On why I'm in bed at 4 pm, ready to sleep

Bueno. Aqui estoy, en San Francisco (which I've heard called San Fran, Frisco, Gay Bay, etc.). I'm exhausted.

Already, I feel like it's been a week.

We'll start with last night, at about eleven p.m. My knee hurt. I just figured I'd been sitting on it weird or something. No big, right?

WRONG.

My lovely friends (who had come over to keep me company and see me off before my trip--and I'll give credit where it's due: Elise, Cris, Mai, Susie, and Deya) and I went to McD's for a late dinner. I get out of Mai's car and... Wtf? My knee's killing me. I limp home. I limp around as I finish my packing (what did I forget, btw? My hair brush. fml. Whatever. No big, I guess. I almost forgot my jeans and THAT would've sucked). I limp into the shower. I limp into my bed. By the time I'm in my bed, I can't straighten it or bend it past a certain angle. It keeps me up for a bit because my usual sleeping position (on my stomach) wasn't comfortable. But it'll be fine by the time I wake up, right?

WRONG.

I wake up at 5:30 a.m. (yep, only about 2 1/2 hours of sleep). I move my leg to see how it is, and it sort twinges, but nothing horrible. I'll warm my leg up and it'll be just a faint memory. Eh, not so much. I go to put my weight on it and have this huge surge of pain in my knee. So... Ok. Got it. No weight on my foot. What? Can't bend it at all? Bueno... This complicates things.

Turns out I couldn't even walk. I sort of hopped on one foot to my mom's (by now, I was near tears because it REALLY hurt) and she wrapped it... Sort of. Using cotton strips and tape. It was... ghetto. Real ghetto. And I KNOW we have the wrap thing somewhere in my house, but because my MOTHER CAN'T REMEMBER WHERE SHE PUTS ANYTHING, we couldn't find it.

But at least that's the worst of it, right?

WRONG.

I'm sitting on my mom's bed as she wraps my knee and start swaying and feeling nauseous. Didn't know why. I figured I just had to eat something or drink water or... idk. Ride it out. So I'm going about my business (and 6:15 a.m. is approaching faster and faster and I'm nowhere near ready) and suddenly things start going black. Very black. I grabbed the corner of my shelf and rested my head. Wobbled with my pathetic limp to my bed. Threw myself on it. My mom says I'd lost all color.

After a five-minute rest, my color had returned. I think I'd gotten up too quickly before. I got up slowly and I felt perfect. Except for my stupid knee.

Fast forward through: getting to the airport with my lame knee, jump the security line because I can't walk, get driven by a golf cart to D49, get on plane. I used a lot of my upper body strength (not that I have much, lol) to hoist myself into and out of chairs and golf carts and such.

Then the flight. I don't remember much about it, truth be told. I was... fuzzy, lol. Took this like SUPER DRAMAMINE pill thing that knocked me right out. I vaguely remember feeling the pull of the plane as we took off. I was in and out for the rest of the trip. Saw the Spaceballs cartoon though, which was hilarious. I didn't even know I had it on my iPod.

So. In San Fran. (Btw, we descended TWICE cuz the pilot didn't like his chances. Which is nerve-wracking. Never had that happen to me before. But this time I was happy off a regular Dramamine and a Zofran, so I was in no mood to argue.)

My mom's high, btw. Off her steroids (for her vertigo). So she's completely not there today. It's super irritating. So I have to drag her to the other end of the airport to catch the BART (subway-like thing). Then we catch the F train or something. Yeah. STUPID. It's a cable car thing that jerks around and me, dragging our huge suitcase and with my ghetto wrap and trying to keep upright while trying NOT to put any unneeded pressure on my knee (which had felt much better by then). And by this point, it's about 3:30 p.m. Miami time and all I've had to eat since I woke up at 5:30 a.m. was three crackers with cheese and half a handful of nuts on the airplane ($4, fyi). I was ready to eat that hobo on the corner.

We ate at the hotel restaurant (after a three block walk to the hotel). My mom and I split a chicken panini with mushrooms. INCREDIBLY good. Crazy good. I inhaled it. Then went to Safeway (which is a cross between Whole Foods and Publix, minus the organic stuff. Note: Cali fruit looks really pretty. Much prettier than Florida fruit. Also, one can smell the flowers as you walk by... Five feet away).

And then here I am. In bed. With my IcyHot and my knee wrap (no ghetto tape) and my Safeway chocolate chip cookies.

That's where I'm at.

This is where I shall stay. At least for the evening. I'm exhausted.

Thanks for reading.