I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

[athersgeo]

Well, I have returned from Pennsylvania, tired but happy. I've had a truly wonderful time (*huggles to ganeris, Carrie, Callie, Dan, Jamey, Chris, Joel, Bekka, Loog, Jenny, Janet-Marie, Justin, Steve, Chris, weirdweb, Julia and anyone I've managed to miss because I am jetlagged right now!*) and it's also been decidedly productive.


Friday
The flight was pretty good (I will definitely consider flying with BA again; very comfortable, kind and helpful staff, pretty decent food [OK, so half way through dinner we went through a bad patch of turbulance which did sorta ruin - that's not the fault of the caterers!]); Heathrow Terminal 4 is not so good. There's nowhere to sit while you wait to be able to check in and once you HAVE checked in and have got through into the departure lounge, there's really not so much in the way of places to go eat (whereas Terminal 3 has multiple places AND seating before check in). Still, I *was* impressed at Philly with the general speed of passport control AND baggage claim and it's always extremely good to come out of arrivals to see two friendly faces who then take you off for waffles! Perhaps needless to state, I did go to bed rather early that night.

Saturday
Jetlag sucks. 3am was when I woke up first, and then I proceeded to wake every hour/half hour between then and about 7amish. Which was tedious. I repeat: Jetlag sucks. We headed out for Carrie's for a morning of gaming, collecting Loog on the way. ganeris made pancakes (mmmmmmmm!) and she, Carrie and Loog filled me in on what I'd let myself in for by saying yes to this. Bekka and Joel arrived, gaming got underway and the next couple of hours were spent having much fun and giggles. We made a date to do it again on Wednesday night. Then Joel took Loog home and went home himself to look after his two sons while Carrie, Bekka, ganeris and I headed back to Jen's for a quick turnaround and then we, with the addition of Callie, headed to the mall for an afternoon of shopping, makeup tips, water massages [which does NOT entail getting wet, but oh boy was it good for the cramp picked up from 8 hours of sitting on my butt the day before!], clothes and Chick-fillet. I bought a new skirt and some carebear earings (amongst other things), then we met up with Jenny, Dan and Jamey for dinner and a movie (Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow), by which point I was flagging somewhat (though to my surprise, the darkness in the movie theatre didn't make me go to sleep, which I did think it might). Another relatively early night ensued.

Sunday
Didn't wake up until 5am, then did the every-half-hour thing until 6:30am (have I mentioned that jetlag sucks?) when I got up for a shower and to get ready in general for church. Started the day with a Krispy Kreme doughnut (mmmm!) and coffee, then helped to serve 33 6 year olds with pretzls and lemonade (which was a feature of ganeris's Church School Class). After class, I had small children coming up to me and asking me for more cookies (here, I lied and said we hadn't got any more because I have a general feeling of "it's not my place to be over feeding other people's children") and pretzls (which I couldn't lie about because the kid could full well see the giant bag right beside me - oops!). After that, a quick change and we headed out for a pedicure (more massage; there goes the last of the inflight stiffness!) and to meet up with Janet-Marie (who is probably thinking I'm more than a little strange, seeing as I was the only one in the group who isn't nuts over LotR). We had Indian food for lunch (which was OK, though not great and the waiters were kind of skeevy!) and then we headed up to Linvilla for an afternoon of arts, crafts, lemonade, funnel cake (wasn't all that enamoured with that), wasps and plenty of giggles. Another relatively early night.

Monday
Slept right through until 6am (go me!) which is when Dan and ganeris start the getting up process. After Jamey and Callie had departed for school, Jen and I headed for the Krispy Kreme factory, where I got extremely thrown by the randomly produced and completely free fresh doughnut I was handed. It took me a good five minutes to realise that yes, I didn't need to pay for it! THEN I managed to pull myself together to buy a raspberry glazed and a creme glazed doughnut. (Yes, I am a pig - I can't get Krispy Kremes over here so when I do get them, I enjoy them!) We then went to Target where I bought a replacement watch (which replaced the one I bought in Target last October!) and several bits and bobs for work clothes - and where I was promptly thrown by having to swipe my own credit card. (The UK is SO behind in card technology...) KFC for lunch and an afternoon of serious giggles as we watched Ghost Rock. Carrie came over for the evening and (after a trip to the liquor store) we proceeded to get very giggly and calling internationally on my cellphone to order chinese takeout. We then watched one of the strangest films I've ever seen. It's a pastiche on the whole B movie genre and is just generally very, very strange...and oddly addictive. Oh well!

Tuesday
Finally fully over the jetlag; I didn't actually wake up until ganeris knocked on Jamey's door to get him up. Once the kids had gone to school, we headed over to the mall for an extensive dress hunt (I have a formal dinner that I'm going to in a couple of weeks' time and I wanted to see if I could find a dress for it). We finally found a great dress - I will attempt to get photos of me IN the dress up sometime in the next couple of weeks - but it took about 40 or so different clothes combinations and about two hours. After more shopping and more Chick-fillet for lunch, we then headed across to Best Buy to pick up DVDs of a certain film series... *grin* We walked in and were promptly accosted by a trio of Storm Troopers and a member of Rogue Squadron (Jen says it was Wedge, but I think he looked more like Hobbie!), which was possibly the most surreal moment of the day. We picked up a copy of the trilogy, copies of all three soundtracks (I may need to install all five soundtracks in my jukebox and just spend an afternoon listening to the whole lot one after the other!) and Highlander Season Five (which I haven't had a chance to watch much of yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing for the commentaries and suchlike). Then we headed to Genardies (sp?) to buy food [yes, I did seem to do rather a lot of eating last week!] and Carrie's b'day cake. Then Tuesday evening was spent celebrating Carrie's b'day, eating pizza (and cake!) and watching first A New Hope and then Empire of Dreams.

Wednesday
Another grocery expedition and a trip to Kmart was mostly what we did during the day; after four days of non-stop stuff ganeris and I both needed a quieter day! We chatted and plotted and plotted and chatted [and yes, ID'verse fans, you will get to see the outcome of a lot of this plotting!]. Then Carrie, Loog, Bekka and Joel came over for a night of hysterical gaming. I'd go into more detail about it, but a lot of it you needed to be there for - a good night was most definitely had by all. Oh, and Philly Cheese Steaks rock!

Thursday
Another quietish day. We met up with Carrie for lunch and a part of the afternoon (and played her bits of Ghost Rock, which she found hysterical too!) then, after seeing the kids right with dinner (it was a kind of chicken-in-gravey-with-biscuits [scones if you're English] thing - and v.nice), ganeris and I headed over to Carrie's for a night of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which was absolutely hysterical. I haven't seen that film since I was a kid! And the DVD extras like the dancing lego... *giggles*

Friday
We WERE going to go to the Colonial Plantation, but it was closed, so instead we toured Valley Forge (which was very cool - and very pretty; hard to imagine what it must have been like during the winter of 1776/77) and had Carribean cuisine for lunch. The waiter was a perfect hoot; he called us both kids (considering I think he was younger than both of us, this amused me greatly), called me darling a couple of times and, when it came time to pay the bill he handed it over, complete with his purple pen which he threatened to chase us into the parking lot for if we stole it. This so amused us that he made out like an absolute bandit on the tip - I think it worked out as something like a 30% tip! After getting home, I had a powernap, then showered and started to get ready to go to Fez. weirdweb arrived from Baltimore and while ganeris got ready, Mandi and I chatted and caught up. Then we, plus Carrie, Loog, Jenny and Callie all headed down into Philly to Fez. Fez is a Morrocan restaurant. It's got up like a Morrocan wedding tent, you eat eight courses (if this sounds a lot, it actually isn't because you have one dish between all of you and you eat as much/as little as you like; the only thing that's individual is the soup to start and the fruit and tea to finish) all with your fingers, and at certain points during the evening, a belly dancer comes out to entertain you...and possibly get you dancing, too. Out of our party, Jenny was the only person who didn't make it out onto the floor. Much, MUCH fun was had by all.

Saturday
After a late night, we had an early start. weirdweb needed to get back to Balto for a wedding while Callie, Carrie, Jamey, ganeris and I were bound for the Maryland Ren Fair (which is just outside of Annapolis, for those of you who like to know these things). For English readers: A Ren Fair is the American's opportunity to 'do' Medaeval (English!) history, although playing very fast and loose with the definitions, seeing as I saw stuff dealing with Robin Hood (1200s!), ranging right through to the end of the Elizabethan period (1600s!). Also, playing fairly fast and loose with the historical accuracy (I'm not convinced that the Medaeval period was well known for its use of Tarot readings and I'm positive a favoured delecacy of Henry VIII was not Suicide Chocolate Cake [and it was; even I couldn't finish a slice and that's saying something!!!] and nor did Robin Hood ever eat Maccaroni and Cheese on a stick [yes, you read that right, Mac'n'cheese on a stick - it boggles the mind almost as much as deep fried icecream, which you could also get!!!]), but it's all in good fun and there were some really fascinating things to see and do. Jen suggested I have a go at throwing axes, I (knowing my aim!) suggested I didn't and that the one place that would be SAFE to stand would be right in front of the targets... I did, however, have a go at the test of strength, which involved swinging a sledge hammer - which is something that I am very good at [I've been actually taught how to swing one properly {yes, there is a technique to it}]. Jamey had a go at every single crossbow event he could find, while Callie and Jamey both did Jacob's Ladder. Carrie found some gorgous silk scarves while Jen bought a beautiful blue bowl. I got a very natty jackety-shirt thing (again, pictures will follow as and when I can). A generally great time was had by all; particularly me as I took the piss somewhat over some of the 'English' accents being used. On guy in particular (who was truly dreadful - to put Dick Van Dyke to shame in fact!) was so bad I was actually prompted to say (loudly and in my best RP) as we walked by: "What a truly attrocious English accent!" (Don't think he heard me, though!!!) The trip back to Rosemont was broken somewhere just north of Baltimore for dinner at Cracker Barrel where I was introduced to chicken and dumplings (wow, how 'bout a little starch with your starch!), meatloaf (mmmmmmmm!) and other assorted good home American cooking. I finished off with a Frozen Mug of chocolate, fudge, cream and other nummy stuff.

Sunday/Monday
After having had the most extrodinary dream (which started off about Alix von Elsen and ended up about Eric Myers as some kind of warewolf type beastie [and which may produce a genuine plot bunny at some stage]), I skipped church to pack (not very devout, I know, but I also figured that it'd be more fun if I didn't then have to waste the rest of Sunday packing). Had quite a job getting everything into the case - turned out I bought more clothes than I thought! - and we ended up having to make a last minute run to Kmart for a backpack! Over a Wendy's lunch (mmmmmmm - frosties!), we watched Hellboy (which was sorta interesting, but exceedingly bugging for the whole Nazis in Scotland thing at the start), then (after the trip to Kmart and introducing Loog [who came over] to the Laughing Gnome) we all headed over to ganeris's dad's home for dinner with him Jen's step-mom, Doug (Jen's brother) and Connor (Jen's nephew - who is very sweet and very lively). Which was extremely nice. It was also a little deja vu, seeing as the main course was a chicken dish that Jen served to me the first time I came to visit! Then it was time to take me to the airport. Leaving sucks. And it sucked even worse once I'd checked in: I was sitting at my departure gate and was vaguely aware that there was no plane waiting. As this was two hours prior to departure, I wasn't too worried. When it got to half an hour prior, however, I was getting more than a touch concerned that I was in the wrong place somehow. Then the flight details came up (phew, right place), complete with the handy information that hey, by the way, the flight is running an hour and a half late... Yep; it was another of Rachel's Homeward Journey Disasters. Honestly! I swear something out there does NOT want me to remain in the UK. I *never* have trouble travelling away from the place, but travelling back to it? I've been bunted off a flight (returning from Australia), had radar fail so I was late getting into Washington (trip the first to the US North East), had weather make it an issue to get to Washington (trip the first to Philly) and now this. I finally arrived back in London at about 10am, and (after clearing Customs etc), discovered I'd missed the 11am bus and the next one wasn't going to be until 12:35pm. OK. Not a problem; I can deal. Got into the bus ticket office to confirm my return...and was told the earliest bus I'd be able to take was 2:30pm... I was sufficiently tired and frazzled that I just burst into tears. Tears, of course, can sometimes be beneficial, particularly if you don't raise your voice and just look utterly pathetic. She found me a seat on the 12:35pm coach. But for all that, I still didn't get home until gone half past three.

All that, and I haven't mentioned Callie's trumpet, the rock flicking, or the reaction to Crouching Waiter, or the $6 shoes (!) or a whole bunch of plotting, yaking, giggling, talking, plotting, raspberries, Spitting Image's Chicken Song and general fun :)

All in all: A great time was had by me - and hopefully by everyone else, too!

Roll on the next trip (assuming that I'm still welcome after the whole Chicken Song/Agadoo thing...)


On the plotting front, I have now got the whole of Feet of Clay plotted out, including some pretty big emotional stuff, some fun stuff and a couple of great mental images. I also have Thicker Than Water refined and plotted. I haven't done so much on Five by Five (oops!), but I will get that finished ASAP (yes, that really WASN'T supposed to be a two week cliff!).

On the writing in general front, I start a uni course next week, so I'm going to have to cut back my time somewhat, but as long as I'm organised about it, I will still be writing.

Whew.

Have I mentioned that jetlag sucks?...

Comments

[donna-k.livejournal.com]

oh, your trip just sounds like it was so much fun! Especially the Ren Fair. Very jealous!

welcome back btw! :)

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

Thank you :) The trip was huge amounts of fun. It was kind of historical renactment on steroids *grin* Although as I said, slightly dubious historical renactment. Still, much fun to be had. *grins*

[aspartaimee.livejournal.com]

sounds like a blast, as it always is in rosemont! i am bummed i missed out.

oh, and speaking from experience, everytime i go dress shopping with ganeris the result is far more spectacular than i could ever accomplish on my own. i am sure the dress you got looks fantastic!

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

Yep; I'm learning that very rapidly.

*hugs*

Maybe next time - which maybe sooner than anyone thinks *mwahaha!*

OK. So I've spent way too much time with Joel...

[weirdweb.livejournal.com]

You stopped at a Cracker Barrel on the way back?

Was this (if you can even remember) at the Riverside/Churchville exit, by any chance? (I'm assuming you took Rt. 95.)

If so, had you gone down the road and stopped at the Waffle House, you'd have met my high school stalker. :)

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

*chuckles*

I'm not sure. There was a Waffle House where we stopped, certainly, but we had to take the Churchville exit for the Annapolis showground, and I think we were a little further away from the fair when we stopped.

I could be wrong, and I was pretty danged tired by this point so quite a lot of the drive back was a bit of a blur (and plus Jen, Jamey and Callie were cracking up a storm in the back seat so it was tough to figure out much!)

Hey, it wasn't me.

[ganeris.livejournal.com]

It was Bag's fault!

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

*looks dubious*

If you say so...though I seem to recall Bag being in your possession...

[ganeris.livejournal.com]

Possession is the right word.

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

You know, that's not entirely comforting; I think maybe you should tell the Ren Fair bods they're selling demonic paper bags...

Night of the Living Bag???

[kahva.livejournal.com]

Demonic paper bags? You sure you didn't stick DS in there and just didn't want to tell anybody? ;)

Man, I wish I could've been up there with you guys! You need to come here to NC for the State Fair one time. Funnel cakes, elephant ears, candied apples, barbeque, collards, fried twinkies, fried ice cream, fried Snickers bars, ostrich hot dogs (which are quite good actually) fried chicken - so much food! :)

It sounds like you lucked out too at Best Buy, with the stormtroopers. I've not heard of any of the stores around here having anybody dressed up.

And you know, if you DID move out here to the USA, you could come down here to NC a lot faster than if you had to fly from the UK..... No, I'm not dropping hints at all, whatEVER gave you THAT idea??? :)

Re: Night of the Living Bag???

[weirdweb.livejournal.com]

Ooh, should I mention I have a big chunk of family in NC?

*has a bunch of creativity demons shouting "Road trip!"*

And yeah, I think I know which Cracker Barrel you stopped at; about 10 miles down the road and you'd have reached my folks' place. :)

Re: Night of the Living Bag???

[kahva.livejournal.com]

Ooh, whereabouts? I'm in Durham, I work for UNC-TV - am at work right now, as a matter of fact, striping in a refeed of NOVA. I'm from Bear Grass, NC, which is in Martin County.

Which by virtue of running NC Now tonight, I've found out that Gov. Mike Easley has said that Martin County was one of the counties that has had bad damage from Jeanne (at least in Eastern NC, not sure if he was counting Western NC or not). I do believe that Oak City is where the damage in Martin County happened, I've not heard anything about any damage around Bear Grass or Williamston.

Where I am in Durham, I'm near Streets at Southpoint Mall, just 3 miles from it. The movie theater there has a water fountain that Jen can tell you all about. :)

Re: Night of the Living Bag???

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

*snickers*

Believe me, I'm pickin' up all the hints being thrown at me and I'm working on it...

[cmar-wingnut.livejournal.com]

You're back! Missed you. The Ren fair sounds fun, as does the whole trip. And yes, jet lag and travel problems both suck. Talk to you when you've recovered...