did I even leave Oz?
Hello and welcome to another of these lovely posts. I'm cyber-Jeffry / d'Avitant, and I'll be your guide through the past two months.
This will be roughly chronological. As such, congrats to Emily Daniels on her Honour's graduation in December.
The day after that, I got on a series of 3 planes (BrisVegas to Sydney to Auckland to San Francisco) to head back to ye olde US of A.
They had problems with the airbridge thingy (you know, that you board the plane through) in Auckland. The pilot even referenced the Keystone Cops in the process...
San Francisco was absolutely amazing, with the caveat of being absurdly, insanely busy. I was visiting people from when I got up to when I went to bed for the 3 days I was there, and I still didn't even visit half of the people I wanted to.
Then, up to Spokane via Seattle and a tiny puddlehopper across the mountains. Despite my general hatred of all things puddle-hoppery (let's put it this way, an A320 / B737 is the SMALLEST size of airplane I particularly care to fly in...), the flight was very smooth and quite pretty (mountains, snow, you get the idea). One night at my grandparents' place, and then the 3 of us trekked (flew) across the country to BWI via Denver.
It's a very...different...experience flying with your 81 year old grandmother in the seat next to you and asking where we're going and why ever 3 minutes. She has advanced Alzheimer's Disease, so it's not that surprising.
The Maryland experience was much like the California experience (only the sun rose over the water (not that you can see the ocean from my parents' house) instead of setting over it, and I was there for 2 weeks). That is, incredibly busy, didn't see half the people I'd have liked to, set an alarm EVERY, SINGLE MORNING, it was all a bit crazy, and over way too soon.
Highlights: Emma (the less-surprised-looking-these-days, formerly the perpetually-surprised-looking-clarinet-girl of the UMMB) came to visit for a night. Given our previous years' habit of meeting in DC for literally a couple hours, it was a big improvement to actually have more than 2 hours to visit.
Jess Faber drove down from Jersey-Land to do post-Christmas-not-quite-on-Boxing-Day Shopping with Kyle and me. Thanks for that Jess! Also, more recently (Jan 25), happy birthday! Thanks to Faber-san, I now have a DNA-knit-pattern scarf. I should post a picture of it later...
Made my Mom and grandparents a big photo-album project with captions. It took a lot of time, though...
Got to visit with Kyle and Kelley and meet the new yellow lab of the house, Ella.
Went to the driving range with my brother to chat and hit things (well, golf balls are techincally "things").
Drank WAY too much coffee. Did I mention it was a wee bit insane?
I even managed to squeeze in a few friendly phone calls. There are quite a few of you out there that I didn't even have time to call. Sorries about that.
I also (this isn't so much of a highlight) spent 3 hours getting from DC to Frederick on the afternoon of the 22nd. I think that was my worst traffic jam EVER.
I made Christmas dinner. Big lamb roast with roast veggies. Very, very tasty. You know you want some.
I ended up going back a day later than originally intended. See, I got rerouted AROUND the bad weather in Denver, only to get to BWI to leave and instead be sent to National because of bad weather in Chicago.
I get to the gate at National, and they delay the flight to the point that I won't make my flight in SFO back to Sydney.
To make a long story short (I know, too late, right?), I ended up getting a non-stop on New Year's Day from Dulles to SFO to make that day's non-stop to Sydney. When I got to Sydney, QANTAS even called my phone to offer me an earlier flight back to Brisneyland.
I got back, collapsed for 2 days and promptly got a sinus infection shortly there-after.
>_<
Well, I hadn't really stopped hither-to. The result was that I didn't really go back to work until about 12 days AFTER I got back to the Wonderful Land of Oz.
I watched pretty explosions on Friday. It was Australia Day.
I think that about sums it up.
I do kind of wish I could've spent a day in Los Angeles...
OK, I think that'll do for now. Questions? Comments? Further details? You know where to find me...
This will be roughly chronological. As such, congrats to Emily Daniels on her Honour's graduation in December.
The day after that, I got on a series of 3 planes (BrisVegas to Sydney to Auckland to San Francisco) to head back to ye olde US of A.
They had problems with the airbridge thingy (you know, that you board the plane through) in Auckland. The pilot even referenced the Keystone Cops in the process...
San Francisco was absolutely amazing, with the caveat of being absurdly, insanely busy. I was visiting people from when I got up to when I went to bed for the 3 days I was there, and I still didn't even visit half of the people I wanted to.
Then, up to Spokane via Seattle and a tiny puddlehopper across the mountains. Despite my general hatred of all things puddle-hoppery (let's put it this way, an A320 / B737 is the SMALLEST size of airplane I particularly care to fly in...), the flight was very smooth and quite pretty (mountains, snow, you get the idea). One night at my grandparents' place, and then the 3 of us trekked (flew) across the country to BWI via Denver.
It's a very...different...experience flying with your 81 year old grandmother in the seat next to you and asking where we're going and why ever 3 minutes. She has advanced Alzheimer's Disease, so it's not that surprising.
The Maryland experience was much like the California experience (only the sun rose over the water (not that you can see the ocean from my parents' house) instead of setting over it, and I was there for 2 weeks). That is, incredibly busy, didn't see half the people I'd have liked to, set an alarm EVERY, SINGLE MORNING, it was all a bit crazy, and over way too soon.
Highlights: Emma (the less-surprised-looking-these-days, formerly the perpetually-surprised-looking-clarinet-girl of the UMMB) came to visit for a night. Given our previous years' habit of meeting in DC for literally a couple hours, it was a big improvement to actually have more than 2 hours to visit.
Jess Faber drove down from Jersey-Land to do post-Christmas-not-quite-on-Boxing-Day Shopping with Kyle and me. Thanks for that Jess! Also, more recently (Jan 25), happy birthday! Thanks to Faber-san, I now have a DNA-knit-pattern scarf. I should post a picture of it later...
Made my Mom and grandparents a big photo-album project with captions. It took a lot of time, though...
Got to visit with Kyle and Kelley and meet the new yellow lab of the house, Ella.
Went to the driving range with my brother to chat and hit things (well, golf balls are techincally "things").
Drank WAY too much coffee. Did I mention it was a wee bit insane?
I even managed to squeeze in a few friendly phone calls. There are quite a few of you out there that I didn't even have time to call. Sorries about that.
I also (this isn't so much of a highlight) spent 3 hours getting from DC to Frederick on the afternoon of the 22nd. I think that was my worst traffic jam EVER.
I made Christmas dinner. Big lamb roast with roast veggies. Very, very tasty. You know you want some.
I ended up going back a day later than originally intended. See, I got rerouted AROUND the bad weather in Denver, only to get to BWI to leave and instead be sent to National because of bad weather in Chicago.
I get to the gate at National, and they delay the flight to the point that I won't make my flight in SFO back to Sydney.
To make a long story short (I know, too late, right?), I ended up getting a non-stop on New Year's Day from Dulles to SFO to make that day's non-stop to Sydney. When I got to Sydney, QANTAS even called my phone to offer me an earlier flight back to Brisneyland.
I got back, collapsed for 2 days and promptly got a sinus infection shortly there-after.
>_<
Well, I hadn't really stopped hither-to. The result was that I didn't really go back to work until about 12 days AFTER I got back to the Wonderful Land of Oz.
I watched pretty explosions on Friday. It was Australia Day.
I think that about sums it up.
I do kind of wish I could've spent a day in Los Angeles...
OK, I think that'll do for now. Questions? Comments? Further details? You know where to find me...