Ewwwww!!!!

I had to deal with my first two Palmetto bugs (aka. roaches with wings). The first one must have been a baby because the second one was like Big Mama. Like freaking HUGE Mama. Ick. Back in the day, back when I lived in an apartment in Columbia, SC, I'd trap these ugly things under plastic cups and then I'd make a phone call to my friend Matt who'd come over and get rid of them for me. Nasty. So I called him tonight and asked if he'd come up, from Orlando, and get rid of my intruders. He laughed and said he'd be right up. I wish he would.

I've got something on my mind that I need to process a bit. But I'll let y'all know if it evolves into anything. It's very new for me and very strange. But kind of fun at the same time.

Alright, hope all is well. I get to see my friend Sue tomorrow night. I haven't seen that girl since graduation so this should be fun.

Dang Skeeters

Poor Christy took something home with her that I'm sure she would have done great without, mosquito bites. Yes, I knew what I was getting into when I moved back here but they are really bitey and you never know when you're being attacked. Sneaky little bugs.

So Christy went home yesterday and was able to get an earlier flight which should have helped in Atlanta. She was scheduled to be on a later flight out of Charleston and would have had half an hour in Atlanta to change planes. If anyone has ever been in Atlanta's airport you know that's close to impossible. My parents were on that exact schedule last week and while they made their connection (barely), their bags weren't so lucky. Christy called and left a message that she made it home so I'm glad to hear that. Sweetie, it was so good to have you here. Thank you for everything! For listening to me sing to every blessed song on the radio (except the country ones) and for being with me through what could have been a difficult transition. I had a great time and I hope you did too.

So now I need to paint the trim in the sun room/Florida room/Carolina room. After that I'm going to go and catch Mr. & Mrs. Smith at the theater. I got to see Batman yesterday and really enjoyed it.

So next week I look for a temp job so that'll be fun. But if I'm not working, I'll be hanging around, unpacking, painting, and maybe catching a few movies. Fun, right?

Mean Futon

Both ChristY and I were attacked by the futon in the sun room (aka. Florida room, aka. Carolina room). We painted the sun room today. It's green. Kind of. It's by Behr and it's called Feldspar but I just checked the color online and it looks nothing like the walls in the room right now. Anyway both ChristY and I walked into the futon and have huge bruises/lumps on our respective legs. Scary. Dang futon is vicious.

Ok, so as a nice end to the day, I wanted to take ChristY to one of my favorite restaurants out here, California Dreaming. Ironic, I know. They have the best salad ever and I thought it'd be a nice treat after we worked so hard. Yeah, couldn't find the restaurant. From the highway it sounded simple enough. 17S to Ashley River Road; Left on Albermarle. We drove around for over an hour and couldn't find it. Now, I was blond as a child but I am not by any means stupid. And heck, ChristY graduated from college Magna Cum Laude so we know she's a smarty. We could not find this place to save our lives. And actually, we probably could have driven to Columbia to the location there in the amount of time it took us to drive around Charleston. So we ate at Ruby Tuesdays instead. It was good. I forgot how good their salad bar is. After dinner I called my friend Rebecca in Columbia and asked if she wanted to meet us for dinner, at Cali. Dreaming, on Tuesday night. So after I show ChristY around my old (and possible future) stomping grounds, we will get that salad. Come heck or high water!!!

Tomorrow we're driving up to DC to see my dear friends Ashley and Mark. Then on Saturday we'll head down to see Terri, ChristY's dear friend who lives in Richmond, ChristY's old stomping grounds. It's nice to have dear friends.

Talk to y'all soon!!

A

The Wedding and other stuff

South Carolina is really nice. At least where Alisa's parents bought their house is. Everything is so green here! They have a great back yard. If I lived here I would plant tons of flowers. It is really hot and humid, but I manage to stay in aircon most of the time so it isn't bad.
I think we left some holes in the trip narrative so I will try and fill in. On Thursday we left Longview, Tex-ass and drove through Louisiana, Mississippi, and then stopped for the night in Birmingham, Alabama- at the worst hotel of the whole trip. But it wasn't that bad, although their coffee at breakfast was AWFUL. We didn't go swimming on account of the scary, staring rednecks that were already out there. Plus there were a million children splashing around in there already. Alisa already mentioned our nice dinner that we had in a different part of the city and our adventures the next day, so I won't be redundant.
We arrived here in Summerville, SC on Friday, but then the next morning I hopped in the car again and drove 4+ hours back into Georgia to attend a wedding. I had the best time at the wedding. I saw so many people I love that I hadn't seen (some of them) in 11 years - since we left Taiwan. Amy, the bride (who designed her own dress), was just a little girl living across the street the last time I saw her. She married Tzuchien who is her brother Ryan's best friend - they all went to Morrison Academy in Taiwan where I graduated from highschool. Amy's aunt, uncle and cousins - Dan, Clare and Jon - are the family we first went out to Taiwan with. So I've known them since I was two. There were other MK's and Morrison people there too, so it felt very much like home. I wish my whole family could have gone, but at least I was there to represent them.
The ceremony was lovely, short and sweet and very meaningful. The reception was gorgeous - like something out of a magazine. It was all held at a B&B in the tiny town of Watkinsville and there was gentle rain falling intermittently throughout - so it was good that everything was under two large white tents. The flowers were huge pink peonies, dark red carnations and roses. The dinner was catered by a local restaurant - deliciously gourmet with three choices of starter and entree. I had the proscuitto salad and the beef tenderloin. There was champagne, wine, and all kinds of drinks (I had two yummy cosmos). Also very good coffee to go with the cake which was white with pink cherry blossoms climbing up the side. Around 10:30 that night we saw them off amid a flurry of rose petals (instead of rice) into the warm Georgia night, bullfrogs providing the background chorus. They did a very nice job of incorporating both American and Chinese traditions. It was just really beautiful. And most of you know that I am really not one to gush about weddings!
So I drove back yesterday and now finally am starting to get my bearings. It's nice to not have to spend the majority of the day in a car! Alisa's parents return to California today and we will start working on the house. We're going to paint a couple rooms and finally put all the hours of watching Trading Spaces to good use!

Hey Y'all

We're here! Finally.

It's funny, the most eventful part of the trip happened in the last 2 minutes. We got run off the road by a furniture truck speeding down the street and we got into our only little tiff as soon as we pulled into the driveway.

Longview was ok. We were really ready to be out of Texas. It was in Birmingham (at the worst of the hotels - a Days Inn) that ChristY realized she left her razor and a few other toiletries in the Longview hotel. Texas is a bad state.

So Birmingham was OK. As previously stated, the hotel was really stinky and I mean that both literally and figuratively. We got to use the room spray and candles to try and counteract the smell in the room. We had a great dinner at a really good restaurant in this cool part of town called Five Points South. That was really the best part of Birmingham. There was no Starbucks near the hotel which made for an interesting morning. That and the hotel clerk looked at us like we had three heads when we asked to be directed towards the part of town with something to do with Martin Luthor King. Plus he got kind of snippy with Christy about it. We finally found the Civil Rights building thanks to a map we procured from the snippy desk clerk. That and the church that got bombed. It was interesting and we received quite the background from a local who I assume was expecting a tip.

So now we're in lovely Summerville, SC. I really like it here and could see myself living here for sure but I'm still not 100% where I'll end up.

Christy is off to a wedding tomorrow and I'm thrilled that she gets to see some friends that she's known for quite a long time. She had no idea she'd even be able to be at this wedding but it's awesome that she'll get to go. My parents leave on Monday and after that we have a week and a half to see all we can see (including a trip to Virginia) before Christy heads back to the left coast to search for a job. It's too bad she couldn't stay longer to play but I totally understand. I'm just upset because that means I'll have to start looking for a job too.

Anyway thanks to everyone for all your prayers. We really had an uneventful drive which was truly amazing. It's hard to believe that on Monday we were on one end of the map and as of today we were on completely the opposite end.

Our love to everyone and we look forward to hearing from you all. Or should I say y'all?

Oh and the phone number here is 843-873-5350. Call anytime but remember you have to add 3 hours to the California time.

I left my pillow in Amarillo

No, really, I did. I brought my own pillow with me on the trip, you know, to avoid hotel fleas. Anyway it had my pillowcase from childhood on it, the Cabbage Patch Kids. Yeah, so I left it on the bed in Amarillo. Very sad.

The drive from Amarillo to Longview, Tx. was pretty cool. For the most part it was about 70 miles per hour but would cut down when going through the small towns along the way. They were very cute and fun to look at. Then we got to Dallas. We hit Dallas around 4:30pm and we finally experienced some traffic. Not fun. We survived and are now in Longview, Tx. It's fine. I could never live here but it's fine.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. We're going to end up in Birmingham, Al. Should be interesting. We actually go through 4 states tomorrow. We missed out on having BBQ today because the place I found on the net looked kind of shady in person. Oh and we skipped out on the famous 72 oz. steakhouse in Amarillo.

Ok, not much to report today. The pink is washing out of my hair because I didn't leave the color stuff on long enough. So no pics of me with pink hair. Hold on, I'll ask ChristY what I'm forgetting.

Oh and there are a ton of churches here in Longview and almost as many crack whores. I wonder what the church people are doing to reach out to the people in need in their community. There was a cute little turtle in the middle of the road tonight. We were petrified that some car was going to run it over. And as we drove by the same area later in the night, don't ask why, we noted that the turtle was there no more. I'm hoping he made it to the other side of the road, where I'm assuming the chicken was waiting patiently for him.

Later kids. We'll have more on our travels through the deep, deep south.

Amarillo is Stinky

We're in..... Amarillo. The haze of fog on the horizon that welcomed us after 10 hours of driving was not what we were hoping for. Apparently all the road work that ever needed to be done a long our route has been saved up for when we would be driving. I almost don't remember what the road looks like without orange cones and flags along it. There were also a couple large herds of smelly cattle along the highway leading into Amarillo. We did have a decent late dinner at Bennigans which helped revive us, and we got our first "ya'll." Last night we passed up "Bunhuggers" to eat at "Grandma's Closet," which had good food and friendly service but was very dark - like somewhere you'd take a mistress or plan a mob hit.
Most of the day was spent driving through New Mexico which has bad drivers and bathrooms but beautiful scenery (painted desert and mountains) and silver jewelry. Old Town Albuquerque is really cute and has lots of little shops and a cafe called "The Old Broads' Coffee House." We also met Jack FM's brother, Ed. The same guy does their radio announcements and they are the same exact type of station. So corporate, uggggh! We stopped at a Dino museum (one of at least three along hwy 40) and had TCBY yogurt. It's no Golden Spoon, I'm telling you. Then there was a lot of nothing to watch out the car windows because the pretty pink mountains didn't last the whole way. So we listened to David Sedaris - Live at Carnegie Hall and read the signs along the road. My favorite of the day was "The next two miles of highway have been sponsored by Clowns of Enchantment." I don't know who these Clowns of Enchantment are and I really hope I never encounter them. Here are some interesting town names we encountered as well - Zuzax, Tucumcari, and Moriarty (ten points if you know who that is.) Alisa wants me to mention that her hair didn't turn out like she was picturing, it's kind of pink - but still cute. We're tired and going to sleep now!

Flagstaff is cold

I wasn't expecting it to be so chilly here in June but we are at a higher altitude.

Ok, so some observations from the drive to Flagstaff:

They have these washes that go under the highway where water runsoff. Each wash has a name, usually a specific person's name. My favorite one was the Holy Moses Wash. No joke.

ChristY and I mistakenly stopped at a place we thought had a restaurant and it turned out to be the worst convenience store I've ever been to (and I'm from NJ!). Anyway, outside of the store was this oasis thing with water and statues. We mentioned the oasis and I joked that if we stood in it then it'd become a ho-asis. Ok, so that was my big joke of the night. Gimme a break, it's been a long day. Oh, when we were buying sodas at this joke of a convenience store, this 90 year old Chinese guy tried to cut in front of ChristY in the check out line. She was seriously about to throw down with the guy. It was pretty amusing.

We read some selections from the Darwin Awards book and from the Worst Case Scenario book. It's amazing how stupid people are. And of course, now we know how to avoid getting caught in a lava flow and the best way to avoid mines in a minefield.

My friend Ann will be disappointed to know that we completely missed the gigantic McDonald's in Barstow. Not sure how we did that one.

Oh and right now I have a towel on my head but I'm really curious to see how my hair turned out. If I can actually figure this computer out, I may download some pics tomorrow night.

Talk to y'all later.

UhLisa & ChristY

WOO HOOOOOO!!!

Today is my last day at work. I didn't even come close to getting done what I needed to get done but it all looks organized and tidy. That's something, right? I'm definitely going to miss most of the people but definitely not all. There's a certain VP I am looking forward to not being around. Oh and one admin that irritated me. Other than them, I loved most everyone there and definitely want to keep in touch with them.

We went to Japanese curry for lunch and I was thrilled to have it one last time before I left LA.

It's a bittersweet day. I'm glad to be done with our company (it's really changed over the last year and will be changing even more) but I'll really miss my friends.

Anyway, so long people! I'm outta here. Unemployment, here I come!