Well, We WERE Bound for L.A.....

I was standing in line for my final flight when I saw a familiar face and had to do a double take.  Arielle, one of the girls partaking on this trip with me, was standing 4 people in front of me in line!  She lives in Long Island, so I suppose this encounter wasn't completely unexpected at the JFK airport, but it was for us at least.

Bye NYC!

Next stop: Burbank, California.  Such a peaceful take off as I looked over the city of New York.  I spotted Lady Liberty, the Empire State building, and Central Park as we flew overhead.  The pilot informed us it was overcast and a little rainy with a temperature of around 55 in Burbank.  I had done my weather research for the week, so this didn't shock me at all.  No, what shocked me was what the pilot informed us about an hour before our designated landing time.  "Pardon the interruption, folks, but it's a bit too crazy in Burbank with the wind and the rain...we're going to have to make an emergency landing in LAX.  Please fasten your seat-belts as we're about to experience some turbulence.  Flight crew, take your seats please."  LAX?  Noooooo.  It's a good hour drive from Burbank.  How bad could it possibly be in "sunny CALIFORNIA" that we couldn't even land in the airport?  Well, pretty bad, as it turns out.  The last hour of the plane ride was maybe one of the most scariest hours of my life.  All I could think about was the whole back end of the plane just ripping off into the air just like it did in the first episode of Lost.  I was cursing my OU friends who had gotten me addicted to the show in those moments.  But, thankfully, Pilot Dave landed us safely onto the LAX runway.  Cue applause from airplane travelers.

So.  Now what.  I turned my phone off of airplane mode and received several text messages from family members saying, "welcome to Burbank!  Have fun!"  They had been tracking my flight on the Internet but it had failed to give the update on where we actually were.  I texted mom, dad, and boyfriend to let them know what exactly was going on and to tell them we were in fact NOT where we were supposed to be.  Which then triggered "oh no, did you let Roger know yet?  Will you get a rebate on the airlines?  Have you heard from anybody else who was supposed to land in Burbank?  Call when you can."  I did just that to avoid sending a 7 page text message.  

Our pilot came over the speakers and told us they would be bussing us into Burbank.  Burbank had closed its airport and had not approved for any flights to land there in the past 2 hours.  Well, of course, this started the cabin in an uproar.  I looked out the window and drowned out all the chatter.  The rain didn't look that bad.  I was sorely mistaken.  As we got off of the plane and walked to where the buses were waiting, I was almost blown over by a gust of wind and then had a miniature tsunami hit my face.  I was outside for no longer than maybe 60 seconds, and I was completely drenched.  When it rains, it pours?  Yeah, they weren't kidding.

The bus ride to Burbank airport was slightly less than fun.  As we drove, I was texting other people from my group to find out where they all got redirected to.  Ontario, CA seemed to be a popular spot for pilots to e-land (CA does in fact stand for California here, not Canada.  It's okay, that's what I first thought too).  San Fran was also where a few girls were headed.  

We finally arrived at the Burbank airport.  Arielle called Cooper to let him know we were in and were ready to be picked up.  He pulled up lookin' fly in his silver rental Buick.  What a guy.  On the short car ride to the hotel, Roger told us that the three girls who had been redirected to land in San Francisco were stuck there and would not be able to join us tonight.  Huge bummer.  Prayers their way would be so great.  We ate dinn - no, we inhaled dinner in our group dining room, and got to have a lecture and Q and A session with John Swartz, an OU grad and first assistant to producer Kathleen Kennedy (who's produced movies such as E.T., Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and tons more).  Pretty insane.  This guy is like 30 or something and he freaking deals with Steven Spielberg on a regular basis.  You can tell he is good at what he does.  The fact that he came from OU is pretty motivating too.

Coop handed out our "official" itinerary for the week.  I say official with the quotes because he keeps stressing that in LA, people usually tend to not want to commit to anything until the last possible minute.  Regardless, I know we for sure get to see Warner Brothers and DreamWorks studios this week.  I'm a happy girl.  If the rain holds I'll be even happier.  There's nothing worse than wet, cold feet in soaking wet TOMS.  Rain boots would've been a good idea.