Katie’s Christmas scarf, made with yarn from Dimmeys (the flurfy bits are cashmere) that is much more lavender than this photograph would suggest

 
I never thought I would say this, but I am all shopped out.

Before I left Australia, I was pretty frazzled. My mom told me not to worry about anything and to pack lightly because she could buy me all-new clothes if necessary. Perhaps she should not have dangled the carrot in front of me?

I have gotten every item on my clothing wishlist and then some: knee-high Camper boots (my Christmas present from Mom & Dad), supportive-yet-attractive casual shoes, a second winter coat, earmuffs, a pair of extra-long jeans that make my butt look really good and don’t have any sort of whisker or bleaching treatment (Calvin Klein! $20!), an extra-long pair of flattering, black trousers that are machine washable and dryable (also $20!), lots of naughty-but-nice underwear, pretty black bras that fit, work-appropriate camisoles and a few other odds and ends.

I actually got two winter coats in Missouri, both of them red. I was going to take the first one back because I thought it made me look a bit like the Stay-Puft marshmallow man (it’s filled with duck down and is quite warm), but Barb, Mom and Katie are determined to convince me otherwise. It was pretty cheap, but two red coats? Oh well.

I love Australia dearly, but I really wish there was some sort of bargain-shopping equivalent to Ross/Marshall’s/TJ Maxx over there. I have hit the jackpot multiple times since I’ve been here. For example, two adorable angora-blend cardigans were on clearance for $7 each and ended up being a combined total of $3 after using my mom’s gift certificate. One of the most flattering tops I have ever tried on in my life was $5 at Ross. I bought a pair of awesome patterned tights at Target, went back to get another pair and found out they were on clearance for $4. Everything I have purchased has been so incredibly inexpensive, and - to be fair - my mom has paid for most of it.

I wonder how many more bargains I was able to find because I wasn’t also shopping for Mr Honey?

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I wore my hair in a ponytail (the world’s smallest) yesterday and received many compliments. I have also started using a comb for the first time in a decade. What is this world coming to?

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I’m leaving on a jetplane tomorrow and am both nervous and excited.

first flight of the day to dallas, texas

hoo boy. had too much fun in missouri to be legal.

barb and nuke’s apartment is super cute and home to my favorite chair ever, aka the chair from which i wrote my master’s thesis. it’s mauvey pink and armless with bits of sparkle woven into the upholstery. i had been wondering what happened to it, so i was extremely pleased that its whereabouts are now known and that it is being loved.

the dinner party on friday night was great, and i got to see angie, john and aislinn. i also took my first-ever (truly) leap into the seedy world of alcoholic beverages.

boozin’ it up with wine coolers

no drunkenness or anything remotely interesting to report except that soda tastes better. not a big surprise, really.

koala cupcake: made by barb, too cute to be eaten, pictured on the aforementioned chair

barb’s parents were supposed to visit on saturday, but bad weather kept them in springfield. i was sad i missed them but overjoyed to wake up to a view of snow gently falling outside while i stayed snuggled up in the ultra-comfy bed. SNOW!!!!!! WARM, COMFY BED!!!!!!! it was like all my christmases had come at once.

then barb made veggie sausages and orange biscuits (savory breakfast biscuits, not cookies, for all of you non-americans reading this). the biscuits were very time-intensive but delicious. they were also the first recipe i’d known anyone to attempt from an issue of martha stewart living magazine.

after our late start, we went to visit aislinn in a faraway suburb of st louis. her son, corbin, was adorable.

corbin

aislinn was also in possession of some of my favorite furniture from years past, including my desk with secret trap doors and my minty-green retro lamp. i was very happy to see them again.

we went to the goodwill outlet, where - according to the billboard - nothing costs more than 95 cents. i got a mambo record and a retro, lime-green, samsonite suitcase in mint condition if you excuse the scent of old-lady perfume. the inside is fabulous, with grosgrain ribbon ties and pockets that snap on and off.

it snowed some more (!) as we headed to tj maxx, where i got a cheap, new winter coat and a pair of casual shoes to replace my worn-out old converse sneakers so my mom and kristy (and my tired feet) won’t complain anymore. the new ones are squishy and very supportive. the old ones are being donated to the salvation army asap.

that night we ate at saleem’s, “where garlic is king”. i must have eaten 10 different garlic-heavy dishes, all of them delicious. then we watched malcolm, which i donated to barb and nuke, while garlic oozed out of our pores.

b@rb, nuke and lola

after taking a family portrait of my hosts, it was off to columbia, where we saw billy, maureen, nick and leah. saw a very long engagement at ragtag , where i was able to purchase grape soda, twizzlers and popcorn sprinkled with nutritional yeast (my favorite). we had a fabulous dinner (and a few more booze-like drinks) at flat branch, where we saw more familiar faces.

next morning i did a mini guest lecture at my old university, in one of my old classes. it was neat to listen in during the rest of the class and pick up on things that i would not have before. they asked lots of questions and seemed very interested — i just hope i didn’t ruin the hopes and dreams of too many starry-eyed students.

then i attempted to eat lunch twice because i couldn’t decide between the main squeeze and bangkok gardens, which makes the best phat thai i have ever had. so i ate a 10.30am breakfast at main squeeze, tapioca pudding with mango at bangkok at noon-ish and then ordered the phat thai to go and ate it for dinner that night.

ryan reed couldn’t make it to the dinner party because his new apartment had been broken into, so he showed up monday night. i got three giant hugs out of him, which topped billy’s two hugs from that afternoon and should last me another few years.

an absolutely amazing weekend. had it not been for lack of access to e-mail, i would have seen kristen and david, too. i’m pretty sad about that, but it was such a jam-packed weekend that i don’t know how i would have fit it in.

overall impressions from the weekend:

 
i should also note that i’ve been feeling pretty healthy for over a week now. i know that doesn’t sound like much, but considering all the constant partying and travelling i’ve been up to, and the fact that i’ve outlasted all of my hosts in the stay-awake department (which is not exactly my department) lately, is pretty encouraging. 2005 is going to be a good year for me, i think.

won’t be long before i’m back in australia, and i still have quite a few things to take care of from this end. if i haven’t seen you or contacted you yet, please don’t think i’ve forgotten you! i’m still trying to fit it all in.

another knitted christmas project finished: pocket scarf and matching hat for my sister

i stole my mom’s dentist appointment today and had my first teeth cleaning in three years. and my first filling in 27 years. no insurance and $254 later (thanks, mom!), i can now put off the dentist for another few years.

what’s that you say? a cavity?

yes folks, this is a big year of firsts for me.

p.s. i leave for missouri in 8 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!! (must make effort to pack and sleep beforehand.)

this picture will only be funny to australians: van found at a gas station just south of fresno

had an awesome time in so. cal. this weekend. i hitched a ride with benton and pepe, which was all sorts of fun in itself. highlights of the drive include:

the downside was eating the mcveggie burger. ewww gross. wasn’t sure if it was meat or not - it doesn’t really matter because i will never eat it again. you shouldn’t either.

windmills on the way to mojave, california

sherry and i got up to all sorts of trouble in l.a., which was very sunny and beautiful all weekend long. i must have had good timing because rain and mudslides had characterised the past few weekends there. i got a magic concealer at sephora (it is quite possible that magic is really involved - you should try it for yourself) and had my favorite meal at real food daily - salisbury “steak” with garlic mashed potatoes and vegetarian-safe caesar salad. the garlicky dressing on the salad was so good that i wanted to drink it, and how gross is that? it was unbelievably delicious, though. i also had a mocktail of herbal tea and mango juice with a cucumber garnish. yum.

we stopped at amoeba on the way home (it really was on the way), and i found some bargains by otis redding, marvin gaye, al green and built to spill. my photos in this month’s readymade might have been embarrassingly small, but they paid for a few little treats.

this is a real house, not too far from where sherry lives. i couldn’t get all the faux greek statues in the frame, but you get the idea.

i visited my sister on monday, and we had to drive through the o.c. to get there.

we visited savers, which was spooky for me because it looked identical to the savers in melbourne - same tags, same prices, etc. i scored a talking pee-wee herman doll, which had never been removed from its box and - ! - still talks. i tried three times to buy the same thing on ebay awhile back but was outbid each time. oh happy day. i also got some dark red wooden beads that look like they were meant as a fake cranberry garland for a christmas tree but which i will refashion into a choker for myself.

we drove to fullerton for dinner and found out that the vegetarian restaurant amanda had discovered on the internet was now a clothing store. the store owner gave us a recommendation for a restaurant around the corner that was FABULOUS by all accounts. we tried to resist ordering the krakatoa (described as chocolate ice cream, peanut butter, viennese coffee blended and topped with clouds”) because of the caffeine but eventually gave in. so. good. in the interest of comfort, i had to unbutton my pants on the way home.

sherry and i tried to watch the stepford wives on pay-per-view, but the power went out after the first half hour. more surprising than the power outtage was that the movie was genuinely funny and made us laugh out loud. i had read so many bad reviews. we’ll each have to rent it now, just to find out what happens.

took the amtrak home yesterday and spent the entire bakersfield–>fresno portion knitting katie’s extra-long scarf and chatting with a guy who tried to ask me out multiple times. he was nice, but i wasn’t interested. hmmm… isn’t it convenient that i can be “on” or “off the market” as it suits me? i’ve got a convenient excuse (and can pull out my wedding ring) if i don’t want to date someone - too bad sherry doesn’t, tee hee.

the restroom sink at teazer, in fresno’s tower district

things have been busy around here. i’ve been knitting and coming up with all sorts of creative ideas - so many that i’m going to have to start putting them down on paper or i’ll forget. i actually had trouble getting to sleep last night because i kept coming up with potential uses for this toy.

i’ve also been planning (both for here and when i return to australia) and doing lots of productive stuff. yesterday i spent hours working on a budget in Excel while listening to the garden state soundtrack on repeat (not because it was that good but because i was on a roll and didn’t want to stop what i was doing to change the CD). i felt very productive and adult-like at the same time, yet if you saw me all bundled up in the giant blanket, huddled up in front of the computer, “productive” and “adult-like” are probably not the same words you would conjure up.

jo-anne and i went thrifting downtown today. i found the moosewood cookbook for 65 cents and a cute denim skirt for $3. i also got a fun hat at retro rag with the gift certificate i got for christmas.

then we had dinner at irene’s cafe (veggie burger and sweet potato fries) and tea at this really cool new tea “bar” called teazer. we had something called “bird of paradise”: passionfruit-flavored green tea mixed with pineapple juice, vanilla syrup and cream. SO GOOD. it was the first time i’d ever had tea and juice mixed together. i will definitely have to keep this in mind and be more experimental in the future.

i was going to try to go to san francisco tomorrow (to visit the beall family and run a few big-city errands), but i’m tired, the transport was too hard to arrange and someone needs to be at home tomorrow when they deliver the new computer (!) that my parents are loaning to me in the long term because i am now computerless as a result of the separation. i am tempted to name the new toy otis II, but i’m not sure if that is a bad omen because my first laptop (otis I, naturally) went to bit heaven, as my father put it. i might try again for san fran sometime next week.

on saturday i’m off to l.a. for the long weekend to visit sherry and my sister. wheeeeeeeee!