Around the world in eighty days

Ok, so I didn't go around the world in eighty days.

But I did go coast-to-coast in six days,
visiting my hometown in NorCal.

Here are some highlights:

1. I saw March of the Penguins, finally. Frankly it could've conveyed the same message in half the time, with half the pseudo-drama, but I learned that baby penguins are the cutest things God ever made!

2. I sat next to a salesman who talked to me for 4 of the 6 hours of my flight. Wierd. I always thought it would be cool and spontaneous to strike up a long convo with your next-seat neighbor, but it wasn't. I wish I had read instead.

3. I bought the most incredible pair of brown boots. They are the most intriguing color of brown and on super-sale. (This picture is not my boot -- mine are much cuter). I take back my bitterness in the last blog, I found half my "Rachel." The other half is a wool coat that is yet to be discovered.

4. Home (places, people) is exactly the same as I expected, which is exactly the same as I had left it six years ago.

5. This is the first time I flew JetBlue and I will never go back. They give you cashews instead of peanuts, TerraBlue Chips instead of Sun Chips, and they have individual tv's with 36 different cable channels. (That's right, that means TLC, AE, Lifetime, MTV, VH-1, Food, HGTV, Comedy, etc.)

6. Watching A&E is where I learned about some alternative lifestyles (and I don't mean sexually alternative). Dog is a bounty hunter that lives in Hawaii with what appears to be his six kids and amply-bossomed wife. He's tough on crime but soft on criminals because he knows what it is to be given a second chance. He calls the perps "bro" and "son" and prays before he goes out for the bounty.

7. I was also riveted by the show Inked, which features the life and times of a popular tatto parlor in Las Vegas. These people are for real. This is how I would choose to look if I weren't such a square. The show also tells interesting side-stories of the customers who come in for a tatt. They are mostly geeky working-stiffs over thirty. Sure blows the whole, "tattoos are cool" image. I realized that tattoos don't make you "cool", drugs do.

8. The trip would've been much better if I weren't sick almost the entire time. What is wrong with my body?! Everytime I get to chillax (Thanksgiving break, Christmas break, and now Winter break) I've gotten sick! Give me a (real) break!