general manager had to help out. We eat our breakfast, stop for gas (again), and head off with only 2.5 more hours to go – woo hoo! Finally we see the grapevine and my mom reminds me just how many times she’s driven this drive before, something that I know I couldn’t do alone, otherwise I’d be in the ditch somewhere, fallen asleep at the wheel (I’m usually too stubborn to pull over and sleep, I think the only reason I did this time was because my mom was in the car). Not too long after the Grapevine we pass Six Flags, we contemplate stopping, but I chose not to because we are already later than I wanted to be arriving in LA. Finally, its 12:30 and we pull onto my street! We made it!