Back in the US...SR

My plane from Europe landed yesterday at LAX around 3 pm, and Justin picked me up at the airport and dropped me off at home, then immediately had to leave for a business meeting. Judging by the time difference, I'd actually been awake since 10:30pm PST on Monday night, since I didn't sleep on the plane (although I did watch a hilarious British film called French Film, as well as The Proposal, I Love You Man, and...geez, what else did I watch? I also started a Bollywood movie that has Shakrukh Khan in it, but they turned off our individual seat TVs before it got to the part of the movie where he takes off his nerdy glasses and shaves his moustache).

So needless to say, I was a little loopy. But it was just starting to cool off, and I'd been sitting down for essentially an entire day, so I walked over to the bike repair shop and picked up my bike, which is actually Justin's old orange-spray-painted Playa beater, and rode through the calm night over to my PO Box to get my mail. As I rode, it cooled, degree by degree, and I passed a house where someone was practicing the drums, which made me smile.

In Belgium, all the open French doors has calm classical music blasting out of them. Ray and I took a long meandering walk through the back alleys of Brussels, and passed window after window with warm light and curtains and violins and piano, such that we'd stop and listen to see if someone was playing themselves. Then we walked again.

Yesterday, riding my bike through the Los Angeles twilight, I felt so indescribably happy, and not just happy but CONTENT with my lot in life and where I was, that it was almost too much. But then some jerk in a car honked at me for obeying the road rules, and it shattered my contemplation. :)

In a few hours, I drive to San Diego to go to a psychology conference (exciting!) and stay with friends Jack and Charity (also exciting!). Justin is coming too, so I have a little family outing. I wrote in my journal (yes, my actual paper and pen -- although in my case, paper and Crayola marker -- journal) that I love my friends, how much they keep me going, and how I cherish them so much that I keep them around for ridiculously long amounts of time. I have friends I've known for 26 years, for 21 years, for 16 years. It's kind of awesome. It bodes well for staying in touch with everyone while I'm in Australia.