In Texas!

I made it in alive. :)

I LOVE an uneventful trip and this was the most uneventful trip ever. Not even a hiccup. On my flight from BNE to LAX I was only awake for the first 4 hours which honestly flies by because they feed you dinner and give you snacks and coffee and bottomless alcohol and you always find some new release movie to watch on the in-flight On Demand system...but at about the 3.5 hr mark I took a Doxylamine and conked out for a good 8 hrs. It wasn't a wakeless sleep, I'm not superhuman, but I had no trouble just conking out again for another 90 minutes if I felt it was too early. I remember waking up at the 6 hour mark and thinking "REALLY?!?! Barely halfway?? How is this possible?" So I just woke at about 90 minute intervals until I felt like I could entertain myself for the rest of the flight. I also slept all the way from LAX to DFW with no problems so it really was the most perfect trip. Not even a screaming baby to speak of. :):):)

I had the ceremonious Chipotle trip within an hour of arriving and then conked out AGAIN after a very brave effort to stay up until 11! The next day I went shopping with mom and we had a bbq that night where Amelia came over and gave me a much needed dose of BFF lovin. Yesterday I went to church with Kara, visited Grandma and Grandad, got a bra fitting at VS and found out I'm 2 sizes bigger than I thought (yay!) to end the night meeting Kara's new love interest and good friend Cara over an authentic Italian pizza Kara's L.I. made (YUM!) and a glass of wine. It's been the best weekend I've had in AGES.

I've lived in Oz long enough to be able to make a few distinct cultural judgements at this point, the most obvious of which is just how Self Important everyone is over here. It's disgusting and infuriating! I think this ties back to my previous comments on the overall passive demeanor of Australians as a whole, and so maybe that's rubbed off on me and you should correct me if I'm wrong here...but doesn't every American's "EXCUSE ME" sound an awful lot more like "How DARE you delay me those 5 seconds you chose to stand in front of me, if you would PLEASE get OUT OF MY WAY I'm very important and very busy and nothing you could be doing is possibly more important than me and my life." Because that's what it sounds like to me. Also, the road agression is just disgusting. CALM DOWN PEOPLE. Good for you, you just shaved 5 minutes off your commute by going 15 over the speed limit.

That said, the sales people in the stores here always manage to leave all their self-importance at the door and become almost like wag-tailed puppies eager to help at every step of your browsing journey which is about the opposite of the self-important shop keepers in Mackay....

I hate the heat, I'm melting all the time, but I love the company and am having a great time. :)