I'm baaaaack

Wow. Two months and one week, and I'm home again. I feel as though I was gone forever, but then today walking to Gelson's and the dry cleaners and checking email and catching up it felt as though I had never left. I really wanted to blog more while I was gone, but internet by the minute and an aging computer was a tad prohibitive. But now it's a new year, and it's February already and my god, I need to update my blog. So while I have much to say, I'm going to limit it to the following:

1) I will never fly South African Airways again. Have YOU ever stopped somewhere for refueling, (say in a forsaken place like Accra, Ghana), only to be informed by the pilot that there is NOT ENOUGH FUEL available to go on to your destination? Have you? When the announcement was made, I was in the throes of recovering from an Ativan-fueled sleep and I honestly thought I was having some crazy sleeping pill dream. No such luck. The solution was a quick jaunt up the West African coast to Dakar, where it seemed they had just what we needed -- the remaining two thirds of the tank. When a 17 hour journey gets spontaneously extended by another 4, it's not a happy thing. Not to mention the panic that follows for the typical neurotic freak. Why is there no fuel here? Are they SURE there's fuel in Dakar? Will it be enough to get us there? What if there's an emergency landing in the Atlantic? Oh my god, I KNEW I should have paid more attention to those airline safety videos, instead of reading In Touch Weekly while taxi-ing to the runway.... And so it goes. But I''m home now, so obviously everything's ok.

2) If the flight attendant on my United flight from Washington DC to LA referred to the movie as "Pride and Prejudiced" ONE more time after the first 3 times he did it, I was going to smack him. Fortunately once "Pride and Prejudiced" started, he didn't need to say anything more about it, so that was that.

3) I am VERY good at crying during airport goodbyes. I'm getting weepy just writing this.

4) LA doesn't look as pretty from the air as San Francisco did. And after two months in pristine Cape Town, I could smell the pollution on Santa Monica Blvd today. Sigh.

5) My wonderful boyfriend had removed the ceiling fan in our bedroom and replaced it with an attractive light fixture. This might not seem like a big deal, but believe me, if you'd SEEN the ceiling fan, you'd understand. It's the kind HGTV moments are made of.

(he also got rid of the ugly chandelier light fixture in the "eat-in" part of our kitchen and installed some under the cabinet lights. Do you hear the sound of my jig-dancing?)

6) I need to get a job.

7) I don't really want one yet. But I need some LA friends, so that might help. But then I think I might like to try freelancing if it can pay the bills. Was I supposed to come back with some sort of career clarity? I didn't.

8) Old news, I know, but H&M is opening up at the Beverly Center. Oh happy day!

9) I didn't read nearly enough as I planned to on my trip. Not enough alone time.

10) I have found Sudoku. Seriously, that and the NYT crossword compilations were my best friends on the plane. A number grid puzzle is the LAST thing I thought I would have been into, but there you have it. 'Cause once the Ativan wears off...

Ok. 10 is a nice number. I'll write more about my trip tomorrow.

oh one more thing. My niece and sister are coming for a visit in two weeks! That makes me dance my jig a little longer.