Catching up...

Well, It has been a month since our last posting. What a busy month it has been...

Shortly after our last Blog in November, while in Los Angeles, we lost our phones and ALL OF OUR DISNEYLAND PICTURES!!! We were really sad, but will remember it with all of our 'scrapbook' memorabilia.

Los Angeles was great! Mike had a union confrence in Los Angeles and I was lucky enough to 'tag along'. We were excited to be able to extend our trip to add a few days and find our own lodging. We were hoping for something close to both Disneyland and Universal Studios. I looked and looked, searching on Expedia and found a great deal on a room at the Holiday Inn Express! I was so excited, it was one of the few hotels that didnt charge extra for parking and looked like it was 'smack dab' in the middle of the two! Our internet connection was a bit slow and kept kicking us off, so, I booked ASAP when it finally let me through.

We Checked out of our hotel in LA for the conference and headed to our new hotel. It was still early enough, so we headed out and did some sightseeing before heading to our hotel. I called the Holiday Inn Express to confirm our reservation and they didnt have my name in their system. I decided to check the address, and realized it was a different location...'Wierd', I thought. We entered the address into our GPS and headed to the hotel. We pull up to "HOLLYWOOD Inn Express". "OH NO!!!! DID I CLICK ON THE WRONG HOTEL???" Sure enough, I did. Ugh...I hope this is going to be okay...

So...we check in. The lobby is so small and we walk over to the window. I know its bad when there is bullet proof glass and a gas station style pass through for our IDs. Ugh...I feel a nightmare coming on.

"OK, Its going to be OK," Michael and I reassure ourselves. Lets just get the key and check in. We walk around wondering where room #6 is and decide to try the room that has no number on it, but appears to make sense that it would be there. Sure enough, it works and we are in our room. "HOME SWEET HOME".

We walk into the smell of stale cigarettes and cleanser. "It'll be okay," Michael assures me, "we just need to sleep here anyways, we get to go to DisneyLand tomorrow, remember? We'll be gone all day."

"Ok, you're right," I agree. As I set my bag down on the bed, I notice that there are strange splatters all over the wall and start to cringe. Michael is exploring and I hear him shriek. "WHAT?!?!", I yell. Michael tells me to stay out of the bathroom. I run to him. There he is, standing in the small room, half laughing, half shrieking, pointing at the ceiling and saying "That's not bad, right?". It takes me a second to understand what he is pointing at. The light fixture is hanging from the ceiling, no cover. He continues to point, at the mold on the ceiling and walls. "UGH!", I didn't even know what to do. I ran out of the bathroom only to find a terrible stain on the floor. Blood? I hope not, but wouldn't be surprised. I go back to my suitcase and started to cry. I decided to trust Michael. I put a chair in front of the door just in case though, especially since it didn't have a deadbolt.

That night, we had a hard time falling asleep. THIS WAS NOT THE MARRIOT that we just came from. In the middle of the night, we heard the neighbors being very loud and Michael got up and looked out the window. Apparently, there was a transvestite prostitution ring running out of the next door neighbor's room. All night for the next few nights, it went on and on. We would hear a noise and run to the window, trying to catch a glimpse. There were times, that were so funny that I couldnt stop laughing. What a terrible place I had set us up with. We laughed about how horrible it was, especially since so much of our evening entertainment was running to peek out the window to see what was going on next door! I'm not so good at being sneaky at looking out the window, espcially since the laughing I am pretty sure was heard through our hollow door!

*To all our friends, If you didn't get the hint, please do not stay at the Hollywood Inn Express in Los Angeles on Sunset Blvd*