I have been home 2 days from my US tour. I have a job starting on Monday, and I hope to recover from jet lag by then. Last night, I tried my best, but by 8pm I was dead asleep, and by 2:30am I was awake, and have been since. It is 2pm, and I must stay awake until at least 10pm. Please oh please oh please.
Our trip to the United States was as I feared: too short,and GREAT. Darcy had met no one in my family before except my older brother, and had met a few of my friends in LA for a few days about 1 1/2 years ago. Sadly, again we only were able to spend a few days with people, some people just a few hours. But I was happy.
The friends and family I have are so warm, generous, and lovely. Leaving made me so sad. I did not want to come back here. The welcome we got wherever we went, the surprises, the invitations, and the sacrifices people made of their time because we were there - it was touching and made me emotional. And my family and friends who got to meet Darcy for the first time were open and brought him in. He seemed to be enjoyed by everyone, and he enjoyed them.
For us, it was a good trip in that we were away from work and money troubles and I got to be the one who was in her element. It was fantastic to speak and not sound strange, to order cheap, watery coffee, and to go to a diner. It was so relaxing to laugh and tell jokes that people could appreciate. Darcy could have a clearer picture of the people and places that have created what he has to deal with, for better or worse.
Here are a few photos. The trip was intense, and I can't really delve too deep at the moment. But, I'll tell you whatever is sparked by the pics:
We went to a Mets game. It was fun. They lost, but it didn't matter. We went with my friend Todd and his friends. I sat there, as I have many times before, and in my jet lag haze wondered if I still lived there (in NYC; not Shea Stadium). It was all so comfortable.
My friend Tom (who I regrettably do not have a photo of!) organized an evening of drinks with a few people I used to work with in NYC (pictured are Bryce, Mark, Dave, and myself). It was soooooo great! Everyone seems to be happy, doing well, and looking good. These people I have known for a long time, some for ten years. It was so good to chat and still have things to talk about and laugh about. And it was nice to see Darcy laughing too.
This is a photo of me, my younger brother Jack, and Darcy, relaxing on a golf course behind the hotel where our family reunion was happening in Vermont. The reunion was a lot of fun. I was happy to see everyone, and to be able to celebrate my grandmother's 93rd birthday with her. I come from a funny and sweet group of people. They surprised us with a wedding party, complete with a cake and gifts. We were truly surprised, and it made me cry, which of course I immediately regretted, as my family doesn't go in for that kind of thing. All the same, my family was warm and caring and many people took me aside and told me they liked Darcy and were happy he was a part of the family. Several cousins told me they wanted to come and visit. I hope they do!
We spent 5 days in New Hampshire, staying with my grandmother, and driving to different places from her house. We saw my mother and my younger brothers, and I showed Darcy the town I spent most of my youth in. New Hampshire has a lot of natural beauty. I do not wish to live there anymore, despite this. We climbed Mt. Sunapee, and, it being spring, this meant tracking through mud and snow, baring hot sun and cold winds. I love the weather, I sat on a rock by Lake Sunapee, and relaxed, knowing I was not in danger of sitting on, stepping on, or resting my hand on some tiny but deadly spider, or being in the line of fire of a poisonous snake, like I would be in the Australian bush. I enjoyed hanging out with my grandma, which meant playing sudukoh (Darcy) and watching DVD's of "Keeping Up Appearances" (me and grandma). My grandmother is still quite healthy, remembers everything, and drives. She drove us to the country's longest covered bridge, which goes over the Connecticut River, connecting New Hampshire and Vermont. Darcy sat in the front. It was funny to observe him thinking about the fact that he was being driven by a 93 year old woman. I was sad to say goodbye to her. She has been a good person in my life. I hope to see her again next year.
We drove to NYC from NH and stopped over in Boston. We were only there for an afternoon and an evening, and so we walked around Back Bay, and down the Esplanande. In the evening we got to have dinner with 2 friends of his and my friend Dorothy. I really enjoyed seeing her. We laughed and chatted. She is a funny, intelligent strong woman, and I love her insight into life. And damn, she is looking good! I have known her since I was 20. I hope I will always know her.
Darcy didn't care for Boston. He said it was too fru fru. That is one of my favorite descriptive terms as of late, "fru fru". You know what it means.
We returned to NYC, and it was too short. So many people to see, and it would have been good to have seen them a lot more than once or twice. My great friend Mark was so generous and took us out to a fantastic restaurant with my friend Tom and his lovely girlfriend Jennifer. Mark and Tom have been friends of mine since we worked together. We do not keep in touch very often, but when I saw them I immediately felt close; I love seeing how they have grown and changed and how they seem happier as time progresses. The next day, we had breakfast with my friend Laura and her husband Tristram and their beautiful little girl Lilly. I haven't seen Laura for about 3 years, maybe longer. She is such a beautiful, loving person. She and Tris are a fantastic couple, creative and down to earth and seeing them made me wish I lived there, in my old neighborhood, hanging out with them. The visit was too too brief.
The next day, we walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, and that evening went on a cruise with my friend Diane around the south tip of Manhattan. The sky was clear, and Darcy got to see the Statue of Liberty really well, which he wanted to do. Afterward we had dinner with Diane. She had an opening for a show of her paintings the week before, which are stunning. Go to Outrageous Look Gallery in Williamsburg and see them, if you are in New York. They are deep and full of haunting beauty, much like Diane. Well, she won't spook you, but she is deep and beautiful and I thought it sounded good to say she is like her paintings. Makes sense, don't it?
My family then gave us another wedding gift with tickets to a Broadway musical, The Drowsy Chaperone. It was a lot of fun. Darcy claims to not like plays, or musicals, but he was laughing, clapping and smiling through the whole thing. I was too. It made me really happy to see him enjoying it. I think both he and I suffer from art snobbery in varying degrees, and when we can step out of it and enjoy something, it is very liberating. Angela came with us, and her friend Carol, and Angela knew an actor in the show, so afterward he was so kind to give us a backstage tour, and answer all of our questions. It was so fun! Theatre is really exciting. Darcy was humming some of the tunes all the way home, and then we got ready for our flight to LA the next day.
LA was a culture shock. Again. It is truly a different culture from the Northeast. All the driving! I forgot how to get around there, which was strange, as I didn't forget how to get around NYC, or most of NH. Los Angeles, more than New York City, reminds me of just how much of everything there is in the US. So many cars, people, so much food, so much cheap crap to buy, so much advertising, just so much of everything. Getting in the car and zooming down the freeway, I thought, "man I do not miss this one bit." I was dazed from lack of sleep and the time change, and by the time I arrived at my friend Robyn's I was all weirded out. Not the way I wanted to be seeing my friend after a year's absence. But it was still lovely. By the third day I was in the groove and could see the things that I had begun to like there before I left. My kind and generous friend Andrew let us stay in his apartment while he was away, which was great as I got to see my cats, who he adopted because he is indeed kind and generous. They are happy to be there, the same as they always were, and loving and affectionate towards me. We went to the Getty Center, climbed Runyon Canyon, went to Ventura and Ojai, and saw a good friend of Darcy's who has moved to LA. I got to spend some fun evenings with my friends there, who all did what they could to spend time with us. My friends Rebecca and Robyn are pregnant, and it was lovely to see them in their round glowing glory, looking beautiful. I got to hear songs from a musical my friends Marty and Brian are writing, called All That Jaws. It is going to be FANTASTIC, the music is amazing, and if you are in LA you should see them perform it May 25th: http://www.allthatjaws.com/.
I know I have told you that everyone is beautiful and loving and generous and blah blah. But it's true!
By our last day in the USA, I was confused about what/where home is. Going back to Brisbane seemed silly. Darcy wasn't feeling as I was, of course, but I think the trip inspired him, and he was excited to be there. I didn't get to relax and truly spend time with people. But I guess that's what happens on a trip, as opposed to living somewhere. We just live so far away from everyone. I guess I really feel it. I love you all, and miss you! I am so glad I got to see the people I did!
Upon arriving home, we discovered that our landlord, which is RE/MAX, ordered some tree work done. The end result was a front yard consisting of a bunch of brown dead branches, and two tree trunks with all their branches cut off. The jasmine bushes and passionfruit vine were ripped out. The front is now bare brown, and mangled. It is horrible. We called RE/MAX and told them what happened, and apparently they were not clear with the tree company about what it means to tidy up overgrown bushes. I don't know if the yard will recover anytime soon. It is sad.
Jet lag is funny. These past 2 nights, I have woken up at 2:30am, wondering what to do. It is a comfort that Darcy is doing the same thing. We end up reading, or playing sudukoh, until the sun comes up. It is so quiet here. It feels like we are the only people around, and we chat and joke about stuff. In a way, I like it, it makes the world feel small, like it is just around the two of us, sharing a secret no one else in the neighborhood has, then we hear the crows make their calls, like cats in heat, and the occasional car, then the sun, then we get up, and wonder what to do.
