no embarrassing incidents!
this is what happened today
voting went off without a hitch June 8th at 12:26pm – comment
shaken awake! March 16th at 4:16am – comment
4.4 in pico rivera (about 18 miles from me) about 10 minutes ago!
february 27
Posted in 5 year journal, this is what happened today on February 27th at 9:56pm – comment2010, a saturday
didn’t sleep very well, worked out (painful, but felt great to get back into the routine), did some post-vacation catch-up. elaine picked me up to get my car back from maria & clayton’s, then invited me to go to the pottery barn outlet with her and megan g. fast-forward five hours later: we’re finally back from lake elsinor after running into the craziest traffic i’ve ever seen on a non-beach-going saturday (bizarrely hard rain, stopped traffic, at least two multiple-car accidents). i helped megan with her new computer and met her dog pippin (previous owners named him after the lotr character), gave clayton his birthday present and drove home, skipped all the errands i intended to run and meghan’s birthday drinks in favor of sweet sweet sleep and my favorite tea, but not in that order.
february 26
Posted in 5 year journal, this is what happened today on February 26th at 10:07pm – comment2010, a friday
finished packing, then spent the morning at the royal botanic gardens. it rained a bit, but we found some trees to stand under and it passed by in a few minutes. saw lots of pretty sub-tropical plants and flowers. then noticed - that racket? yeah, that’s hundreds of bats in the trees. EVERYWHERE. it was CRAZY. also saw an eel following a duck around a pond (sorry, that duck won’t fit in your mouth) and found out that they drain the pond every once in awhile but the eels repopulate themselves - rangers have seen baby eels crawling over the lawn from sydney harbour! went to the airport, said our goodbyes to aunt pat and uncle denny, then promptly found out our flight had been pushed back seven hours. hung out in the airport, used our meal vouchers. the time passed more quickly than i’d have thought. went through security and i got my wine confiscated - misunderstood a couple of answers to my questions about australian security, otherwise i would’ve packed them! finally our plane came, and we settled in for our 13 hour flight. slept a little, but not well. watched a couple movies to pass the time. mom and dad got standby for tomorrow morning’s flights to chicago and when i left them they were heading back to the qantas desk to get a hotel. steve picked me up and i’ve spent the rest of the night unpacking and opening mail and checking emails, etc, but totally avoiding facebook because i’m terrified of what i might find in there. can’t believe i’m back in LA - doesn’t feel quite real and i keep expecting to blink and find myself back down under.
february 25
Posted in 5 year journal, this is what happened today on February 25th at 12:12am – comment2010, a thursday
after breakfast went up to the pool on the 31st floor and checked out the view of the opera house, bridge and rest of the harbor. met a nice british lady up there who had a lot of historical info and a very plummy accent. went on a city tour - saw mrs. mcquarie’s chair, some celebrities’ houses and bondi beach. afterwards mom, dad and I did a tour of the opera house which was very cool. met up with p & d and took the ferry to manly. walked to the parks, saw giant spiders and had a beer and chips and watched the boats go in and out of the harbor. went to dinner at an italian place in the rocks and had probably the best pasta of my life.
february 24
Posted in 5 year journal, this is what happened today on February 24th at 3:06am – comment2010, a wednesday
flew to sydney. checked into the intercontinental, which is extremely nice. we have a view of the museum and the royal botanic gardens. at dinner time we ran into hector and heidi and we all walked through circular quay to the german restaurant at the rocks. we had a great time drinking and singing and heidi said the apfelstrudel was some of the best she’d ever had. after dinner we walked back at a leisurely pace and took photos of the bridge, opera house and big chinese new year tigers. then mom and i wandered across towards the gardens and got a few photos of the conservatorium of music.
february 23
Posted in 5 year journal, this is what happened today on February 23rd at 10:03pm – 2 Comments2010, a tuesday
got up earlier than necessary so I could go across the street to the wildlife dome and have my photo taken holding a koala! she was so little (but heavier than she looked) and soft and sleepy. and her claws were very sharp too! she really latched on when the keeper put her on me. met up with the group and went to kuranda. we drove through the rainforest and our guide, roderic, pointed out a lot of plants and animals. in kuranda, mom, dad and I went to the butterfly sanctuary and saw all kinds of gorgeous and huge butterflies and moths. one butterfly wouldn’t stop landing on me - mom had to pry it off of me and then I ran out so it couldn’t follow me again. we went to the market area and to the honey shop then grabbed delicious german sausages for our walk to the skyrail terminal. the skyrail is a giant gondola over the rainforest and you can see all kinds of plants and birds up there. we stopped partway down and saw barron falls, which was huge due to all of the recent rain. at the bottom of the skyrail we wentto the tjapukai aboriginal cultural park and saw dances and explanations about food and hunting.
february 22
Posted in 5 year journal, this is what happened today on February 22nd at 9:52pm – comment2010, a monday
woke up to rain (tropics!) on great barrier reef day and walked to our boat. it took over an hour to motor out to the floating platform but once we were there mom, dad, uncle denny and i had the first scheduled marine biologist guided snorkel. eric was a great guide and eased us into snorkeling and pointed out a lot of cool things. roxie, a humphead maori wrasse, follows Eric around whenever he’s on the reef and will actually seek him out, so we saw a lot of the big fish and got to pet her and give her mouth a rub, which is her favorite. she was very smooth and soft and her mouth was sort of squashy. we got to hold a sea cucumber and a free-living coral as well. once the guided part of our snorkel was over I stayed out and watched the fish and listened to the parrotfish eating. it was fantastic and I wouldve been out all day but I got stung by a jellyfish on my hand ankle and face (my lip and cheek), and more started drifting into our area so I didn’t go back in. the sting hurt a lot and took a few hours to go away, despite getting sprayed down with vinegar relatively soon after it happened (I was pretty far out when I got stung). we had a buffet lunch and went on a little trip in a semi-submersible. we had a nice talk with ken and shirley, a couple we’d first met on our taieri gorge railway trip and got some ice cream. back ashore we cleaned up and relaxed then went to dinner on the esplanade. my dinner was so good i’m still fantasizing about it. we saw the fruit bats migrating out of town and got gelato.
february 21
Posted in 5 year journal, this is what happened today on February 21st at 9:46pm – comment2010, a sunday
up at 440am to disembark and fly to cairns. had free time in the afternoon so walkeddown the esplanade, got gelato (it’s ungodly hot and humid up here in the tropics) checked out the lagoon (big outdoor public pool and entertainment area) and picked up a few souvenirs. got together with the tour group and went to hartley’s crocodile farm via a highway through the barron river’s flood plain and acres of sugar cane. cruised around the marsh and saw a lot of crocs and saw the up-close feeding of three or four. had yummy canapés and I held an olive python and a baby estuarine crocodile. we saw a croc show and learned more about them then had a great bbq complete with a ton of desserts.
february 20
Posted in 5 year journal, this is what happened today on February 20th at 12:03pm – comment2010, a saturday
got up early for our cairns flight info and baggage tag meeting. did the ‘on deck for the cure’ breast cancer 5k with uncle denny, and checked out the giant dessert buffet. took my last chance to lay out and also participated in the pool games (my side of the ship won!) before getting ice cream and going back to the room to shower and pack. we had our last dinner (i got as much food as i could eat) and said our good-byes to aunt linnea.