We leave tomorrow!

I arrived in L.A. yesterday and the first thing we did was go to In-n-Out. Yum! Then hopped on the 405 and sat in traffic. Welcome back! We headed for Nicole's friends' house--Aaron, whom she teaches at La Mesa with, and his wife Kim. They have an 18 month old baby girl, Kara. She is so cute! She was a little unsure of me, but while I was there, she played fetch with Ellie (their min pin), and giggled profusely at the dog's reaction to the squeaky ball. She ran across the yard with Aunt Nicole. She stared intensely at her shelves of books until finally picking out two for her daddy to read to her. And she ate a tomato like an apple! Earlier in the day, Kim had told her that she could go outside after dinner. So when Nicole and I came in with the food, she immediately went to put on her shoes. What a memory!

I tried to sleep on the plane and thought I would do really well, because I was feeling nappy when we first got on, and I figured taking 2 benadryl would seal the deal. But it was still pretty much a very deep "rest" more than a light "sleep." I think the key is the alcohol-benadryl combination! Also, only a 5.5 hour flight, in the middle of the day. The flight to NZ will be 13 hours and overnight, so that will also encourage sleep. The onboard movie was He's Just Not That Into You, which I'd already seen, so I didn't bother watching it. But afterwards was an elephant documentary which was very interesting. You know how most nature films they're like, "This baby has wandered away from it's mother and will surely die. Elsewhere on the plain..." and you're like, "You're right there, why don't you help it for crying out loud??!" Well, this film was about people who DO intervene to help, so that was very satisfying. I saw the part where they had to sedate a baby and its mother to give the baby an injection of antibiotics for its broken foot, which had become infected internally. High drama, because there was a risk that the mama would pass out on top of the baby. Then it looked like the mama was going to land on her chest, blocking her airway. They had to tie ropes around her and use their vehicle to roll her over! In the end everything worked out though. My kind of animal documentary!!

So I made it until about 10:00 pm last night, which is 1am Eastern time, before I had to crash. I slept until about 6:30. I had a disturbing dream in which I took my iPhone out of my purse, and a bracelet I'd brought was wrapped around it. The problem was, the bracelet was magnetic (?) and had messed up the phone pretty bad. (Of course, there is no hard drive inside the iPhone--it's flash memory--which is not affected by magnets. But you know how dreams are!) So in my dream I was very upset because the phone basically wouldn't work, and I could take it to the Apple Store and have them restore it to factory settings, but then I would lose all my content. Not forever, because it's on my home computer, but my home computer is 2500 miles away at the moment! Oh so distressing. I was very relieved when I woke up and realized it was a dream! I do have to call AT&T customer service, though, because yesterday at Dulles airport I was unable to use the AT&T wireless service which is supposed to be free for all iPhone customers. It said something about not recognizing my number. When I called the wifi customer support, they said something is wrong with my account, but of course AT&T is closed on Sundays so all he could do is authorize access to the wifi as if I'd paid, and then I could deal with AT&T the next day. I swear, I've had nothing but problems w/ AT&T. If I was not absolutely head over heals in love with and addicted to my iPhone, I would go back to Verizon in a heartbeat. I have heard rumors that Verizon might be getting the iPhone next year, and if that's the case, I will be switching back for sure. I don't care if I have to pay an early termination fee! At least Verizon doesn't screw up your account twice in 4 months!

Whew! I must be in a mood to type! I haven't posted this much in eons. The plan for today is to get pedicures and maybe go to the movies. Pretty chill. The weather here is super nice. Unseasonably cool for June. I'll take it! Mid-70's all week, while it's high 80's and low 90's with thunderstorms in NC! That is one part of NC I won't miss while I'm gone! I do miss my baby, though. Comet is in good hands, though, and I am just going to keep telling myself that animals don't really have a sense of time, so me being gone 3 weeks isn't different from me being gone overnight. Hard to believe, but that's what they say.

Okay, ta ta for now!