In an attempt to counteract my general laziness of late, I’m going to try to cram the rest of my Australia trip into one post, or I fear it will never be recorded for posterity. This is going to be epic. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

(To read my first two recaps click on over to here and then here.)

After Sydney, we headed down to Sarah’s parent’s beach house on the Mornington Peninsula. (It’s like Cape Cod for Australians!) We made a quick stop at her mom’s work to FINALLY meet the famous Helen. She was, of course, 100 times lovelier than I could have hoped and quickly became my Australian mother. After a quick lunch we finally headed to the house, which was adorable! It was covered in amazing flowers and trees, with an oasis of a backyard and a huge screened in porch. It was beachy and homey and just absolutely fabulous.

That night was Christmas Eve so we settled in to watch Carols by Candlelight, a Melbourne tradition of famous Australians singing every Christmas Carol known to man. We danced to High Five and cried at Silent Night and then settled into bed. Christmas morning was a little emotionally overwhelming. First, we opened presents! Sarah’s parents got me an Aussie Bar-B-Q cook book along with some other fine Australian items (chocolates, Tim Tims, Australian ice-molds, etc.), which was ridiculously sweet of them. Despite my amazing trip thus far, I ended up calling my family and getting choked up that I wasn’t with them. It was the first time I’d ever been away from my Dad’s side of the family on Christmas, and even though I’m Jewish, it’s still a big time of year for my family. Sarah’s mom gave me a big hug and all was alright, espeically when we got dressed up, and drove down the coast for an amazing five course Christmas meal complete with ocean views and party poppers filled with paper crowns and plastic mustaches.

The rest of the Christmas and Boxing Day was a blur of enjoying Entourage marathons, playing with Sarah’s dogs Jackson and Griffen, pushing our way through crowded Boxing Day sales at the mall and generally relaxing.

Sharon and Jackson on the beach

Saturday, the day after Boxing Day, Sarah’s parents had a big Bar-B-Q with all their friends and family. It was great to meet more of Sarah’s friends and talk with some more real Australians about our trip. Sharon and I figured out at the end of the day that we ate for 5 straight hours – starting out with meatballs, meat pies, sausage rolls, and other hors devours and ending with grilled lamb, chicken, and anything else you can think of. I’ve never been more full but it was completely worth every bite.

Sunday, we had another shopping excursion on Chapel Street, meeting up with Sarah’s friend Taff, who looks like an Australian Lauren Conrad but way nicer. We shopped and ate (sadly, at TGI Fridays…why must these thing spread?) and ended the day seeing Slumdog Millionaire, which Sarah and I then talked about the rest of the night. (Seriously, if you have not seen this movie, stop reading immediately and buy yourself a ticket. Right now.)

Things get a little blurry in my time line here…I believe the next day Sharon and I took off on our own to take in the Melbourne Aquarium. My favorite part was probably seeing all the real life Finding Nemo characters and convincing Sharon to face her fear of sharks in the Shark exhibit.

Nemo!

Monday night things got a little interesting – We decided to take in Melboune by night, which we hadn’t done yet and which was beautiful. After walking around a bit, Sharon decided she wanted to hit up the Casino along the Yarra River, since she’d never been gambling before. After taking in the Casino’s spectacular light show (note the intense sarcasm) we made our way over the slot machines. Having both been to Vegas before, Sarah and I explained to Sharon how to play the slots then sat by and watched. After a few rounds, some chairs down the row opened up and we decided to play a few rounds ourselves while we waited for Sharon. I put in a $2 coin that quickly ran out then put in another, figuring that would be my final bet as Sharon was going down quickly. Then, Sarah had some luck and won $8! We were excited to be able to pay for a cab ride home. On my end, I was down to my final 2 cents and bet it all on one last go. I was about to get up, when the guy next to me shouted “Oo, you are doing so well!” I was confused, but then I saw that my last bet had turned into one of those mini-games that comes up sometimes. The guy next to me seemed super excited about it,  but I had no idea what it meant. It reminded me of the game that came up when I won $15 in Vegas, so I figured maybe I’d add to our cab fund. The game involved flipping over cards, like in a memory game. I started picking cards randomly, because honestly, slot machines make little to no sense to me. But then the cards kept matching and the guy next to me kept getting more and more excited, until I turned over one last card and everything started flashing. The guy pointed to the top of the game yelling ” You won big! You won big!” I thought for a second he was pointing to the $64 prize, and I was pretty pleased with myself. Then Sarah noted that the big prize was flashing…the $1850 prize. Yep, I won the big jackpot. On my final 2 cent bet. Sarah and I started absolutely freaking out! People came over to congratulate me. A woman from the casino came and made me sign a slip of paper then brought me out cash in a locked black box. All the while, I looked like this:

I still can’t believe I won. I also can’t believe people asked me if I was going to keep playing. Hell no! I took that cash and ran. I really wanted to go out and get drinks, but Sharon was a little miffed about my winning when I didn’t really want to go gambling in the first place, so I settled for going home and attempting to explain to my dad in a 4 minute phone call what had just happened. I’m currently saving my winnings (which are sadly much less in US dollars) to buy my new MacBook!

After the excitement of the casino, I was glad to be headed back to the beach on Tuesday to stay at a huge vacation house with 20 of Sarah’s closest friends for New Years. Looking back, I think our three days at the beach house were some of my favorite days of the whole trip. For three days, we watched the boys play their own weird “catch” game based on cricket (complete with beer and cigarettes in every hand that wasn’t holding a bat or a ball), played cards (I totally kicked ass at poker), watched movies, played drinking games, lounged on the beach, and talked and talked and talked.

The boys playing "cricket"

Everyone hanging out our first night at the house

Hanging out with Sarah’s friends added so much to my trip. I wasn’t just a tourist in Australia. I got to talk to all these people my own age about their lives, their views, their jobs, and about things of absolutely no importance. I loved seeing how they saw America and vice versa. They were also unbelievably accommodating  and friendly and so much fun. I wish I could be friends with them all the time! New Year’s Eve was especially entertaining as everyone got mildly ridiculous and I got an excellent Australian New Year’s kiss (or pash as Sarah would say.) I was more than a little sad to say good-bye to everyone come Thursday.

Luckily, Friday was filled with the excitement of Sharon and my tour to Phillip’s Island. Basically, we got on a bus in the morning, and headed to an Australian winery, then to a wildlife park where we got to feed Kangaroos and pet a baby Koala. (Sadly in the state of Victoria, you can’t hold the koalas. Fail.)

Sharon and the Kangaroos!

The day ended on Phillip’s Island with the world famous Penguin Parade, which is this huge tourist attraction where you go watch the tiny penguins come up the shore and into the dunes on the beaches every night. It was amazing – all these little penguins waddling together in giant packs up the beach and into the hills, all like they knew exactly where they were going, totally unbothered by the mass of spectators there. I recommend it if you think you can resist grabbing a tiny penguin and running home with it.

Saturday, we had another outing with Sarah’s parents, who by this point were officially our Australian parents. They took us to a place called Soverign Hill, which is an old west type town from Australia’s gold rush. They had horse drawn carriage rides, gold panning, and amazingly cheesy street performers, including a little old man who played the accordion and told us he had a niece who was a gynocologist in Kentucky. “Maybe you know her!”

Us with some (we assume) struggling Australian actors

This man was AMAZING

Sarah’s dad entertained us by buying a large walking stick and showing off his color guard moves. All in all, a lovely day.

Sunday was mildly depressing, as Sarah had to leave us. During the course of the trip, Sarah and I realized we are truly soul mates. I didn’t think I could feel much closer to her, but I can definitely say she is and will probably always be one of my best friends, despite the fact that a 20 hour plane ride separates us. She completely understands me (my love of staying in and watching television, my love of Nikon digital cameras, my love of adorable Australian boys…the list goes on and on) and provided me with a once in a life-time trip. Saying good-bye to her was definitely the only downside to the whole experience.

Sharon and I attempted to cheer ourselves up with last minute shopping, and later that night, Sarah’s friend Nick (who may or may not have been my New Year’s kiss…) surprised us by renting Pineapple Express and taking us out for our final dinner. (I told you Sarah’s friends were freakishly nice!)

Monday Sharon and I, somehow miraculously, packed up all our stuff and headed to the airport to fly back to the good old U.S. of A.

Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean

I ended up staying in LA for the next week, catching up with my best friends from the LA program, Grace and Patrick, hanging out with my sister, shopping with some sorority friends, and showing my future LA roommate Josh around the area I hope we end up living in. I, of course, hit up Joan’s on Third and had a major celebrity sighting (Jennifer Anniston, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette had dinner where we were getting drinks then walked RIGHT BY US out the back door and into a swarm of paparazzi. Total LA moment.) The whole time, though, all I could talk about was Australia.

I sincerely hope I get to go back one day.

"Victoria - THE place to be" - I couldn't agree more.

I’m sad to admit that this past week I’ve been a bit of a hermit: I haven’t really been online. I’ve only left the house for big outings twice, and I’ve been holed up in my room for hours a day. The cause: Twilight and nothing but Twilight. 

Yes, in the last week and a half, I’ve plowed through all four of Stephenie Meyer’s novels, and yes, even went to see the movie a second time. (I mean, I had to see it now that I really understand the story. I have to say, it was definitely better when I understood why Edward looks like he’s in pain for most of the film…)

I know I’m way behind the curve on this one. Twilight talk was EVERYWHERE in November, but I was kind of wrapped up in my last semester of college, and now that I have nothing but free time, I no longer had an excuse. I really didn’t want to give in, but my love of all things pop culture forced me to understand what all the fuss was about. Now I finally get to have an opinion! It’s a complicated one, but here goes:

I can’t say I think the books are good, but I also definitely can’t say they’re bad either. I mean, I couldn’t put them down. Even with my ridiculous love of getting completely wrapped up in a book, that fact says a lot about the story. And there is the distinction I have to draw: the books present an amazingly engrossing story.I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. Stephenie Meyer says herself she considers herself more a story-teller than a writer, and I think that’s an apt description, because as wrapped up in the story as I was, I still found myself cringing at points, especially in Twilight, at the repetitive language and overly fluffy writing. I know everyone has said this, but if she had described Edward’s heart-stopping beauty one more time, I thought I was going to throw the book out the window. That said, I wouldn’t have because I HAD TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! It was mildly frustrating. Especially because I wanted to find myself above the books: I wanted to hate them. And I didn’t. I enjoyed them. A lot. Damn you, Stephenie. 

(EDIT: I was told by my mother I should pause here for a brief SPOILER ALERT in case I’m not the last person to read these books.)

There were more things I found frustrating: the feeling all through New Moon that nothing happened (and when it did, it had nothing to do with anything that had happened thus-far in the book), Edward’s ridiculous perfection but also his mild creepiness (I mean, he’s wonderful and all, but if a real guy acted like him, I would probably be telling him to take a giant step back…), the fact that Bella and Jacob kept having the same good-bye scene over and over and over again, the slight creepiness of the Jacob-Renesmee situation in Breaking Dawn…

While on the subject of Breaking Dawn, I was told by all my friends who had read the book that they hated it, that it took so many weird turns, so maybe I was prepared, but I didn’t hate it. I mean, I found problems with all the books, so Breaking Dawn pretty much fell in line with my expectations. Yeah, the whole pregancy, having to drink blood, baby-breaking Bella’s ribs thing was weird and a little scary, but I thought it was kind of cool. I mean, in a vampire book, it had to get creepy eventually. It’s amazing it took this long to get bloody, when you actually think about it. Plus, I loved that in the end, Bella really did have to become a vampire to live, and I was happy to get to see that transformation. It felt gratifying. The thing that bugged me the most was that the timeline felt really compressed (did anyone else think they talked about the events in New Moon like they had happened years rather than months beforehand?), but it all made sense, I suppose. I also think, like with Harry Potter, this was definitely not a young adult novel…at all. Despite all these frustrations, though, I have to say again, I liked the books. It’s weird. I don’t think I’ve ever been this torn about enjoying a book before.  

There is SO much more I can say, but I really need to break away from this world. It’s been totally engrossing to me, and I’m glad I finally feel caught up on pop culture after putting it off for a while, but I need to get some other things done that Edward Cullen has kept me from. Up next, I promise, I’ll finish my trip recap!

I promise the next installment of my trip recap is coming. I’ve been working on one, but I get too detailed, then I get nostalgic, then I get busy cooking, and it somehow gets put on the metaphorical back burner behind making 50 won tons for dinner. 

I do have other things to report in my current life, though. It’s looking like, for now, I’ll be staying at home for a little while. The thought of packing and “moving” back to Boston for the few months before graduation, right now, is nauseating after my month of travel and suitcase living, not to mention my numerous moves over the past four years. To combat the boredom I know is coming, however, I’ve undertaken some projects.

The first is weight loss. Inspired by some real-life friends and stealing ideas from Jen, I signed up for Weight Watchers Online. I always say I want to lose weight, but something else always take precedence, like school and friends, you know, little things. Now, however, the only job I’ll have will be stress-free, I assume, and I have access to free food and a free gym, so why shouldn’t I take advantage? Plus, I don’t really try hard to eat super well, yet I’m not really overweight, so if I put in some effort, I think I can knock off a few pounds. I’ve been on it for two days, and it’s been tough. I snack ALL THE TIME. Anyone who knows me knows Goldfish Crackers are my life, so that’s been the toughest thing to cut out. All those little fish add up to points I can’t part with. Also tough: working out yesterday for the first time in a month. I almost passed out in a kickboxing class, and today I could barely get out of bed I was so sore. I’m trying a different class tomorrow, but now I’m determined to get through a kickboxing class, just because it so kicked my ass. I’ll definitely keep you updated. 

Another bandwagon I’m a little ashamed to have jumped on: Twilight. I got a gift card to Barnes and Noble from my cousin for Christmas, and I saw the massive display of Twilight stuff  yesterday, and outwardly reasoning that if I’m going to be teaching middle schoolers English soon, I should see what they’re interested in (this was achieved by buying a book recommended by TFA called The Art of Teaching Reading as well), but really just wanting to be able to know what all those posts about Edward Cullen were gushing about, I picked up the first book. I’m already 100 pages in, and all I’ll say at this point is that it’s much better than the movie, which did not impress me. I get sucked pretty easily into books, so I’m not expecting to be above the craziness. Again, I’ll keep you updated. 

So that’s all in my normal life for now. I’m currently looking for a job, but nothing’s happened so far. I’m definitely not complaining. So far, I’m enjoying the rest. I mean, today, I get to sit home all day and watch inauguration coverage, which, by the way, is INSANE. Has there ever been an inauguration people were this genuinely excited about? It’s amazing and inspiring and exciting that people are this hopeful and happy about one of our leaders. Even if you don’t like Obama, you have to acknowledge that what he’s done for so many people in the country and for the general feeling in the country is fantastic. That being said, I’ve never disliked Bush as a person, and right now, I’m kind of happy for him. I feel like he is probably so relieved to be done. Now he can go hang out on his ranch, clear his brush, and no one can say anything to him about it. In that way, I feel like we share a nice little connection. We’re both taking a break after a lot of hard work. Mine  may have not have been as serious, but you know what I mean….

THE PITTSBURGH STEELERS ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!!!!!!

My family has been tense ALL day waiting for the Steelers Ravens game, as half my extended family loves the Ravens and has been talking smack all season, especially at dinner last night, making this extremely gratifying.  

PLUS I get to watch a Steelers Superbowl with my dad for the first time since I was about 8 when we lost to the Cowboys and broke my tiny elementary school heart. It’s times like these I wish I still lived in Pittsburgh. I can only imagine what the city will be like tomorrow. 

Closer to the Superbowl I’ll be sure to give my speech about why the Steelers arean amazing franchise, but for now, I’ll leave you with this….

HERE WE GO, STEELERS. HERE WE GO!

(To catch up on my recaps, start here And now, the adventure continues: 

Saturday was a big day for us. We started out in the morning by heading to Victoria Market in the heart of Melbourne. It’s a huge outdoor market with anything you can think of: food, clothes, shoes, jewelry, souvenirs, bags, and hats. It was overwhelming. We had to just take it row by row. I picked up a fun pocket watch necklace and presents for my mom and dad, while Sharon made out like a bandit, with souvenirs for all her friends. Sarah and I wasted time proving my theory that I look good in all hats. (It’s totally true, and Sarah agrees. I credit my haircut.) 

After a quick food court lunch (it sounds lames, but was actually amazing – their food courts are kind of lovely.) we took a tram to the South Bank (I think that is what its called…Sarah, you can correct me.) where we planned to go up in the Eureka SkyDeck, a new residential building that is now the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s a sweet building – the top is actually coated with gold!  They have an observation deck on the 88th floor, along with something called the Edge Experience. Basically, it’s this little room, a little bigger than an elevator, that is entirely made of glass and moves out of the building! So, you are standing in it, the glass windows are all fogged up, then you hear a cracking noise and the windows go clear, and it’s like you are floating 88 stories up. Being mildly afraid of heights, I had a minor heart attack, especially because Sarah kept making worried faces at me when there was any weird noise just to freak me out, but in the end, it was just ridiculously cool. Also ridiculously cool – the entire thing was free as Sarah knows the people who run the SkyDeck. Our tickets even said VIP. Score. 

Saturday night we finally met the rest of Sarah’s friends for our big night out. We started out drinking some Australian wine in Sarah’s apartment with new friends (to Sharon and I) Nick, Dan, and Steven – all of whom, I must say again, were awesome – then headed out to Chapel Street, a very posh shopping and dining street by Sarah’s apartment. We met some more people at the bar, while I marveled at the relative cheapness of cocktails. We then, for some reason, stopped at Friday’s (as in TGI – yeah they have them there too…), and Nick and I instantly bonded over our intense desire to leave.

Finally, we headed out towards our final stop, a cool Irish Pub, where the rest of Sarah’s friends were. Anna, Taryn, Sheeho, and Kate were all there again, and my love for them further solidified. We drank and attempted to dance the rest of the night away, while Sharon and I rejoiced in staying up past 9PM. All in all, a successful night out. 

Sunday, we headed to Sydney! After a short plane ride (before which, no one checked our ID’s! It must be nice to live somewhere that doesn’t anger the world…) we met up with our camp friend, Matt, at the airport, as he was nice enough to pick us up. After a short driving tour that included driving over the Sydney Harbor bridge, Matt drove us right up to Circular Quay, home of the famous Sydney Opera house. You should be thankful at this moment that I’m using Sarah’s photos and not mine, as you are being saved from my 100+ photos of the Opera house from varying vantage points. (“Here’s me right in front of it! Here’s me on the other side of the Quay! Here’s the back! Here’s the view riding away on a ferry!” What can I say? I was excited!) It was extremely cool, though, to be in front of something I’ve seem in pictures hundreds of times (not to mention animated in my favorite Pixar movie, Finding Nemo.) 

That first day is a blur of lunch, photos, dancing to terrible street performers (where is the video, Sarah!?), and taking in the city. At some point, I think Sharon and I walked around Darling Harbor, which was right behind our super fancy hotel (thanks again, to Sarah’s dad!) 

The next day, after riding in a circle on the monorail singing the song from The Simpsons, we headed back to Circular Quay to go jet-boating! This was by far my favorite activity from Sydney. Basically, you get on a poncho and get in what is essentially a 30 person jet-ski. The driver does all kinds of tricks and turns and you get soaking wet in the process of seeing the entire harbor, which was absolutely gorgeous. It was ridiculously fun. I would recommend it to anyone. 

The next two days in Sydney were filled with shopping, eating, movies (I’m ashamed to admit I may have seen High School Musical 3 a…hrmmthirdhrm..time. It’s an addiction I’m dealing with…) There was room service and long waits for buses and museum visits and entirely too much fun. Sadly, by Wednesday it was time to leave, but luckily for us, it was Christmas Eve! 

And with that, I’ll break for the day. Up next, Carols by Candlelight, Christmas presents, Boxing Day madness, and a ridiculous amount of food. Stay tuned…

After a ridiculously fun and exciting month away, I’m back! I can’t believe that my trip is over, and I’m still a little jet-lagged, but I want to get everything I can down about the trip before it all starts to slip away. I don’t know how I’m even going to begin to tackle this, but I think it’s all still fresh enough to recount to my satisfaction. And to Sarah’s, as she’s told me she is looking forward to my recap, and I don’t want to disappoint! 

But a quick note before I do: I want to thank my lovely sister, Stephanie, for keeping my blog company while I was gone. She’s currently loving LA and getting closer and closer to getting a job everyday. She’s definitely doing much better than she’d been doing in NYC, so I’m happy for her!

And one more note: I wanted to make this recap complete with amazing pictures, but unfortunately, I’m the forgetful type who leaves cameras and iPods in my sister’s car before getting on plane rides home…so no pictures as they are currently traveling home through the kindness of UPS. Fail. 

So…here we go. 

On Tuesday, December 16th, I left my house at 4AM (painful, I know) and traveled to LA. I ran into my American camp BFF, Sharon’s, arms around 2PM Cali time, and we proceeded to spend a ridiculous EIGHT hours in LAX, waiting for our flight. (My dad wanted to pad my flight time, just in case…they wouldn’t even let us check our bags until 6!) It seemed an endless wait. Finally, at 10PM, we boarded our 15 hour flight (economy seating surrounded by 4, yes FOUR, babies…for 15 hours.) Luckily, I’d been up for about 22 hours at that point, so I fell asleep halfway through Mamma Mia, which I couldn’t even see as in economy, the only screen you get is a giant projection at the front of the section, which short people can’t see. Again, fail. 

But when we got off the plane in Melbourne, it was totally and completely worth it. We walked out of baggage claim, and standing in the middle of a huge crowd of people, was Sarah’s smiling face. She screamed. We all ran to each other and hugged, and I instantly felt somehow at home, halfway around the world. 

That was instantly tested when we got in the car, which if you don’t know, is doing the whole other side of the road thing, which you don’t think will be that weird, but it totally is! Every time Sarah made a quick left turn, I had a heart attack. On the drive, Sarah pointed out some landmarks to us as we drove through the heart of Melbourne, and I could tell how excited she was to tell us about the city. 

Sarah warned us that the first day would seem like a blur, and she was definitely right. I know we got back to Sarah’s apartment in a very posh neighborhood on the cutest street ever, before heading out to explore the city. We walked around one of the big shopping streets then met Sarah’s dad for lunch (who, over the course of the trip, became one of my favorite people ever), but the whole time, I just felt weird. I thought jetlag was just tiredness, but it was really just an off-feeling. It was bizarre. 

That night, I somehow pulled it together enough to make a good first impression on all Sarah’s friends at their favorite pub, the Knott. We (Sharon and I) got a Pot and Parma (pot of beer and chicken parmesan - omg, so delicious!), and met some fabulous people – Anna, Katie, Taryn, Sheeho, Dan, Steve – I didn’t know it then, but many of them, too, would soon become some of my favorite people. I should have expected that Sarah would have amazing friends – I mean, she’s friends with me! – but I was surprised by how welcoming they were and how genuinely excited they were to meet us. Sadly by nine, the jetlag got the best of us, and we had to head home. 

Friday we hit the ground running. We drove about an hour outside Melbourne to hit the first of many elementary field trip-like  attractions we would visit on our trip. Seriously, everyone we told about this outing had the same reaction – Oh  my god! Puffing Billy! I haven’t been there since I was four/three/two! (The age somehow always got younger.) Basically, the Puffing Billy is a historic steam train in the Dandenong Mountains. It’s tradition for kids to sit on the railings with their feet hanging over the side of the train (affectionately know to us later as sitting “Puffing Billy style”) We thought we would go for a half an hour ride (courtesy of Sarah’s dad – a big wig in the tourism industry who, along with Sarah, a force herself in the industry, got us tickets to EVERYTHING.) We got on and enjoyed the ridiculously beautiful views of the countryside. When we got to the first stop, however, we were ready to head back. Unfortunately, we were told we had tickets to the next stop then an hour “layover” of sorts until the train went back the other way. We made the best of things and decided to get lunch at the little snack stand, which we were told was the only place to eat. We ate outside, where Sharon and I had our first sighting of a magpie, a freaky looking bird who got entirely too close to my sausage roll. (I also tried my first bite of meat pie!) We then walked around the area to look at some more animals when we discovered an actual restaurant with indoor seats and non-microwaved food. Thanks Puffing Billy workers for that tidbit of information. Oh well. We had fun. On the way back, we got an indoor “private” car, since it was a bit chilly, and had some…interesting conversations until a couple got in the car behind us and proceeded to make out the entire ride back! 

We then rode back into town to meet Sarah’s work friends for drinks, but not before stopping at her office and taking some ridiculous photos. (They’re coming, I promise!) Sarah’s work friends were lovely, again not surprising, but also not surprising, jet-lag kicked my ass again around 6, and we had to head home before I fell asleep at the bar. 

And, now I have to go get ready to go grocery shopping with my mom. This recap is going to take longer than expected…luckily, nothing interesting is happening to me at all right now, so I feel like I have time to do this trip justice. 

On one more note: class starts today at my college, and for the first time in four years, I’m not there. I’m trying to ignore this fact t0 the best of my ability.

I headed up to Philly today to say goodbye to Jenny and Steve. Jenny’s visiting Steve as usual, before she heads back to NYC. They’re both my friends from Syracuse and they have a very complicated relationship. 

While Steve was playing bball, Jen and I hung out at Starbucks and ended up having a conversation about our boy grumbles, as per usual. She complained about Steve and his commitment phobia, and I complained about Blake and my constant inability to understand how he feels about me. 

Jenny was on a roll, when this older lady sitting behind us got up to go throw something away. As she stood up, she turned to Jenny and said “You just need to forget him! You should have boys begging to be with you. He’s crazy”

I exclaimed, “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell her!” 

The nice lady came back from the trash can, and added that she needs to read that “He’s not into you book.” We chatted a bit, and when she left, she wished her good luck. “It’s a new year! Time to start fresh!” 

Oh the wisdom you pick up from random Starbucks patrons. 

I should really take the same advice. I told Blake I had some stuff to deliver to him, and he asked if I wanted to just mail it to him. Because apparently he’s not planning on seeing me when I get to LA in two days? Because he’d rather just text message me. All. The. Time.

But, you know, that’s it. Because it’s not like he cried when he said goodbye to me. Or texted that he missed me for weeks after he left. 

Exasperation.

I can’t believe it’s a new year already. 2008 was sorta craptastic, not gonna lie. Sure, there were fun times, but as a whole, not gonna miss this year. 

New Year’s has become one of those holidays that always sounds better in theory than it ends up being in practice. Last year, I spent New Year’s puking and having the flu. 

This year had to be better by comparison. I drove down to Virginia to see my friend Beth who I hadn’t seen since her wedding last summer. My best friend from college, Bonny, also drove down from Pittsburgh. It was nice to see them before I set out west. 

So the New Year’s party took place at Beth and Mike’s apartment and consisted of a bunch of couples and then Bonny and I. It was very Bridget Jones. At the start of the night, Bonny and I sat on the floor by the food and talked about television. We then decided to play Mad Gabs (can you feel the excitement?) This was a fun game, just not New Year’s Eve fun. We decided we’d just do boys verses girls, since that was almost even (we single girls sort of screwed up the balance). Luckily, Beth’s annoying friend Claire decided she was too cool to be on the girls’ team. Maybe she thought we would be less smart. I guess she never paid attention to gender studies, though, because girls are better at language arts. And we kicked serious ass. It was almost embarrassing how much better we were at that game than the guys. 

The game was abruptly stopped short when one last couple showed up with this announcement:
“Sorry we’re late guys, but we were…getting ENGAGED!”

This was met with an eye roll from me to Bonny and from Bonny to me. Then we peaced out of the congratulations circle and went to the kitchen to take pictures of us pretending to stab ourselves with various cutlery.

I then proceeded to drink myself into a stupor and passed out with my clothes on at 12:30. In the middle of the night, I woke up, still drunk, and desperate to wash my face for some reason. This resulted in me dumping out my suitcase trying to find my face wash in the dark. The commotion woke up a very annoyed Bonny. But gosh darn it, I got my face clean.

The next morning I lamented that I didn’t even get to have any champagne. To which Bonny replied. “Um, yeah you did. You had two glasses.”

Goood times.