Back from the Sunshine State

Arrived back from the US yesterday morning at about 8:30. Unfortunately, I had to go straight to work, so instead of hopping on Bus 12 to go home, I hopped on the shuttle to the "Corporate Village" with my luggage. I even got to work on time! One hell of a commute!

I had agreed to come in because there was a scheduling conflict with the Finnish guy (who was the only other person covering the Swedish market). He wanted to have Friday off to go to Finland for the weekend and would not accept taking the following Monday instead. Dismayed at having to provide customer service while in the stupor of jet-lag, I plopped down at my desk reluctantly. Fortunately, since it was "Good Friday", it was very quiet. And even more fortunately, one of the Team Leaders told me I could go home if I wanted to since the Norwegian guy had "gone live" earlier this week. This was very welcome news, but I decided to stay as long as I could stay at least somewhat mentally alert. This ended up being until about 1pm. What a relief to walk out of that building so much earlier than I had anticipated! So, I got home about an hour later and stumbled into our apartment, to Kristen's utter surprise. Great to be home!

Of course, I couldn't help but to start unpacking all the goodies I had brought from the New World. Some things from an "acquisitions list" that I had brought with me and some that I thought of while I was there. Kristen had ordered some clothing from Old Navy and Urban Outfitters, which was delivered to my mother's house. Between that and the other things I had bought, I had to borrow a bag from her to get everything to Brussels. It was worth it! Clothes, chapstick, chai tea from Starbucks, Mojo Criollo marinade, Sour Patch Kids, American peanut butter, beer, eye-drops, lotion, and on and on.

Aside from acquiring a lot of stuff to bring to Belgium, the trip was good. It was great to get a decent amount of time off from work and, of course, great to see my mom and sister again (it had been almost a year). We went to a few of my favorite eating establishments like Pollo Tropical and Fernanda's Market for their mouth-watering sandwiches which are STUFFED with meat (unlike the one-slice-of-meat-is-enough sandwiches they make in all of Europe). Then there's my mom's great cooking. It's super-delicous and plentiful, so it's impossible not to gain a few pounds if you spend any length of time there. My stomach has shrunken quite a bit from our eating habits over here, so there was rarely a meal on this trip where I wasn't absolutely stuffed afterwards.

I wasn't only eating while I was home, there was a lot of time spent lazing around the house and also doing some good ol' chores. I fixed the weed-whacker, did some yard-work, pressure-washed the driveway, repaired some fixtures, troubleshot two computers, got rid of old junk in my room, and started scraping off the wallpaper in my bathroom. That sounds like a lot, but I really should have done more because it barely scratched the surface of everything that needs to be taken care of at the house. So, it's a shame that I couldn't stay a little longer.

Other things I indulged in: watching television (American Idol, Food Network, sensationalist evening news, a few minutes of scary tele-evangelists, etc.), driving gas-guzzling cars, listening to National Public Radio (really miss that!), staying up late, tormenting my cat, walking around bare-foot, going to a mall (and having an Orange Julius), getting coffee at Starbucks, having some fast-food (Taco Bell), grocery shopping with a shopping cart and not thinking about having to carry it home, visiting some friends from high-school, and sweating.

-RP-


Some other pictures from the trip:

The beach

Kristen's old apartment

Christina with her stroller

Christina & Harry's newborn son, Alex

Jessie, the sleepy-head