I would like to clarify that these are theories about MY brain. I hold no theories about other peoples. Well... sometimes I doubt that people HAVE one, but that's a different post I probably won't ever write. But don't worry... I'm not talking about YOU.
1) If I am trying to concentrate one half of my brain picks on the other unless I distract it with music. The louder the tunes, the more concentrating I'm doing.
2) I have a Magic 8 ball memory. Questions go in.. and then later (sometimes much later) an answer pops to the service. It was a bitch for tests. And the staring into space while I waited for something to "pop" makes me look funny.
3) There is only room for so much information in my brain... so Brittany Spears, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan... get the HELL out. I don't care anything about your pathetic lives and I'm sure that I could learn something like how to spell again if your baldness/prison/rehab wasn't clogging those neurons.
4) My brain runs on cartoons and jelly beans. Okay. Maybe not jelly beans.
Greetings and salutations! (I watched Charlottes Web on the plane)
Well, back in the states. No drama getting back, planes took off and landed as they were supposed to. I'm still really amazed that those big double decker planes can fly.
It makes me think that a cement truck could fly given enough thrust!
Since I'm sitting back in my rapidly chilling apartment (I should close the door...) with itchy calves and peeling arms I thought I'd racant some thoughts and pull down some pictures from the trip to the Great Barrier reef.
Let me level set by saying that the first thing I heard about the reef trip was that I would throw up. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't like to throw up. Given the opportunity, I will choose to keep that breakfast/lunch/6 pack of beer down, thankyouverymuch. When my folks went on this trip a few weeks back. more than half of the passangers were zuking up last night's pizza. When we got to the boat we were told that the weather was the best they'd seen in "27 years" and I'm inclined to believe them. We had a great ride out and I only felt a little wubbly a couple of times. Some people turned green and went to the back of the boat and I certainly hope that they had a good trip anyway.
Let me also say that the drive we made to Agnes Water on Thursday was the second time we'd trundled our asses up the coastline. The first trip, less thatn 24 hours after landing in the country, took us to see the sea turtles hatch and tour the rum factory but we'd been weathered out for the reef trip. We headed back home and monitored the weather and ended up going back up there when the weather turned.
It was a good hour and a half at least out fo the reef with really nothing to look at. Well, there was water. Lots of that. They call it the Coral Sea and it's part of the South Pacific as far as I can tell. You know how all those oceans blend together.
So, we were tooling along, almost to the reef, when we saw this:
Yep. Dolphins off the Port and Starboard bow.. which is good because I don't know which side is which. They swam along with us and they would leap a bit out of the waves and you could hear them breathe. (And yes, that was how the water looked, that incredible blue.)
After we oohed and ahhed we made it to the island itself
All that dark part is reef. Dat's where the fish live.
3/4 of us got burned (Maggie was diving, so she was in a wetsuit and 60 feet under water) after 4+ hours of floating around in the water. This is what is STILL peeling off my arms. And not even that good, large sheet peel.. it's the little dandriff peel crap.
We made it back to the shore safetly, flag waving all the way
Exhausted, we decided to head up the hill to do one last 'Roo spot before heading in for the evening and found this pretty face wallaby hanging out with his old, bad self:
And the last thing we saw that night before heading back to the rooms? The sunset over the Coral Sea:
Sure, the trip gave us another trip by Sexie Coffee and though Illustrious Gympie but it did add an additional 1000km to our road trip week. I'm not complaining, but my butt kinda was by the time we were all done. It was completely sweet and awesome of my folks to be willing to make the drive twice.
That's Australian for heya, how you doing?
It's Tuesday night here in Bribane (Bris to the locals and otherwise lazy) and it feels like a Seattle summer night. The downside to that is that warm + dark makes you think it's time to go to sleep and it's only 9 pm. Oh well, I'll keep chalking it up to getting acclimated.
So far, we've driven about 400 km around the east coast of Australia. This is a beautiful country even if everything here does want to kill us. Seriously. It's funny, telling people you are going to Australia is like telling someone that you're getting your wisdom teeth pulled... they will tell you every horror story out there. People have told us that the snakes will kill us. The jelly fish will kill us. The bugs will kill us... hell, even a FLOWER will kill us. Seriously. We've started keeping a list of Things That Want To Kill Us and Things That We Saw That Wanted To Kill Us But Didn't. It's getting to be a long list.
It doesn't always feel like a different place here. People talk funny and drive on the wrong side of the road, but you see more than enough of what you're used to that you have a sense of normalcy. Which is a completely wrong impressiong to have as this is NOT your mother's country... unless of course you are from Australia in which case it is.
It's late here, and I am tired. Check out my flickr set here: GO DOWN UNDER
And to wet your whistle, here's a picture to keep you occupied:
I haven't even told you about the possums! *sigh* so much, so little time.
Next stop: we hit the town and take in the local sights. And hope to make it up to the reef to go diving. That's another story. :)
Later Mates!
My vacation approaches. Rapidly. And I'm both excited and also freaking out just a little bit.
I've never been far out of the country before. With the exception of Hawaii, I've never been anywhere that I couldn't drive to if you gave me a gas card and a AAA membership. This is more flying and more farther away (yes, I know that's bad grammar) than I have ever been.
Wow. It's a pretty amazing world when you think about it. I've been to almost all the states in the US.. including Alaska. I've been to the Yukon (I have a picture to prove it!). I've seen volcanos and glaciers. And now I'm about to fly halfway around the world.
I know for a lot of people that's not a big deal. Many people travel.. and most of my friends have taken at least one major trip out of country - meaning out of continent. I've never been to a different continent. WOW.
So, I'm working on packing and making sure I have the right clothes (it's south of the equator... it's a different DAY there and an entire different SEASON) and trying not to freak out.
Although I am. Kinda. In a good way.
Wow. That's all I can say.
I'm going to post pictures when I can. If I can find my stupid password. ;)
Wow.
In a completely unrelated thought... I completely in love with the show Mythbusters. Who says TV rots your brain? Why, just today I learned that the pee of a bitch in heat will distract a guard dog and that you can't beat a bloodhound.
Of course, the downside is that now I want a dog... stupid Discovery Channel.
/random train of thought. :)
Braceface teenage girl to her rapidly departing boyfriend:
If you love me, you'll stop running.
Yeah. Good luck with that.
Are you ready? Ready, really?
Okay.
Okay.
Sorry, I'm just really excited!!
I. Made. Chili.
In my CROCKPOT and it was EDIBLE!!!
Okay... that's cool... okay... *whew*. Okay. I am just SO proud of myself! I mean, I've never made chili before. And we all know how well I cook with a crockpot. Oh.. you don't remember? Please take a moment to read THIS. I'll wait. Done? You read fast.
But now you see why I'm so excited. I have few little victories in my life. Mostly I seem to crash and burn. But. I made chili. In my crockpot.
And I won 3rd place. :D
Or something like that.
So, we made it through the holidays. Through the families, the presents, the well wishes, the slightly inappropriate comments, the drunk uncles, the yelling the screaming and the hugs at the end of the night. Just like last year and just like next year and it all feels right and like home. Well, except for that drunk uncle bit.
So now it's the new year... so it's time to make all those changes in your life that you couldn't do until now. If you're like me, you start each year with the best of intentions. Then 4 months from now you realize that you haven't done a single thing you said you were going to and you figure that it's kind of late to start and call it a new YEAR's resolution since it's fully into Spring. In the Fall, you realize that you MEANT to do all those things once you got through the Summer (because you're just so BUSY in the Summer you know, it's hard enough just to get everything done on those 16 hours of daylight that we get) but you didn't do them and now you may as well wait for the new year since it's almost here anyway.
Or is that just me.
This year I decided to make some of my resolutions public. They aren't all public because some of them aren't your business. Like, for example, what if one of my resolutions was to seduce my married next door neighbor? That would be something that I should keep private. And just for clarification, that's NOT one of my resolutions... my next door neighbor is a) not really my type and b) gay. Nor is he married. He doesn't even have any hot friends. Of course, now I've digressed again. And no, greater attention to my own train of thought is NOT a resolution.
So, here we go:
1) make a budget and stick to it. If I hope to own a condo/house/cardboard box of my own, I need to start saving the money that I would otherwise be spending on the mortgage. I've been doing this haphazardly, but it's time to make it "real." My Dad says that this is very mature which makes me not want to do it at all.
2) make my bed every day. BEFORE 5 minutes before I get into it. Today is January 2.. thus far I have done this never this year. I'm not really off to that good of a start
3) stick with my eyebrow program. Remember that I said that I took care of those furry bits? Apparently I am a bad eyebrow owner as my new eyebrowist (I don't know what they are called) says that I am now on a program and am not to touch them. She tells me that I should have the PERFECT EYEBROWS in 3-5 more waxes. Now I understand why Mrs Farcy, my drunk Social Studies teacher in High School just painted hers on. At least I think her name was Mrs Farcy
4) I will have smarter discussions with people. I think my brain is actually shrinking from lack of use. So I am going to find some friends/a group of people/strangers on busses that I can have meaningful conversations with without being told that sometimes I'm a boy. (side note.. why is intelligence associated with men? Why is it that if a girl wants to talk about planes on treadmills or her opinion on robots that it's not a feminine thing? I can understand it making me a dork... but a guy?? Anyway, this is probably another post)
5) take a cooking class. There is a cooking school very near me and I keep meaning to take a class and this year I'm going to do it.
So, those are the public ones. I'll let you know how I'm doing along the way.. and if it gets to be April and I pull a "oh shit, my bed hasn't been made in 3 months" then you know what timeline I'm on.
What's YOUR revolution this year?
~C
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