Las Vegas

So during our time in Vegas we experienced more rain in a few days than they had in all of 2009. The sun finally came out towards the end of the week and was full on for our journey home last Sunday. We were staying at a hotel complex about 30 minutes away from the action that had lots of hotel rooms and meeting spaces as well as a casino in the middle. Even though I walked through the casino multiple times a day I never put a single cent in a machine. In fact, the casino seemed pretty depressing to the point that one of my colleagues nicknamed it “the pit of despair”. I had jet lag and one morning while waiting for the workout room to open I paced through the length of the hotel a few times which meant I walked through the casino at 4am more than once. Who’s in the casino at 4am? A lot of people that shouldn’t be. I walked past a lot of senior citizens during the day but at night it looked like people who maybe had come from work. There was a guy with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, dosing off at the slot machine. It was strange to walk through a building that on both ends where the hotel and meeting rooms were located was non-smoking but the pit of despair was not.

We did get to the strip the last night and it was good to see some of my U.S. colleagues and even caught up with my buddy S, a Vegas lover if I ever saw one! I miss them so. A few of my UK colleagues were amazed at how the Americans just melted at the sound of their accents.

As we were leaving one of my colleagues asked me if being in America made me homesick and if travelling back was going to be difficult, but no it wasn’t. As any business traveller knows, when you spend the whole trip in hotel rooms and meeting rooms, you could be anywhere in the world. So nothing of the experience made me go, oh I miss this!

One thing that did strike me as I was standing in line at Starbucks in the hotel one morning was the size of the muffins in the display case. No one really needs to eat a muffin that’s as big as a small planet do they?

Didn’t get much rest on the plane on the way home but watched a really sweet film called Away We Go.

As I was taking the train home from Gatwick Airport, one of my worst travelling nightmares almost became a reality. I called H to tell him I was heading home and as I exited the train at Victoria Station I noticed the other woman that had been in my car had my suitcase instead of her own and was exiting the train. To get her attention I had to sort of yell at her which seemed to really shake her up. When she realized her mistake all she could say was, “Well done”. Maybe it was because I had then been up for over 24 hours but I was annoyed that there wasn’t an apology but instead a well done.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to my American family and friends. While we aren’t celebrating due to work and school, the message behind the holiday couldn’t have come at a better time. I’ve been finding myself in a glass half empty phase all week.


For today I am thankful for the person who builds me up when I’m feeling down, random hugs I get from the teenager in my life, my dad’s happiness, my family a continent away but never far from my thoughts, my friends who can make me laugh out loud even through an email, iPods, travel coffee mugs, Skype, NPR podcasts, digital cameras, chocolate chip cookies, electric kettles, Yeah Yeah Yeahs tickets, Johnny Depp, and all of the many blessings I have in my life!

This is What They Call Natural Beauty

When Mel had decided to come out on this trip I asked her if she was interested in visiting Arches National Park. She was all for it. I told her we’d spend the morning there and then head out around 11-ish to meet my dad. We had initially thought of waking up to see the sun rise in the park but when we didn’t arrive at our hotel until 2, we scrapped that plan. On Saturday morning we woke up and I threw on some jeans, a t-shirt, a zip up sweatshirt, and some tennis shoes. Mel comes out of the bathroom ready to leave in a dress and fancy sandals. Do you have any other shoes I ask? She laughed and said she had some flip flops, and added, “We’re not hiking are we?” That made me laugh out loud. While I like to look at natural beauty, I do like to keep it at a distance and didn’t realize that Mel did too. I was all ready this particular morning to do some hiking, but that plan was quickly changed. I did climb up some of the rocks to get a better view of the arches while she took pictures for other tourists.

As you can see from the pictures, beauty is around every corner in Moab. We saw lots of foreign tourists. At one of our stops in the park, I asked a couple to take our picture and we got to talking and found out they were from Florence, Alabama. I told them that I had lived in Huntsville for a number of years. They asked us to take their picture and then we ran into them at every stop along the way continuing the picture taking ritual. I had several conversations with others, all by coincidence from the South. It made me homesick. I know we get made fun of by other cultures for that very over-chatty thing we do, but I interacted with more people in the space of three hours than I did our whole vacation this year.

When we drove out to visit my father, we drove a stretch of interstate 70 that announces at one of the exits that there will be “no services for the next 110 miles”. When we got to the hotel where my dad was staying Mel and I chatted with the hotel clerk for some time and she said she has had several tourists almost run out of gas because they don’t seem to understand what that means. Maybe they need to change the sign to say you will run out of gas if you don’t stop now!

Road Trippin with Mel

My buddy Mel joined me in Utah for the weekend last week. It was so good to see an old friend. The first thing I said to her was, “Okay, I have no really close friends in the UK, just polite acquaintances so if my hair is looking weird these days it is on you to check me into reality”. It was a whirlwind visit partially due to the amount of driving we had planned. But she and I have a long history of road trips, and what’s better than getting in the car, setting cruise control and talking through the night with a friend? I realized once again that I like driving... in the U.S. that is. Driving at night through Utah is like standing in the dark and feeling someone’s presence right behind you but you’re not quite sure. Every once in awhile the headlights illuminated a massive rock formation just at the side of the road, but for most of the time it was unseen. The next morning we found ourselves marvelling around us at what we had missed on the drive down.

We got off to a bumpy start as Mel’s travel arrangements were messed up. We didn’t get down to Moab until 2am. When we got into our hotel, there was a sign at the counter saying that the clerk would be back in 5 minutes. As we stood there waiting, a willowy man walked in with a big smile on his face as he said, “Heyyy”. Mel and I had to laugh once we got into the elevator. We got the impression that he had been altering his mind in those 5 minutes, but he was happy and hospitable.

We started the day off at Denny’s for breakfast. We had a waiter that was a little crazy but also very good. Before we left he made us to-go cups of coffee and tea for the road. I wanted to hug him because it was so nice to get real service!

After a drive across the desolate Utah interstate, we met up with my dad and his friend. It’s been over a year since I have seen him so it was great to catch up and see him. He also enjoyed the scenic drive in Utah. After a relaxing lunch, they checked into their hotel while Mel and I headed back up to Salt Lake City for the night. We had talked of seeing a movie but we crashed instead.

The next day I had to drop Mel off early at the airport and I had time to kill before my flight. It’s strange how lonely those hours felt waiting for flight time. I guess it’s because I had just left the company of my father and dear friend and had quite a journey in front of me to get back home.

Moving House - Again

My buddy K in the U.S. moved last weekend. It’s funny that we find ourselves moving at the same time because she and I left St. Louis around the same time two years ago for greener pastures. For her, the move is significant. It’s definitely the next chapter, owning her first home and having her first child. I’ve been thinking about her as we have planned for our move, which had a different feel. H asked me why I was so annoyed with having to move. It was inevitable, we had no choice, but I was digging in my heels. I started a new job last week with the same company so this move was that extra bit of change that was about to push me over the edge. I took Monday through Wednesday off to help with the move, and I just didn’t feel like I should be taking the time at that moment either.

Funny though, as soon as we arrived to pick up the keys from the owner on Monday and I walked into the house, I felt completely different about it. The space is brighter and more open. I could see us having people over for brunch in this house. As I sit here in the new living room drinking my morning coffee, it feels like home.

P.S. I was asking folks at work for a moving company recommendation to help with the big stuff. When they talk about moving things from house to house they call that a removal which kept throwing me. Yes, remove the stuff from one house but I do want it at the new!

Skype and People

My friend Mel and I had a quick internet chat yesterday thanks to Skype. She had just mailed me some U.S. mail and included a few of the latest copies of People magazine, my favorite guilty pleasure. The conversation went something like this:

Mel – Hey did the Peoples arrive yet?

Me – I love you! They arrived today!

Mel – I don’t want you to embarrass yourself during watercooler conversation by saying something like, “Hey, did you hear Kirstie Alley lost 65 pounds?” only for someone to look pitifully at you and say, “Yeah and she gained it all back. Where have you been?”

Hahaha.

While I flipped through an issue last night it made me realize how out of touch I am with things back home. Not that this is always a bad thing. I haven't had to care yet about who Jon and Kate are, but they're on the cover of People!

Market and Birthday Dinner

We walked down to the market on Saturday and picked up some wine, bread, and cheese to snack on since dinner in Spain is so late. Later that night we went to a seafood restaurant recommended by the hotel. The waiter had a birthday treat planned for Meg and we got a bottle of cava (Catalan sparkling wine) to celebrate. We talked to two women at the table next to us. One of them was Spanish and the other was from the Dominican Republic. She had come to Spain to study and met the Spanish woman’s brother and married him. They were having a night out away from their families. Not ready to call it a night, we ended up in an Irish pub listening to a band. When they played “Sweet Home Alabama” the crowd went wild.

Barcelona Weekend

In celebration of my friend Meg’s 30th birthday I met her and two of her friends in Barcelona for a long weekend last Saturday. It was too short of a visit. This is now my third visit to Spain, visiting very different places for different purposes each time and I absolutely loved it. Even though I can only count (thank you Sesame Street!), say thank you, and tell people I don’t speak Spanish in Spanish, it still feels very welcoming.

This is the first time basically since we lived apart last year that I have travelled sans family, something I used to do every month for work when we lived in the U.S. However, I don’t think I’ve fully recovered from that long separation because when I called home the day before I was set to fly back I started crying on the phone telling H how much I missed them even though I’d only been gone two days. All he kept saying was “Go have fun!”

The girls were great to travel with and the experience was different than it would have been without them. I met Meg when we were enrolled in the same graduate program in St. Louis. She is very social and we started chatting in class. So I was not surprised that we met people, locals or other tourists, throughout the vacation because of her social nature. Instead of having a structured schedule, we took it moment by moment. When I got back and I was talking to my boss about it, she said that is the great thing about Barcelona, there is so much to see that you can just ramble through the city and see things along the way. I also had a new camera for this trip so I was testing that out.

Oh, the only place we HAD to visit was the U.S. Consulate on Monday. Before arriving in Barcelona, Meg and her friends landed in Madrid which was a change in plans due to weather. While having dinner at an outdoor café, Meg’s purse was stolen so she had nothing for the rest of the trip, no cash, no credit cards, no passport. We had to go and get a temporary passport so she could fly home on Tuesday. Because of the Formula One racing that took place over the weekend in Barcelona, the pickpockets were in full force so she was not alone at the Consulate, in fact we talked for quite a while with a dad from Kansas City. He was there spending time with his son who had spent the last semester studying in Barcelona and was now heading home. As we stood there and chatted, his father told us with a smile that he heard there was a place in Kansas City that could remove the pierced loop in his son’s bottom lip, a new addition since he’d been away from home. I couldn’t help but tell the kid that it looked like he’d been involved in a fishing accident and there was a hook in his bottom lip to prove it. I am now officially old! In spite of the stress of losing everything on the trip we had a lot of laughs along the way.

The Ocean

My best friend’s father passed away when I was living in Alabama. The funeral was a ten hours’ drive away but I packed up the toddler and drove to be there. He had been declining for a period of time. When I arrived for the visitation, I remember C and I standing outside talking as she took a break from greeting and comforting others. She said to me that she always wondered with me always seeming to be living far away if I would be there for this event in her life. This has been on my mind quite a bit this week for two reasons. First, a dear friend of mine is suffering a great loss in her life and if I didn’t have an ocean to cross I would be there to pay my respects and offer her a shoulder to cry on as she has offered to me so many times. Second, I see A. struggling with missing out as her friends in the U.S. move along. She is always happy to hear their voices when she talks to them but it’s a constant reminder that life moves on, they move on without her, and I have to keep encouraging her to do the same. On the positive side, you learn who and what is important. People can surprise you, and sometimes those who reach out aren’t necessarily the ones you expect.

The Best Part of the Play was the Ice Cream…

Impulse shopping got the best of me. Seeing a buy one ticket get one free advertisement in the newspaper for a musical based on A’s favorite film Singin in the Rain, made me leap. Last Tuesday the two of us took the train to what felt like was a world away, Wimbledon. The performers were fine but my attention span was short and I found myself, having sat through the original film at least six times, longing for Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds.

When we moved to St. Louis in January of 2003, a new print of the film was released to celebrate its 50th anniversary and A and I went with our friend RB to the Tivoli Theatre to watch it. It was a Friday night and snow began to fall before the movie began. A, who had spent the first eight years of her life in a Southern climate, was so excited, and when we left the theatre that night, The Loop was covered in a beautiful blanket of snow. That night felt more magical than most and I found myself thinking of it quite a bit as A finished her French homework on the train journey home.

What Didn't We Do? Catch-up Friday

We had nothing scheduled on the Friday of B’s visit. H had school and A wanted to be lazy. B had a list of things she wanted to pick up so we decided to take our time and visit some of the local villages and do some shopping. Since B is a library director and former children’s librarian a visit to the Roald Dahl Museum in neighboring Great Missenden seemed like an obvious stop. Because the kids had the week off last week, the museum was full of children. It was weird to be visiting a children’s attraction with no children in hand, but in spite of all of the rugrats, we had an enjoyable but short visit.

La Cage Aux Folles

We definitely wanted to see a West End show when B was here. We picked La Cage Aux Folles because we hadn’t seen it and the fabulous Graham Norton is playing one of the leads. Graham is the host of a popular talk show here in the UK. I used to watch it on BBC America when we lived in the U.S. It is really hilarious. The show did not disappoint. Even A thoroughly enjoyed it and it has such a sweet message. After the show, which was a matinee, we met H after his classes and went for a fabulous meal before heading home to our village. B got to experience the rush hour crush of London as we travelled to the restaurant. It's best to be travelling by foot because it's the fastest mode of transportation.

The Beach in Un-Beachy Weather

Here’s what I have heard about Brighton.

1. It is a beach destination, but not a very nice one.
2. It is the alternative lifestyle capital of England.

So why go on a February day? Why not? I think holiday destinations are interesting on their off-season. B, A and I took the train down since H had school on Wednesday. Brighton does have a Coney Island carnival down by the water. A was begging to go down to Brighton Pier and ride rides which we shot down quickly. We spent the afternoon playing “pick up and put down” (a B phrase) in many shops as well as the standard pick up and purchase. B had a list of souvenirs in mind and I was looking for a wedding gift. We had a terrific lunch at a local Italian restaurant. During lunch after we had made B’s to-do shopping list, A made a list of the 50 states, a skill that amazed her English classmates, and we each went through marking the states we had visited. B won with 39! A didn’t do bad with 13.

For the alternative lifestyle bit, yes there are a few signs but not anymore than you might see in Soho. And the beach, it was prettier than I expected, especially on a February day. While we were bundled up in our winter coats to protect us from the cold winter wind, there was a family swimming in the water! I couldn’t believe it. One of them came out of the water and was absolutely beet red. We sat for awhile on the pebbled beach and looked at the rocks and the yahoos partaking in illegal activities with their pals before heading back to the shopping.

We had a few funny train moments on the journey. On the way down we were on a tube train that was stuttering out of the station. The conductor announced that the reason the train was doing that was because someone was leaning on a door on the train somewhere. In a very calm and cold voice he asked that someone “remove their derriere from the doors so the train could move properly”. On the way back, when it felt like we were inches from pulling into London Bridge train station, the conductor announced that someone had “fallen over on the tracks” and then got stuck in them. This was at rush hour so when we finally did pull into the station (45 minutes late) you could see the mayhem that someone’s practical joke had caused. The stations were heaving with people trying to get home.

Hay-On-Wye

B had one place that she definitely wanted to visit while she was here and that was Hay-on-Wye, a village in Wales just over the English border. Due to H's school schedule it turned out that Tuesday would be the best day to go and it had to be a day trip. I was originally going to suggest we be on the road by 7 but we decided on 8 and actually hit 8:20. Moments like this make me wonder as I believe I have said here before if our home will be more harmonious once A is of the age that I can hand her a cup of coffee in the morning. She is not a morning person and she gets that directly from me. I can hold it together just a sliver better once I’m caffeinated. Tuesday morning she was at her finest. She couldn't find a book she wanted to pack for the drive and she was having a meltdown. So basically my teeth were clenched as I pulled out of our road let alone in unchartered motorways. There’s no way to take public transport to get there so driving it was.

The drive was beautiful and both H and I wondered how much more beautiful it would be if it wasn't winter and it wasn't one of those oh so common UK gray days. I had read up just a little about Hay-on-Wye before we went. It is a village full of bookshops. I was excited to see this, hoping I would find something that interested me enough to read from cover to cover. On the drive I was thinking about the last book that I read in its entirety and was embarrassed to admit it had been a book I finished on our train journey to Edinburgh in November. I go through periods where there is just nothing that interests me enough and this is definitely one of them. Funny though, as I was faced with shelves and shelves of secondhand books, I was searching my brain to remember something I had wanted to read. I picked up a copy of David Sedaris’ Naked just to read one of my favorite funny parts to H. I should have purchased it.

We spent a few hours there before we headed back to our neck of the woods. I would have enjoyed the trip a lot more if I wouldn’t have been driving so much in one day, about six hours. Driving here is not my cup of tea.

Day Out in London

You would never have believed that just a few weeks ago London was a blanket of snow. We went into the city today and you could feel that spring is on its way. I was glad that the sun was shining for B’s visit. Our plan is to head to Wales tomorrow for a quick day out.

Batting 1000

B got in safely on Friday afternoon. We met H at our favorite curry house for dinner Friday night. I was so exhausted from trying to get everything done at work so I could take the week off that I felt like I was the one with jet lag.

Saturday we had our day planned with a trip to London but the trains didn’t agree with us so it was off to plan B, which quickly became plan C, and then D. In the end B got a taste of village life complete with a pub lunch, a trip to our favorite farm for eggs and vegetables, and a walk through the park. We cooked dinner together in the evening and it was nice just to share the laughter with a good friend.

They Must Be Republican

In all of the American workplaces I have been a part of one rule stands: take responsibility for yourself and your coffee cup. Let a science experiment grow from the seven-day old coffee in it if you would like, because NO ONE but you will ever clean it. Imagine my surprise on my second morning of work after using my favorite coffee cup shipped all the way from the U.S. to see it washed and in the kitchen cupboard with all of the others. The cleaning crew actually pick up all dishes and cups from people’s desks and put them in the dishwasher and then unload the dishwasher before they leave for the night. I thought to myself, can I just live at work? This is a good deal! But I also stopped using my personal coffee cup and just picked a generic company logo cup from the cupboard to start using since it felt a little bit like an invasion of privacy having my personal science experiment taken from my desk. I know, I am a little too territorial about a cup. But you may be wondering, what does any of this have to do with a U.S. political party. Well…

We have a new cleaning crew. The morning after the U.S. Presidential elections I went to the local newsstand and bought some newspapers, and put them in a shopping bag in my office to mail in the future. My friend M in Birmingham has been a champion of Obama from day one and I wanted to mail her some international coverage. This bag was very far away from the trash can in my office but I noticed the other day, the bag had disappeared. The over-zealous cleaning crew threw away the newspapers! And not even in the recycling bin for newspapers! I wasn’t sure what upset me more since we have to go through great pains at home separating kitchen waste from non-recyclable waste, to glass, to cardboard/paper.

Sorry M! I tried! I’ll have to pick you up some Inauguration articles and mail them promptly!

A Welcome Surprise

When moving to a new place as we have in the last year, I was sure I would make some new friends. I didn't expect one of the friends I would make would live in the U.S. but D and I worked on a project together this year and in an instant became fast friends. He used to live in the UK and came back here for a visit and the two of us got together on Thanksgiving. He came out to our village in the morning so he could see our place and meet H. Then he and I spent the afternoon in London going to the National Portrait gallery to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibit as well as talking, talking, talking. Sometimes someone can say something to you that you just really needed to hear at that very moment. He has had the experience of working in many countries and was sharing with me how he approached the cultural conflict that can sometimes exist. We had a fabulous day.

Facebook and Old Friends

For a number of reasons, I recently took the plunge and created a Facebook account. Much to my surprise through this account, we were able to re-connect with a couple that we were friends with when we lived in Germany. We had lost touch with them about twelve years ago and I was so happy that we have found them again.

Moving back to Europe this past year, I have thought a lot more often about our time living in Germany. I now realize a military move is much simpler than a corporate move, due to all the assistance (and full-sized American appliances) that the military offer. I have also thought about all the bits and pieces that you pick up from friends along the way that become part of you as time goes by. We are all just amalgamations of the people and places we have known. Before knowing this couple, I had never heard anyone yell, “Roll Tide!” before, and I had never tasted homemade crawfish etouffee and other wonderful Southern treats. I am changed for knowing them, and glad to catch up with them again to hear about their adventures since we last spoke.

If you’re thinking of an old friend that you lost touch with, there’s no time like the present to try and find them.

Yeah, It's That Important

My buddy RB sent us a care package from the U.S. last week, which contained special treats for all, including my favorite condiment, A1! Forget ketchup and mustard, A1 is good on everything, from steaks to burgers to French fries, to baked potatoes.

The blog Best Ads Ever has a link to the A1 centrifuge commercial. This will be me trying to get that last drop out of the bottle.