Wrapperlicious Goes To Hollywood - Am I Being Punked

When my husband lost his job two years ago, yes, I panicked. I was like WTH!!! When one needs extra funds, you learn to become creative as hell to make ends meet. And let me tell you, I know how to rob Peter to pay Paul...LOL. And that's when I created Wrapperlicious. Now I tell my husband all the time, "Thanks for sucking at your job Rob! You Suck! But, Thank You!"

But the point is, when you are faced with an adversity, you have to step back and look at the situation and say, "is this a blessing or is this a curse." Is this happening for a reason, if so, what is the lesson, where will this ordeal lead and/or teach me?

Well, Wrapperlicious was invited to the Disney Teen Choice Awards Gifting Suite in Hollywood. I had an amazing group of people help me get there, from flight arrangements, housing, to someone to care for my children. All the pieces came together like butter. My flight getting there was perfect. My neighbor graciously offered to care & love my children while I was away for a day. Life was perfect, just moving along without a hiccup.

The day of the show arrived and everything ran smoothly. My booth setup came out nicely, both Heather and Katie did a great job helping at the event. I mean everything was going lovely. The booth stayed busy nonstop. Celebrities waited patiently to see Wrapperlicious' hottest items, called Hair Candi. The day was totally INSANE with energy. I even had someone approach me about having my products in 150 of his stores. The day couldn't get any better.

After the show, we went out to celebrate and eat at this amazing little Mexican restaurant in California called, Eltepeyac. YUM! The line was around the corner, but it was worth the wait. Stomach was full, now it was time to repack my bags and head back to the airport for the redeye flight back to Houston. Sounds simple enough right. NOT!!!! The problem is that I was flying standby. Everybody and their mama wanted to fly the same weekend that I wanted to fly. How dare they. Okay, so now the real adventure & test of patience begins.

I did not get on the redeye flight at 12:34am, because it was overbooked, therefore I had to wait at the airport 6 hours for the next flight. I didn't want to have Ms. Heather pick me up, because I knew she had to work in a few hours. Being considerate, I said to myself, "Joy you are a soldier, you can do this. You can wait this out." I headed to Baggage Claim to retrieve all of my bags, which weighed over 140 pounds. Okay, no problem, I work out, I can do this. I then took a seat with about 5 other tired people and tried to get comfortable on the hard chairs and take a little nap. It was approximately 2am when the cleaning staff began to mop & buff the airport floors. So I guess there's no way I could sleep through that loud, annoying noise and I was cold as double hockey sticks too. Burr.....

I made it through the 6 hour wait game without a wink of sleep, a sore neck and a knot in my back. I RECHECKED my bags and headed back to the gate, ready to board the plane. NOT!!! There were too many standbyers and I, once again, did not make the cut. My bags were sent BACK to Baggage Claim. I go BACK downstairs and retrieved my 140 pounds of luggage and retook my hard, uncomfortable seat. Not discourage, I told myself, I'm gonna get on the next flight. Long story short, I was turned away FOUR times with no other outbound flights looking promising.

TWELVE hours later, I gave up, I let my pride go and called Ms. Heather and begged her to get me outta there!!! I endured a total of 24 hours of no sleep, no food and total exhaustion. Every inch of my body ached badly from walking around with two big suitcases, 1 big duffle bad, my laptop bag and another big bag that contained my banners & stands. While waiting for Ms. Heather to pick me up, I rec'd an urgent text on my cell phone that basically stated, "Pay your damn bill or get your damn phone turned off." WTH...not now...I don't have my credit card with me!!!! I immediately called Sprint, told them about my ordeal and the lady gave me an extension on top of an extension.

When Ms. Heather finally arrived, she gave me a big hug and took me out to eat at Cannataros, another YUM-YUM spot. Still tired, Ms. Heather said, "would you like to go back to the house and get some rest." I said, "No way, let's hang out!!!" She said, "Well I'm hanging out at church." I said, "Bring it on, but I need a church shirt, let's go shopping." I found the cutest shirt at the fashionable Target. LOL.

We go back to her house to drop off my 140 pounds of luggage and to freshen up. We head to church and the message felt like it was meant for me. I'm feeling great, despite the 12 hours of torture I just endured. As we are leaving church, I turned my phone back on, only to be met with 16 urgent messages. I proceeded to listen to my VM and to my dismay, there was lots of yelling & cursing. My dear husband was stuck in Oakland! Now is that really my problem, because I'm stuck in CA fool! What can I do for YOU! NADA! Needless to say, he was annoyed because he did not have his credit card and guess what, NEITHER DID I!!! But hey, I had Ms. Heather. Bless her heart.

Ms. Heather said, let go have dessert! Sounds good to me. We had dessert at Marie Calanders. OMG...Delicious!!! Dessert always solves everything...temporarily that is....LOL

I almost forgot to mention that my poor neighbor had no plans to watch my kids for days & days. I think the worse part for me is burdening her with my children, I feel horrible. So she has my three children, plus her two boys. I was wondering if they tied her up and stuffed her in a closet. I called and told her how sorry I was. She put me at ease and "said" everything was okay, but I know she is cursing me...LOL. I am truly sorry for putting you through this Ms. Barry.

By the time we made it back to the house, I could barely keep my eyes open. I barely undressed before I passed out. I was...so...tired, but before I had a chance to close both of my eyes, I noticed a few ants in the bed. OHHHHH NOOOOO!!!! Totally exhausted, I didn't have enough energy to shoo them away, I just layed down and passed out. The ants and I are best friends now....but my luggage is now infested. ARGH!

Today is a new day and I am STILL stranded in California, with no way out and the standby list still FULL!!!! My poor neighbor still has my kids, I have no idea where or what happened with my husband, my car is still parked in an expensive parking lot in Houston and I had to shake my weave out to make sure ants weren't taking up residence.

The Moral of the Story is, throughout this entire ordeal, I stayed true to who I am. I never yelled, never sighed, never blamed anyone, cursed or cried. I wonder, is this a test of my character? Is it to teach me patience, endurance or an opportunity to further build my soldier like character? As Ms. Heather says, is this experience a curse or a blessing. I don't know...but I am very thankful for not breaking and for having wonderful people in my life path to help me through my journey of life.

So no matter what adversity you're going through in life, having a poor attitude will not change your situation, but it's an opportunity to learn and grow from the lessons bestowed upon you, because you too may not know if it's a blessing or a curse.