Fiesta Weekend: Part 1

"Good morning Charlie
this is Claire from flight 815
we're gonna crash
but this island is not what it seems
It's a chance to change."
-the Oceanic 6, "Good Morning Charlie" (unreleased xD)

I just got home from one of the most exciting and exhilarating trips I have ever been on. So exciting and exhilarating, in fact, that I haven't been able to get myself to sit down and blog about it… UNTIL NOW.

I haven't written a blog in nearly a week because it has been "go go go!" since last Friday (I am aware this means it has been a week since I blogged. I'm sorry!). I picked Luke up at the airport at 6:30, and then we went back to my house in Seattle. We spent the evening playing Tetris and old Super Mario games with my housemates, and stopped for an interlude at our favorite bar down on the Ave, so I got to show Luke where Eia and I are usually hanging out during our Seattle vs. LA tweet battles.

Saturday morning we woke up and I took Luke over to my parents' house where they made us dinner and my brother got to show off his drum set and all of that general meeting-of-the-family fun stuff. I think that part of the trip was a success. :D

Then we hopped in the car and started our voyage down the west coast. We made it about as far as Portland where we stopped and met with one of Luke's old friends (since he lived in Portland last year). We hung out there for a few hours before getting back in the car and making it about two to three more hours south. We got a hotel somewhere in mid-Oregon, got to enjoy their complimentary breakfast the next morning (huevos rancheros!), and hit the road again.

Sunday was long. We drove pretty much most of the coast in that one day. We listened to music, talked theory, and before we knew it, we were pulling into his driveway in LA at about one in the morning (after the flat tire fiasco - we just shredded one of the Fiesta's tires on the way down, but luckily Luke is a big strong man and was able to change it for me. We drove the rest of the trip on a spare. Also, there were Fiesta agents from Oregon doing the same drive as us and were stuck in the same traffic a few hours back tweeting us well wishes during our tire problems. That was fun. This is a terribly long aside).

It was fun seeing the house that Luke/Jason/Alex live in!
Monday consisted of lots of music stuff. Alex made us all breakfast in the morning, and then Luke and I worked on a new ALL CAPS song for a good chunk of the day. This was the first time we have ever actually written a song together, in the same room, and it was so much fun! Then we recorded vocals for another ALL CAPS song, and then I did guest vocals on an Oceanic 6 song. Then we played tons of Rock Band with Jason and Sarah Snitch.

Tuesday started early. We had to be at the London Hotel in Hollywood by 11, and this part of the day was really sad. I just had to leave my Fiesta with Valet. No dramatic goodbye, no pictures, no awkward car hugging sad face stuff… just, "Here are my keys. Well, bye then. It's been fun, Sailor Moon/Sally Amber/World's Fastest JellyBean."

But then I walked into the hotel with Luke and immediately saw just tons of Ford stuff everywhere. I turned the corner and there were all our mission control contacts! I hugged everyone, got checked in, saw a huge Ford poster thing with all our faces on it, and got my name put on a ping pong ball to be entered into the drawing for the three free Fiestas.

Then we went in to eat lunch and I saw loads of people I knew from YouTube, from the Fiesta training weekend, and from seeing their faces on the fiestamovement website for the last seven months! It was so exciting and surreal, like most YouTube events. Ford and Action Marketing people said words, Luke and I loaded up our plates with food, and a bit later I had to go to a meeting with the currentTV people to make sure I was all prepared for my interview at the big Awards Ceremony that night. The girl I was talking to about everything for this looked like Jewel Staite. That made me happy.

Directly after lunch, the agents were loaded up on a bus to head over to the Staples Center (the big sports arena in downtown LA) to do a rehearsal for the Fiesta Reveal and press conference that was going to be happening the next day. We didn't do much aside from being placed in various positions around the Ford floor of the auto show and practicing whipping these fancy silks off the cars. I hung with my agent friends Bridget O'Neill and Brittani Taylor for most of this process, since we were assigned to the same car. The entire thing took a good 3-4 hours, which I felt a little badly about since all the agents had to leave their +1's at the hotel. But I don't think Luke minded. Our hotel was SWEET. Giant bed, wrap-around couch, flatscreen TV, bathtub, giant two-person shower, and a super awesome deck overlooking LA. Gosh, Ford spoiled us so much.

We got back to the hotel and I had about an hour and a half to just hang in my room with Luke which was nice, and then after channel surfing for awhile, I got to change into my pretty dress in preparation for the really fun parts of the night.

However, this blog entry is already rather long so I think I will stop here on this lovely little cliffhanger and continue on next time. Sorry!