my eyes are still blue

On Wednesday night I took a redeye from LAX to BWI. Oh that sucked. I had never taken a redeye to the east coast before. Nor do I ever want to do it again. I just can't sleep on planes. And to make it worse, we were sitting on the plane ready to leave on time and then a flight attendant made an announcement that we can't go anywhere because security is at a standstill and our pilots haven't arrived yet. So we took off about an hour and a half late. Even after two Tyenol PMs, all I could do was intermittantly doze.

The highlight of the trip? I saw Alton Brown in an airport bookshop while I was walking around before my flight.

Nothing too exciting to report yet. Allie flies home from England tonight. I'm going to be domestic and make her my famous french toast in the morning. Aren't I a nice sister?

is this good news?

Oh no! Just as I'm freaking out about writing this paper due tomorrow, I find out I have to write another paper over the summer. I just got confirmation that my abstract has been accepted for the SACRPH conference in October. I was previously brilliant and thought I'd have the paper for this class to use for that conference ('cause it was supposed to be about the same thing). Unfortunately, I've gone astray. I'm going to have to do a lot of work over the summer to shape it up (to take it from some sort of theoretical drivel to a history rooted in some serious research). But you know what, this is good for me. If I can't write this paper over the summer on my own time, I probably have no business being a professor.

This means I get to go to Portland, Maine. Oh how that's going to be a tough journey to make for an extended weekend. Could there be any farther city (within the U.S.) from Los Angeles?

southern accents

This week I did something I thought I'd never do. Of course, months leading into it, I knew I was going to do it, but it was still a bit surreal once I got there. I was on a military base. I went to Fort Benning, Georgia.

My brother joined the Army Reserve. Unbelievable, I know. I don't support militarism, I don't support the president (in anything he does), and I certainly don't support the war in Iraq or any other pending invasions. So when my brother did this, there was nothing I could do. I had to support my brother's decision to make a change in his life (yes, he really needed it). So when Louis's graduation from basic combat training ("don't call it 'boot camp'") fell during my Spring Break, I promised to go. And I'm glad I did.

When I first got there and saw the crowd of military uniforms, knowing my brother was one of them, I started to cry. How could this be happening? But I see positive changes in Louis. He takes his responsibility seriously. He looked good in his Class A's ("the pickle suit") and his ACUs ("don't call them 'fatigues'"). I trust that he can come visit me alone and we won't have any serious issues.

I also learned how to navigate Columbus, Georgia, where there was nothing to do. But they do have a Dairy Queen and no less than three Sonics! We went to the Columbus Museum, which is mostly art with a section on regional history. Let's just say I was not impressed with their treatment of slavery, the Civil War, or race relations (that last part was completely absent). But what can I expect? I also saw some store selling Southern heritage paraphernalia that uses the Confederate flag.

the short stay at "home" begins...

Returning home is somewhat like staying at a hostel. I had to make my own bed (and it's way too soft...I can't believe I loved this mattress), and the bathroom is scary.

Though at a hostel you wouldn't come home to find that your beloved dog Samson ate the rest of your dad's favorite candies that you and your sister handpicked in England. Separation anxiety is a bitch.

europe photos uploaded

In a fit of productivity, I finally downloaded my photos from my trip, and now I've uploaded some of them to my Picasa album. Click the link above to enjoy, but bear with me as I'm still a bit too lazy to put in all the captions as of right now.

a snippet about edinburgh...

Edinburgh is unlike any city I've ever been to. You can feel how ancient it is, the castle is visible from everywhere, there are incredible cliffs (I think they call them craigs), it has dramatic topography (the city is built on seven hills, the castle occupying the highest point), and the architecture is beautiful and illustrative of the city's long history (as are the tiny steep alleys they call closes).

And the entire city smells like hot dogs.

What?!

Seriously, Allie and I were walking around and I kept remarking how good the hot dogs smelled, but of course we didn't see any hot dogs. What the hell could it be?

It's whiskey (yes, there's an "e" in Scotland). Never having tried whiskey, I didn't realize this. It smells like hot dogs. We tasted some whiskey at the castle gift shop. I couldn't handle even a fraction of the thimble-sized sample, but after my throat burned, I tasted hot dogs, er, smoky meat.

And then when we saw a movie (The Holiday, yeah, I know, but it was the only acceptable thing out...they don't watch British movies in Britain! Not even in London! And it was cute.) our last night in Edinburgh, there were ads for Jack Daniels whisky before the movie. Your city smells like whiskey, but you actually want that American stuff?

someone went to europe and has been slow to report on it...

I've become one lazy-ass blogger in the last six months or so, haven't I? I don't know what the problem is, but I'd rather provide you with (somewhat) amusing and insightful entries rather than self-serving bullshit about my boredom or whathaveyou, so I guess that means it's become more sporadic.

But geez, you'd think that someone so fucking excited about her first trip to Europe (3 long weeks!) would rush to recount her adventures, especially when she got to spend eight days in Paris (you know, that city and culture I put on a pedestal). But man, I've been back for ten days, and since the second I landed I've been in agony with severe sinus congestion. It won't go away! Help me, please! And about the only thing I can hear out of my right ear is my heartbeat. So that really zaps my interest in even telling my stories. Of course I've orally related this information to people, which is my preference anyway.

The crude outline of my trip: flew into London, took the tube to Euston Station where I caught a train to Lancaster in the northwest. Allie met me at the train station, and we spent the next couple of days in Lancaster as I adjusted to the time. We did Manchester as a day trip. Then we were off on our marathon: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, London, Paris, and back to London, where we parted. The whole time we were in Britain I think it rained one or two days (it was really sunny in the north). And yeah, we went through the Chunnel via Eurostar. It was not only my longest vacation, it is also the longest amount of time I've spent not riding in a car in my entire life. God that felt good.

I guess I'll just have to slowly reveal stuff as I feel like it. Sorry. But I will tell you that I absolutely loved Paris, even though it rained all the time, there were too many people, and I think that's where I got sick. There's so much more that I want to see there, but now that I've done the major tourist circuit I can relax and take more of the interesting details in. Oh how I'd love to live there. The next best stops were Edinburgh and Manchester.

I still need to download the photos I took and then I'll be adding some to my Picasa online photo album.

In the meantime, I'll be blowing my nose.