Spatula Forum

Countdown to vacation - one month

Great galloping galaxies, it's July 3 -- which means it's exactly one month till the boy and I fly the friendly skies the lonnnnnnng way back to California for my first visit to the States since we moved down under in 2006. I'm quite looking forward to time off work and away from the various household headaches we were slammed with in June. Back when I bought tickets it seemed ages away, but now it's nearly here. I'm eager to see the family and embrace the wide-open Americana after two years down here, and will be interested to see if it or I have notably changed all that much.

It looks like I'll get to see several old friends of mine while I'm there, including a mini-reunion of high school chums, some of whom I haven't seen in nearly 20 (urk) years now. I'm also planning a major shopping spree for clothes, graphic novels, music et cetera as, I've loudly said a few times, them things are quite pricey down here in the antipodes. And I'm finally going to try and get the estimated 30 or 40 boxes of miscellaneous books, keepsakes and papers stored in my parents' garage down here somehow. I've got a shipping company picked out so hopefully it will work out (the problem with shipping internationally is that you can find endless horror stories online about it which puts the black fear into you about your belongings ending up in a deep-water trench or something).

I'm kind of dreading how the boy, age 4 1/2, will do without Mama for 2 1/2 weeks and how I will cope as sole parental figure, particularly in that 13-hour flight. He's at that awkward age in between cuddly toddler and rambunctious boy, so it'll be interesting. Hopefully we'll keep him too busy enjoying the delights of grandparents and Northern California in August to get too homesick.

Meanwhile, enjoy your Fourth of July, Americans, as I alternately am blown away by winds and drown in an Auckland winter!