Thursday, October 11, 2007

we made it

We are now back in the United States. It's so weird to be back. I have never been away from "home" for that long before. In all of my travels and moving, the longest I'd ever been away from California was only a few months. I have to admit, I'm suffering from a bit of culture shock. I had to go to Babies R Us today and I just about passed out from all of the choices. I should have brought a snack with me because I didn't realize it would take me so long to pick out a stroller (yes, another one! This makes stroller #6) and a bottle brush. There must have been 8 different bottle brushes to choose from. Apparently, a bottle brush is not just a bottle brush. I felt like I was buying a car. It was ridiculous.

The other thing that is hard to get used to is the stupid speed limit. I often found myself going 85-90 mph on the freeway because that's what I'm used to. Here, not so much. Y'all are slow!! At one point, I saw a CHP officer hiding on the other side of an overpass and had just enough time to slow down. While I was slowing down, though, I was deciding what card I was going to pull if I got pulled over. Would it be the dumb/ flirty blond card? No, that one doesn't work when you have babies in the back seat. Would it be the pitty card? No, I can't cry on demand anymore. Or, would it be the "I'm used to driving in Germany and haven't even been in America for 24 hours. My foot doesn't understand what a speed limit is anymore" card? That one was sadly the best excuse I could come up with. Thankfully, I didn't need to use it. He found someone much more exciting to pull over instead.

I've hardly had a second to sit down in the past 3 days. The 11 hours of flying doesn't count as sitting. It's exhausting. Both babies did really well and I am proud of them. Now I'm tired but not really jet lagged. I guess the way to prevent jet lag is to be so sleep deprived that your body is used to sleeping 3 hours every 24 hours. I don't feel any different than I did before we left. I don't recommend that jet lag prevention, though. It's brutal.

Now I get to catch up on everything here. The next few days will be just as busy as the past 2-3 days have been and then things will hopefully calm down so I can get back to doing fun things like taking pictures of my kids and pouring my cold soul out to all of you.

9 comments:

Angela said...

I'm glad you made it back safe! Take a moment and BREATH in there somewhere too :). My sister is getting married sometime in the Spring so I'll probably be out your way again around then, will you still be "home" then?

Anonymous said...

Welcome Back!
Sleep is free, so try to get some more. Of course there are lots of choices for that, too, including bed, chair, floor, day, night, long, short, interrupted, deep, etc.

Can't wait to meet CB and see you and W. Let me know when having a visitor no longer sounds like 'NOOOOOOOOOO!' That trip is brutal...took me several days to get somewhat sane and normal (for me) again.

Midwest Miscellany said...

Welcome back to the land of plenty :-) Glad you and the kids made it safe and sound, and that they didn't give you too much trouble.

Anonymous said...

yeah! I'm so glad you are back home, safe and sound. And, don't worry about feeling overwhelmed in BRU- I feel like that everytime I go and I never leave the suburbs. Enjoy your time with family and friends and make someone babysit so you can nap!

And, since you are now the stroller queen-- which stroller did you end up getting this time? Do you like it?

Unknown said...

Welcome home. When are you coming to Alaska? We got the first layyer of snow today! It was snowing this morning and now it's reaally snowing. Do you know if M got his package? Let us know.
We love you.
the nevilles

Leah said...

Welcome back to Ca. We missed you!

Imcombobulated said...

Congrats on the safe trip home! I was expecting to hear that you'd had a terrible trip, just because you and I seem to have similar luck with travelling and small children.
I'm gonna miss you though; Don just gave me my b-day present (early)-- a trip to Germany! I'll be there in early November.
I hope things are going well for you in CA.
I wanna hear about the new stroller too!!!

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad your trip home is over, and went smoothly. I hope you are able to get some rest and some answers very soon. I'm thinking of you, girl.

Margaret said...

Glad you made it back to the states! Thinking of you!!