Drive a person crazy

You could drive a person crazy, you could drive a person mad

You could drive a person crazy

I was stood at LAX waiting for the arrival of Sara(h) Squared. Two good friends from back home, Sarah (Ricey) and Sara (Spangles), had got to Los Angeles the day before and we were off on a road trip down to San Diego for a few days. The get together had been planned since before I left and billed as a joint birthday present for the three of us as we would all be gaining another year within a three week slot. Having not seen them for over five months I was really excited about seeing them. We’ve been friends for several years having all worked together and we have been away a few times together. The holidays have always been a lot of fun, involving a good mix of eating, drinking and laughing. A lot of the entertainment on the holidays was provided by one half of Sara(h) Squared coming out with some classic lines and not realising what she had just said was highly amusing. Many of them made for great Facebook status updates. I won’t tell you which half as I don’t want to embarrass Spangles.

A taxi approached and I could see them in the back seat. I started jumping up and down and waving at them. The taxi driver looked a little startled as he pulled up to the kerb in front of me. They got out of the taxi and we had a big hug. I asked how their flight had been (good but long) and how they were adjusting to LA time (not so good). I pointed to the bus stop across the road where the bus we needed to get to the car rental place was waiting. We grabbed our luggage and made our way over. It was reassuring to see that they both had cases the same size of mine despite the fact that they were only here for 10 days. On the short bus journey to the car rental place we did a quick catch up on major life events over the past few months.

We got to the car hire place and Spangles dealt with collecting the car they had booked. I wasn’t listening to the instructions given out by the car hire man as I wouldn’t be driving. Spangles picked up the paperwork and we headed out in to the parking lot. We went to the section that the man had told her to go to. Ricey asked which car it was. Spangles wasn’t sure and couldn’t remember what the car hire man had just told her. She looked through the paperwork to see if there was a car registration number anywhere on it. After a couple of minutes she went in to see the man, returning shortly after. Apparently we could select any car in the section of the lot we had been directed to.

Faced with several different models of car we picked one based on the colour and the fact that it had an iPod connection. We headed out towards the exit of the parking lot. Spangles drove up slowly towards the barrier blocking our exit, waiting for it to rise. She edged closer and closer but nothing happened. I was sat in the back and looked out of my window. There was a woman sat in a little booth watching us. I pointed out to Spangles that she might need to back up to speak to the woman to raise the barrier. We backed up, talked to the woman who checked through the paperwork and then lifted the barrier for us. I sat in the back chuckling. Spangles blamed it on being a little bit jet lagged and told me not to post anything on Facebook. I didn’t. She never said I couldn’t use it in my blog though.

You could drive a person mad

We drove out to the street. I was navigating from the back. We were headed out on to a one-way street and I told Spangles she needed to head right. She started to go left. Both Ricey and I screamed “right, right”. Spangles said that it might take her a little while getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road and being on the wrong side of the car. She explained that when she drove back in the UK “right” would be next to the window but here she was sat on the wrong side of the car. I did my seatbelt up as Spangles told me not to post anything on Facebook.

Spangles quickly got the hang of driving, aided by Ricey who would point left or right whenever directions were given. Ricey tried to get the iPod to work as they had put together a special California/American playlist together for the road trip. A couple of attempts resulted in us hearing the dulcet tones of Kirsty Young welcoming us to Desert Island Discs. We dug the instruction manual out and tried again. Our soundtrack for the journey turned out to be repeatedly hearing “Hello, I’m Kirsty Young and welcome to Desert Island Discs”. I never even got to find out who was headed over to the Island. We finally admitted iPod defeat so I offered to sing instead. My offer was declined. 

Our drive took us down the Pacific Coast Highway toward San Diego. We stopped off at Seal Beach to stretch our legs and get some fresh air before carrying on for a few more miles to find somewhere for lunch. After lunch there was a change in driver, Ricey taking over as Spangles was a little tired. I suggested I sit in the passenger seat to navigate and Spangles could nap in the back. Spangles said that was a good idea and that I could “keep Ricey entertained up front”. I started chuckling about the notion of entertaining Ricey “up front”. Spangles told me not to post anything on Facebook.

The road trip took us a couple of hours and after the slightly scary start we finally arrived, safe and sound. As we passed a sign welcoming us to San Diego I pointed it out to Spangles. She said she was very excited as it was the first US city she had ever been to. She then went on to say that she had only ever been to New York before. She told me not to post it on Facebook.

“You could drive a person crazy, you could drive a person mad” 
Lyrics from You could drive a person crazy from the musical Company