CALIFORNIA - beautiful! tank-top-weather! I’m getting my tan back! Yeah! (that was sarcasm…about the tan).
I used to think that Bing Crosby had it right about a White Christmas…I used to think I was missing out on some magical thing with snowfall and snowflakes and actually needing a fireplace to stay warm….now I realized that Jesus was born in a desert - nowhere near snowfall and snowflakes….on top of that - LA knows how to celebrate Christmas - plenty of holiday tunes (”Last Christmas, I gave you my heart….”), Christmas lights and palm trees. You can still get into the Christmas spirit with 60 degree weather….I kinda wished it was warmer - last week it was in the 70’s.
It’s so good to be home. Last week - my bro, his new gf and jenjen picked us up from the airport. It felt so good to be hugged by family. American accents were music to my ears.
Driving by the downtown LA skyline was heaven. My bro flipped the radio to the local NPR station…..quality American broadcast news….that was pretty nifty as well.
Home.
My dad cooked too much food - we got another turkey dinner, bbq and lumpia. Oh yeah, bring on the lumpia. I also came back with a damn cold thanks to the crazy kids running mad on the plane for 10 hours. Stupid kids. My mom nearly broke down in more tears when she first saw me and touched me and pulled me down into her hugs. Katie greeted us with the obligatory hiss - she’s losing a bit of her edge in her old age.
My ninang had a real Christmas tree at her house…..the pine smelled so good…after all the Christmas lights in London, I didn’t think I would have craved the smell of pine trees so damn much….but I did. I suppose I needed more than the Christmas glitz of Regent Street….I also craved the family spirit of the season….when people pulled out ornaments from our childhood and find a place of honor of the tree….next to the piano.
It’s good to be home. I fell asleep around 8pm….thanks to the stupid cold, I was no match for the jet lag. That lasted for most of the week.
The next day - we had a meeting with monsignor at church. We managed to schedule my home parish for our wedding day. The first choice of our wedding day….very sweet.
Mark headed up to Berkeley for work the next morning. Since landing in LA - I couldn’t sleep past 6AM….often times getting up earlier to take care of my tiny bladder. I spent the rest of the day sleeping….and messing with my domain. Needed to change servers thanks to the bloody spammers who keep hitting my site. Hopefully…the new comment system will allow only human beings to leave their marks behind on my site. Fuck the spammers. I hope you go to jail.
My mom took off from work and we went shopping. First we did some shoe shopping. Then we ducked into a bridal shop. Oh yeah….my first trip to a bridal shop for a wedding dress. It’s good to know my size and in her typical fashion….my mom insisted that I lose 5 lbs. I think I should lose more…..need to get my fat ass to a gym. Or watch what I eat. Or both. Probably both. Dresses….sheesh. I still feel akward about making wedding plans. I trying on dresses that don’t fit. Do the corsets have to be so damn tight? Ten more pounds. I can’t tell you any hard numbers….but I have a feeling a lot of women have had some fantasy of getting married. Maybe they had the perfect man in mind…or locale….or dress. As for me - I never thought about getting married until I started talking to Mark about it. I close my eyes and try to imagine the perfect wedding day and all I can see is the church. That’s about it. When it comes to dresses - I’m clueless. I’ve boned up on some bridal reading material - a-line, empire waists, boat cuts….dress lingo swimming in my head and I’m sure I’m getting their meanings mixed up. One co-worker said she had her mom, friend, aunt and cousin go out and find a dress they could all agree on - she didn’t care what it looked like, as long as they agree. Sounds like a plan…but I’m too much of a control freak to leave that detail up to other people. I should try on more dresses.
Also flew up to Berkeley and checked in on work….showed folks pictures from europe.
brought back gifts from London and other cities for family, co-workers and friends.
I didn’t think I would miss London. It started with our place next to the Burlington Arms. I still miss our little flat in London…..that was home for the last few months. It was lovely to unpack and use closets and drawers and not live out of our suitcases. It was a refuge from the stress of my internship. It was also my library and movie theater. It was home.
I didn’t think London could be home for me….but it was.
I also missed the glam of London - the stores on Regent Street were incredible. I thought the storefronts from Saks and Tiffany’s and Macys - on Union Square - could compete with London’s shopping scene. I was wrong. Mark pointed out that it was also super-cool to live in a country that’s only an a few-hour-plane ride away from places like Rome and Prague and Dublin. It takes us nearly 6-8 hours to drive from LA to San Francisco. That equals a one-hour plane ride. For that same plane duration - we traveled from London to Dublin - another country. It’s really cool to have so many countries in easy reach of our flat - via Stanstead Airport and Stanstead Express.
Damn…and in a few hours - I’m leaving my Cali home….grrrr….I just got here! We’re heading to Buffalo, NY - currently 15 dregrees….Jesus Christ….and it’s snowing….
Then we’re heading to DC - for my final quarter of Medill. I’ll have a Masters of Science in Journalism - by March 2005….It’s currently 31 degrees over there…I don’t think it’s snowing.
I don’t want to leave Cali. God, I love it here.
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