Modern Girl Friday: Road Tripping on Their Own

This is how I wish I rolled all the time....

Greetings, MGF Faithful! Lily is back!

Sorry I dropped out without a lot of notice there last week. Last minute business while trying to get ready for a little vacation was hectic. But, I’m glad to be back! So…where’d I go? Last week I ventured out on an All Girls Road Trip to Sin City! Yep…Lily was tour guide for one of her favorite places in the world: Las Vegas!

After taking care of a sales conference on Tuesday, I found myself in San Diego coordinating a road trip in honor of my sister’s birthday this month. It was years in the making – having promised ourselves to do it several times. The stars finally aligned and we got our act together!

While excited for this trip – I was a little worried. I’d been to Vegas before. But usually Lenny would be there, or not far behind. No one on the trip (except for one other person) knew very much about the Vegas experience. All we knew is that we needed to go!

Actually – I was a bit worried. Could I pull this off? Or would I ruin everyone’s expectation of a good time? Having been home a couple days – I am proud to say Yours Truly did it! We had a blast, tried some new things, and in true MGF fashion…learned a little bit more about myself!

So, if you’ll indulge me the next few days…I just wanted to share some news and views of my latest trip to the Neon Metropolis!

When you want to get someone to your house early…LIE. The Road Trip party on Thursday morning consisted of me, my sister, and my cousin. We were meeting two more friends up in Vegas who were flying in. So, we needed to leave early in the morning to make this work. This presented a problem from the beginning. Filipino women are NOTORIOUS for being late. How late? As Fil-Am comedian, Rex Navarrete jokes, “I’m not LATE! I’m from THE FUTURE!” Some of us get lucky and take after our fathers and like to get to places with time to spare (Read: They’d rather cut off their arm than be late). However, the “Lateness Gene” is prevalent amongst the females. This is especially true when they become mothers. Knowing this, I purposefully told my cousin that she needed to meet me at 5:00am. Knowing full well that the latest I needed to hit the road was 5:30am. I even CONSULTED with her husband! The result? She was early – we left the driveway at 5:28pm. MY PLAN WORKED! MWAH AH AH AH AH AH!!!

We molested Bob’s Big Boy. BUT HE WAS ASKING FOR IT! I think it’s a right of passage on ANY road trip where the molestation or desecration of a beloved commercial icon must occur. For our trip, it happened in Baker, CA. We could have gone for the “World’s Biggest Thermometer.” However, it’d been years since any of us had heard of a Bob’s Big Boy, let alone seeing one. So we HAD to do it. And judging by the smile on his face – he rather ENJOYED my sister’s hand on his belly. Look at him grinning…that brazen hussy. I guess there aren’t a lot of Big Girls around Baker. At least he found passion for a moment at the hands of one of The Girls. Look at him – who wouldn’t hit that?

Is it love? Or just a temporary hunger for good fries?

I am the navigation queen! I can now say I can successfully navigate 4 different cities on my own, without the aid of my husband! Woo hoo! When I started out on the road trip, I wasn’t so sure I could do it. Sure, Elusive Orchid and I managed to get through our MGF Vegas Trip last year. But this time, people were DEPENDING on me for all the information. And not only that – I had to pick up people at the airport I’d only every flown into! I wasn’t exactly sure if I was up to the challenge. I mean…I’ll purposefully miss street turns just to make sure I’m reading the same sign! Can’t exactly do that when you’re looking for the valet parking up and down The Strip! But something weird happened. I went to pick up our two friends at the airport. I got in the wrong lane and missed my left. But like some inner GPS, I knew EXACTLY where to turn to get back to where I was going. The best part: I WAS RIGHT! It was seriously a very empowering moment and I knew the rest of the trip would be fine! One small step for female drivers…one giant leap for all Crazy Female Asian Drivers out there!

Not bad for the first part of day one! The trip does get better – at least for us it does! Stay tuned this week for more stories from the road!