When my cousin informed me that she would NOT be joining me on the drive home from Los Angeles to San Francisco after Thanksgiving, I became hot with worry.
Alone?! On Interstate 5?! On a Sunday after a holiday?! I'd rather watch a candle burn from beginning to end.
This is when I decided to take matters into my own hands. A drive without music (thanks to my recently deceased I-pod) would not be saved by talking to myself. No, this time my sanity was on the line. I turned to craigslists' 'rideshare' link for the answer to my troubles.
Reluctantly, I posted an ad offering a ride from L.A. to S.F. on Sunday, 11/30. I waited. Then I waited some more.
Right when I no longer believed in the concept of the silver lining to every cloud, I received an e-mail. Sarah, a twenty something female would love a ride, and she had music.
Not only had the silver lining appeared, but I had begun to slightly squint from the sunlight. The ride was arranged, and I would pick her up in Hollywood around Noon on Sunday.
After eating more food, singing more songs, and drinking more wine than anyone should in one weekend, Sunday suddenly approached. I began to get nervous. What if we'd have nothing to talk about? What if she tried to hijack me and my car? Suddenly, loneliness seemed like the least of my worries.
Alas, I was already knee deep, and I couldn't back down. I contemplated just leaving. Then I decided that I had built far too many Karma points to just lose them now. I dialed the number, got the directions and headed to Hollywood.
Google Maps started my ride miserably. The directions told me to head South on La Brea, and I ended up in Inglewood. Exasperated I called my cousin to ask her for the way to Hollywood Blvd. She tells me to turn around and that I'd get there in about thirty minutes. Thanks, Google.
At this point, Sarah is now thinking I have left her. She calls me to see where I am, and I reassure her that I'm on the way.
I finally arrive, and Sarah is waiting with her huge backpack and a complacent look on her face. She seems normal enough, and my tensions are lessening. Even so, by the time we get on the road, it's 3:33PM, and I already wish I was in San Francisco.
I knew the first hour would be easy, there's plenty to talk about when you know nothing about someone. Surprisingly, the next hour was also easy. That's when we hit completely stopped traffic, and now I begin to worry the trip will be awkward. To my delight, it wasn't. We even joined in a shameless screaming fit (calling it singing would be wrong) of Weezer's 'Say It Ain't So'. I'm not only getting a free tank of gas, I'm having fun and actually making a new friend.
Sarah and I have a lot in common. We begin to talk about travels, and I am invited to visit her and her fiance in Seattle. After we get past traffic, a slew of semi-trucks, a patch of fog, and the smell of garlic through Gilroy we are suddenly in San Francisco.
I drop her off at a hostel at Union Square, and am on my way home.
And again, craigslist has saved the day.
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