Irvine - Tuesday - June 26, 2007

We get to the campus of Concordia University at Irvine and register. We have to check in with the front guard gate. The security is tight tight tight. When you register, they tell you that you had better be wearing your lanyard or you get booted. There are police officers wandering around. The protestors haven't shown up yet, but they are supposed to be showing up. I hear that CNN is out at the gate for an interview. Wow. Talk about front-line ministry. We are getting very tired, and want to get our room. We check in at the housing office and then finally stumble in to our dorm room. It is hot and smells of gym socks. Must have housed male students. We are trying to get our stuff together. The linens that are supposed to be here are missing pieces (pillow, sheet, towel). It isn't cooling off and Heather is starting to cramp.

I call the housing office to report the air is busted. Here's how the conversation goes
Me: "Uh, the air is broken."
Them: "Oh, yeah, we don't have air on campus."
Me: {stunned silence}
Them: "Hello?"
Me: "Uh, what?"
Them: "We only have heaters - and the pilot lights need lit first."
Me: "My wife is six months pregnant. She is starting to cramp." {Thinking this would move mountains}
Them: "Hold on .... {long gap} .... Yeah, we don't have air. Make sure you open the windows."
Me: "Oh-kaaaaay"

This trip is going swimmingly. Again, I don't care how nice the weather is, no air in a room is just cruel. We decide to go check out our table and our box that we had shipped last week. The box is in, um, less than pristine shape. The outside box is shredded on the bottom. The bottom inside box is also destroyed. We had send some plastic sign holders in the box. They are not in one piece. They are in like thirty pieces. We try our best to get things set up, and realize we have to go to Target for both our room and our table. After grabbing dinner at the school, we go and get some stuff. When we get back, we notice something weird about expo hall. No one goes there. The exhibitors aren't there. The attenders don't come through here on a regular basis. Our plan of sitting at the table seems pretty dumb.

We are a little frustrated, a lot tired, and a little confused. Finally we go back to the room to crash. The linens have never arrived, so we make due - in our two twin beds set up loft style with about three feet of space under the bed. We did score a fan, though, at Target. Cool breezes await. Around 9pm PST we lay down. Around 9:05 we realize they may come with the linens, so I lock the door and put a chair up against it. (Don't judge me - I'm from South Florida) Around 9:30pm we hear noises so I jump out of bed to the front door. The housing manager has the door open up to the chair and is trying to tell us it is just the linen delivery. I explain that we are dog tired from being up for 21 hours. He has sympathy, gives us the linens, and doesn't ask why the chair was in front of the door. When we wake up on Wednesday, there are the original pieces we were missing on the couch in the living area in our room - so apparently someone else came in later to drop those off. Greaaat. California has taken a turn for the weird for sure.