Stories from the sky...

So, I'm home, and still fighting jetlag. It's not pleasant! Anyway, I was totally shocked at how little time I had to blog during my trip. Here are a few attempts at blog posts I wrote when I was flying around the US:

Alright, so, yesterday I wrote a really short entry because we didn’t get home until late, and Casey and I were exhausted. We had been out at her parents’ house, and I met her grandparents, aunt, uncle, cousins, etc etc. Casey felt like she should have charged to parade the Australian circus monkey around, but, anyway! Casey has a really great and funny family, and I enjoyed my short amount of time hanging out with them. I heard a lot about them while she was living in Tassie, and it’s so cool to see the people who have all contributed to who she is. Casey is really somethin’ else, as they say, and as it’s been an hour since I said goodbye, I’m feeling sorta grumpy ;( Anyway, it’s fine, I’m on the plane, (I’m flying to Atlanta, GA before going to North Carolina, so it’s sort of out of the way! That’s like driving to Hobart to get to Devonport, but, anyway. Casey and I spent the morning today with the two kids she’s just started nannying for. These two kids are so precious, and hilarious, and even though Casey (affectionately known perhaps only to me as ‘Quesadilla’) (I’m so pissed off, I keep getting the pink Mentos and have nowhere to put them so I’m eating them anyway even though I don’t really like them) . Anyhow, these kids are from a VERY well-off family, and we spent the morning hanging out with them. I played basketball in their playroom (indoors with a rubber ball and about 5.5 foot plastic hoop) with the oldest one, the boy, while Casey played hangman with the little girl. It was actually a really fun time. Turns out, I really like kids!  I’ve only just now recovered from the teary goodbye with Casey, but, oh well. I’m a bit of a wuss, that’s no secret!
So, I have lots of catching up to do. I’m going to try and fill in a few gaps since I posted about the BEST day EVER (Kina Grannis is still the coolest person ever, PS) (so far I’ve had only one orange Mentos, and I am VERY unimpressed! Don’t they know I’m emotionally fragile!?) (update: 33,000 feet) (it doesn’t take long to revert back to the old ways of imperial measurement!).

So:

In LA, after the BEST day EVER with the Granni and the Kinerds, I spent Sunday with Katie and Daniel (my cousins who are only a few years older than me) I slept late on Sunday too, accidentally; my body was SO confused! I’m still a little out of whack, actually., Once we got moving, we spent the afternoon looking around LA, going to a Chinese restaurant chain called P.F Changs (which was pretty darn tasty) and going to a movie at the Fox theatre (there are generally a lot of red carpet events and movie premiers there, so it was pretty cool, but no such glamour that night! We saw Angels and Demons, which was a pretty weird and crazy movie, and I hadn’t read the book, (Dan Brown is fairly outrageous, I feel), but it was a fairly interesting movie and I enjoyed hanging out with Katie and Daniel. On Monday morning, Katie had to work, so I just hung around her apartment in Brentwood (a beautiful area in West LA) and got my stuff organized to go. I caught a taxi to the shuttle in Westwood (where the Fox, and UCLA are) where I got a ride to the airport. The shuttle had free internet on board, so it’s very easy with an iPod touch! I didn’t actually take many photos during that time. Obviously I took HEAPS with Kina et al, but hardly any with Katie and Daniel. I think I just forgot! Lisa, I know you’re ashamed! I made up for it in Chicago, I swear!

From LA, I flew to San Jose, where I was greeted by Carolyn, (Katie and Daniel’s mum; my stepdad’s brother’s wife) where she gave me a huge hug and then proceeded to tell me how terrible my luggage arrangement is! Hehehehe! I have a huge backpacking backpack courtesy of my good friend Katie Brumby, and another backback. It’s pretty intense but I feel like I’m on the Amazing Race, so it’s good fun! It was so lovely to see her. We drove back to their house (where I spent 6 weeks right before we left to return to Australia in 2005) and Kipp (John’s brother) was there. He’s a lot like John in some ways, but also very different. Either way, he’s a great guy, and I love catching up with them! We went to a sports bar called Double Ds for dinner. For the record, I had a turkey burger and sweet potato fries. Very delish. On Tuesday morning, Carolyn got up and went with some of her friends on a 5.5 mile hike (about 10 kilometres, can you believe it!? Thank you bootcamp!) It was great, and there were beautiful views, but much to what I can only guarantee is Lisa’s dismay, I did not have my camera with me! (I swear, I’m getting to the pictures!) Carolyn and I went downtown to Los Gatos (the town where they live; it’s so storybook and awesome) and looked around the shops and met a few people.

We went to Santa Cruz on Wednesday and looked for some shoes. Didn’t find them. I ordered them online instead. Yay.

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Another story from the..road?
I’m at Raleigh Durham airport. My flight is delayed by nearly an hour. That would really piss me off if my connecting flight to LA wasn’t delayed too, but, it is, so, I’m fine. I’m sitting here, listening to Kina. It’s entirely true that now that I’ve met her, and spent time with her, that her music is infinitely better than it was before, and you know that I was a huge fan before. So, that’s good. I feel like I understand her more than I did before. She truly is the coolest person I’ve ever met (excluding Lisa King, obviously ;)! )

I had a good time seeing my grandparents, aunt, uncles, and cousin. It’s hard to say goodbye to my grandparents, because I never know if it will be the last time that I see them. They’re wonderful people and it sucks that I don’t get to see them very often. Anyway.

Right now, I don’t know, but I’m kind of in a bad mood. I’ve got a bad feeling about traveling today. That is probably ridiculous and unnecessary, but, I don’t know. I’m worried with two delays that my bag will be lost. It just needs to get to LA before I need to check it in at 830pm west coast time. I guess it has plenty of time,

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This is boring without pictures. I'll do a big post for pictures soon.