The Great Price is Right Fiasco of 1996

This is addressed to a very dear and close friend of mine in the Philippines. She had plans with her friends to see the country's most popular television program, Show Time. She found her plans sacked by others. I have empathy; I have eaten that same rotten apple-- its purifying flavor still lingers today
in my mouth.

We (a familial "we") planned a road trip back in 1999 to drive to Los Angeles. We wanted to see the Price is Right and tour the Days of Our Lives studio. That was all we really wanted to do. Somehow, of course, ex-wife's mom and sisters (and one of the girl's had a boyfriend) all got invited on our trip. We ended up renting an RV and driving out to LA. Ok…no problem…we had our plans still in place.

I rented a car to drive around town in, so that we didn’t have to find parking for that big RV every time we wanted to go to dinner or something. Then one of the sisters wanted to rent a hotel (I guess she and her boyfriend didn’t want to have sex in the RV in front of everyone.) The thing is…they wanted to use the car to get to and from the hotel. I had a problem with that. I rented the car, and no one under the age of 25 was legal to drive it. I also did not pay extra for more than one allowed driver. So if anything happened to the car…I would have to pay for it out of my own pocket.
I argued against letting them use the car, but they all ganged up against me. Finally, because it was the beginning of a week-long vacation and I wanted peace, I relented. I made it clear that if anything happened I would not suffer alone financially. They would all bear the responsibility. Whatever.

That same sister sat on the beach and exposed her bone white skin in her bikini to the sun all day without using any sun block. She claimed that she "...knew her body." She got burned so painfully bad that they went to their hotel early without dinner. The next day was our planned trip to go tour the studios and see the Price is Right. They knew that we needed the car by 7 am. 7 am came…and no car.
8 am….no car.
9 am…still no car.
At 3 pm her boyfriend showed up with the car. He wanted to know what our plans were for the day because there was free Duran Duran concert in Beverly Hills that night.



I.
WAS.
PISSED.



The rest of the week was filled with everyone else’s plans: Disneyland and visiting friends outside of LA. We had planned this first day in LA to see the shows that we came specifically to see. The boyfriend thought that I was being a dick. I told him that I was considering leaving all of them stranded in LA-- ditching their plans so that I could do what I came out to do. It became only my plan because the ex told everyone that it wasn’t that important to her. Even though it was her idea to begin with.

I know that I have to find a way to forgive people that made me angry. It still pricks me to the bone to remember it. But the point is: I know how my friend in the Philippines felt about the Show Time disappointment.