The Return!

I tried to post a hello yesterday (the day before?), but it didn't work.

Right now it's half-past midnight. The longest day of my life is ending: awake at 6am on Sunday morning, boarding a plane at 11am, traveling for a full twenty-four hours, then doing the arrival business (bags, car, settling in). Going to bed after midnight, still on Sunday.

That makes a thirty-four hour day! Those of you/us who declare there needs to be more hours in a day, I found the solution--travel eastbound across the international date line!

So our Australian Adventure has come to an end. After three weeks, it's kind of a shock to come to a standstill, after moving every one or two days, living out of my silver suitcase (very proud of myself for that), seeing all new terrain every single day. Now we're back to the daily grind of humidity and preparing for the school year.

I haven't really mentioned much of what we did, but right now I have to gush about two standout places: the Outback--wide open spaces with a harse and spare beauty unlike anything I've ever seen; and the Whitsunday Islands/Great Barrier Reef--the most amazing blue water and glorious flora and fauna. I already miss them both and very much hope I get to return.

There are so many things I need to do right away, but I began with a quick mail sort, booting up my computer, tossing together laundry for tomorrow, and best of all, a shower. Ah, that felt great. Nothing like a shower in your own place after a long time away. For the last thirty minutes or so, I've been going through email and uploading photos (come on, you knew I was gonna do that straight away).

I'm hungry; I'm not sure if I've had a full proper meal today. Qantas had some meals on the plane from Brisbane to LA, but I really couldn't tell you how long ago that was. Possibly yesterday, technically.

Tomorrow I have a lot to do to catch up with normal life again: laundry of course, an eyebrow wax (holy crap! the sun down under must have spurred their growth!), opening mail, balancing my checkbook (ie, figuring out how much money I did actually spend), finish uploading photos, go food shopping (I seem to have a lot of frozen desserts, and cheese.), get the disposable camera developed (an underwater camera from the Great Barrier Reef! Those will be some hilarious self-portraits, and I hope the sea turtle picture came out), SLEEP, eat, begin catching up on recorded television, start reading Harry Potter #7 (eee!!!), and attempt to catch up on blogs and flickr.

Phew.