Actual longest day ever

Previously, Lor and I discovered that our version of crack is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

The following morning, we were up stupidly early on account of Lor had to drive back to South Florida, and I had a flight to Phoenix at noon. We had breakfast at IHOP, because OBVIOUSLY. Also, it was two doors from the motel. We didn't meet any deranged billionaires there though, which was more than a little lucky. Instead, there were just chocolate chip pancakes, syrup, and a small amount of regret because OH GOD SO MUCH SUGAR.

After breakfast, Lor dropped me off at the airport. I headed inside with a secret hope that I'd be able to get on a different flight to Phoenix, because I was leaving Orlando at noon and wasn't due to arrive into Phoenix until 9pm. Eleven hours of travel. Sadly, I was informed that there were no alternate flights. AND that I was stuck with middle seats for all three of my flights.

Obviously, I was thrilled with this.

The flight from Orlando to Cleveland(!!) was uneventful and relatively short - just over two hours. I was only meant to have an hour or so in Cleveland, so I ran off the plane and went in search of food. A chicken panini and some abuse of the free wifi later, I had every intention of making a John Green style vlog in the airport. I was defeated by a total lack of spaces in which to record, and generally feeling a little weird about doing so. I mean, I'd already taken photos of a plastic velociraptor in the airport. That was weirdness enough...

She didn't approve of the snow.

Eventually, I boarded my flight to Chicago. They closed the door, the plane pushed back, we made it to the top of the runway, and...we stopped. Five minutes later, it was announced that O'Hare had been closed due to bad weather, but that they were hoping it would only be a 15 minute delay. Half an hour later, we headed back to the terminal. And then sat for 20 minutes waiting for a gate to open up... When we finally got off the plane, a queue formed immediately to change flights. Of course, I got to the front of the line the second they started reboarding the plane. But it didn't really matter, because I was going to be on the same plane all the way to Phoenix.

So we reboarded, several hours after we were supposed to have left, and the minute they closed the last door, they announced that we'd have to undergo deicing, and that they'd need to turn the air circulation system off so that we didn't all die of deicing fume poisoning. Or something... It took them another 15 minutes or so to get around to our plane, then about 20 minutes to actually deice the plane. The one highlight was that the woman in the seat next to me had changed her flight, so I was able to sit NOT in the middle. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

The flight to Chicago was uneventful in the end, although by the time we arrived I was pretty exhausted. And hungry. And sadly lacking in books. Thankfully, there was a news stand thing opposite the gate, so I was able to procure a new book easily enough. Food, however, was a different story. The only place that was a) selling food and b) still open was a Starbucks. And considering it was like 10pm, their selections were rather limited...
Starbucks Employee: Hi, how are you?
Me: I've been better. Can I get a toasted bagel with cream cheese?
S.E.: Sure!
Me: Great.
S.E.: Oh wait. We don't have a toaster.
Me: *sigh* That's fine.
S.E.: And we've run out of cream cheese.
Me: Do you have anything else that I could spread on a bagel?
S.E.: Nope.
Me: Of course you don't...

And that's the story of how I ended up eating a stale, untoasted plain bagel for dinner. Upon boarding the flight to Phoenix - which was the longest yet at over FOUR HOURS thanks to stupid weather - I discovered that I was sitting between a broad shouldered businessman and a morbidly obese man. Said morbidly obese man announced that he was sorry I had to sit next to him, but that he flew all the time and had techniques in place to make sure he didn't get all up in my space. He then pulled out a long piece of elastic, looped it around his left arm, and attached the other end to the arm rest on his right hand side.

Like this, but he had the window seat... Also, source. 

It was thoughtful(??), but a little weird. And I can't imagine it was comfortable. The broad shouldered businessman promptly fell asleep and snored all the way to Phoenix, while I alternated between reading the book I'd bought at the airport and watching the marathon of Buffy season 7 that happened to randomly be showing on the TV in the seatback.

Eventually, over SIXTEEN HOURS AFTER I LEFT ORLANDO, I arrived in Phoenix. Even though it was 1am - FOUR hours after I was meant to arrive - my bloggy BFF Gina met me at the airport. In her PJs, because OBVIOUSLY. It was 1am, yo. And because she's the bestest, she swung through McDonald's on the way to her place so that I didn't starve to death in the (remainder of the) middle of the night. In short, bloggy friends are the bestest friends.

And then I pretty much passed out forever.

Next up, Gina's kids are HILAR. Also, singalong Les Miserables and a trip to Outback.

K xx

Favourite photos of 2011: Volume 3

Today's instalment of my favourite photos of 2011 is 'Animals'. It seems like I went to a zoo or aquarium in every city I visited in the US last year. I think Washington DC is the only exception to that rule, and that's simply because we ran out of time. We DID see lots of amusing taxidermied animals though...

Speaking of which, I'm thinking of doing a series of posts about my favourite ridiculous museum objects. Because I have a TON of photos on my hard drive from museums and galleries of things that made me laugh/were really freaking awesome, and very little use for them. So I figured I'd share them with all of you!! (Aren't you lucky??)

Anywho. On with the show!

August - Domino. 

Yes, that's a slipper shaped like a koala.

I miss him every day.

August - Snake at the Shedd Aquarium, Chicago

August - Allosaur at the Field Museum, Chicago

Okay, I'm stretching the definition of animal. Whatever.

August - Major Mitchell cockatoo, Denver Zoo

I still find it amusing that I went half way around the
world to take a picture of something from Australia

September - Moss frog, New England Aquarium, Boston

September - Lion fish, New England Aquarium, Boston

I seem to take photos of lion fish at every aquarium I visit. It's getting ridiculous.

September - Lyndsy's cat likes suitcases, Denver

Does anyone else get home from overseas and find their memory cards filled with pictures of zoo animals and museum objects??

K xx

Favourite photos of 2011: Volume 2

Yesterday, I forked out $125 for a single textbook. Thankfully, it's the ONLY textbook for my entire Masters degree, so I guess it could be worse? Anyway, having to put that sizeable a dent in my savings on something so unexciting made me want to look at pretty things that are free.

And so I give you my favourite photos from last year: Natural Environment Edition.

January - Cliffs at Cape Bridgewater, Victoria

July - Nice dead tree on Mount Lofty, near Melbourne

Sometimes, you just need to make things monochrome.

I'm pretty sure I could fill an entire art gallery with just the pictures of dead trees that I have on my hard drive. I'm kind of a little bit obsessed with them... (See also: metal statue of dead tree in Part 1 of this series!!)

August - Sunset from the John Hancock Observatory, Chicago

I elbowed a small child out of the way for this shot.

September - Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs

Complete with insane rock climbers, if you look closely enough!

September - Part way up Pikes Peak, Colorado

It seems kind of Bronte-esque, to me

September - Seven Falls, Colorado

September - Central Park, New York

This is currently my desktop background

September - Guanella Pass, Colorado

September - Aspen trees on the Peak to Peak Highway, Colorado

This was the most amazing sea of trees I've ever seen

Which is your favourite? Does anyone else like dead trees as much as me? And do you know why textbooks are so sodding expensive??

K xx

Favourite photos of 2011: Volume 1

I realised the other day that it's been a while since I did any photography posts. I am actually planning on FINISHING the 30 Days of Photography challenge at SOME point, I just need to remember to leave the house after dark to take some long exposure shots first! Hopefully I can get some taken in the next week or so, seeing as all my classes for uni are in the evenings.

Anyway, for now, I'm copying my BFF Kat and posting my favourite photos from 2011. Unlike Kat, I'm indecisive and unable to limit myself to a handful of awesome photos. (Mostly because she's a much better photographer than me!!) So to save you an insanely picture-heavy post, I've divided them into the following categories:

• Macro
• People
• Animals
• Natural Environment
• Built Environment

I'm going to start off with Built Environment, because I'm a rebel that way. And they're chronological because it hurts my brain for them not to be.

May - Reflection on the side of the museum

July - Melbourne from the roof of Council House 2

I like the juxtaposition of old and new buildings

August - Millennium Park and Cloud Gate, Chicago

August - Downtown Chicago

I like the light. Also the old/new combination

[Do you guys have any idea how hard it is to write 'Downtown' when you're a fan of Downton Abbey??]

September - The Capitol Building, Washington DC

It's kind of postcard-y. But I don't really care.

September - Metal tree in the American Art Museum Sculpture Garden, Washington DC

September - Enclosed courtyard at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Okay. Apparently I *really* like old stuff and new stuff close together...

September - The roof of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC

Because sometimes you just have to point your
camera straight up in the air.

September - Statue of Liberty, New York

I love how it looks like her torch has gone out
because of where the cloud is!

September - Flowers at the 9/11 Memorial, New York

September - 9/11 Memorial, New York

September - Manhattan from Top of the Rock, New York

It's a little overexposed, but I like that it incorporates New York's three most
famous skyscrapers - Empire State Building, Chrysler Building and 30 Rock!

September - The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado

For such a (supposedly) haunted building, it's very pretty!

December - St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne

So there you have it! Well. The 'Built Environment' photos, anyway. I'm not convinced that my photography is getting any better over time, but that's completely my own fault for not thinking about the shots more before I take them! 

What do you guys think? And does anyone else love the juxtaposition of old and new like I apparently do? (Hell, does anyone else love the word 'juxtaposition' like I do?!)

Next instalment coming soon, whether you like it or not ;)

K xx

Chicago, the "this is the last one, I promise" edition

So after I left Sweeney, Lor and Penny at Navy Pier on Monday afternoon, I realised that I had about 36 hours left in Chicago, and way too much still on my list of things to do. I had high hopes for going up to the zoo seeing as how it's free and all, but sadly there was insufficient time :(

On Monday night, I headed up to the John Hancock Observatory to watch the sun set over the city. That was pretty awesome. The audio tour was narrated by David Schwimmer, which was a little disconcerting because I kept expecting the information about Chicago's landmarks to include the line "We were on a BREAK!!" at regular intervals...

Anyway, the view from the top is incredible. And being up there for sunset was pretty cool. I think I may have elbowed a small child out of the way to get a decent spot at the window to take photos. #whoops

The something-or-other building. I have no idea. Anyone know?

Sunset over the Chicago River. And, you know, Chicago...

I then went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory at the base of the John Hancock Building, and ordered a weight management salad (cos I'm ALL about the dieting. What?) and a side of macaroni and cheese in an attempt to get over the trauma of the mac and bonfire that we'd had at lunchtime. The waiter may have laughed at me when I ordered. Clearly, he's never needed to get the taste of mac and bonfire out of his mouth... *jealous*

The next day, I got up to find it tipping with rain. After unsuccessfully trying to wait it out at my hotel, I was forced to make a mad dash across the street to 7-11 to buy an umbrella. By the time I'd done that, it was thundering. It made walking a mile down Michigan Avenue rather interesting, that's for sure!

I finally made it to the Art Institute in one (slightly squelchy) piece. And I had an awesome time there. Do you guys ever play a game at museums and art galleries where you pretend that you're insanely rich and can take home one thing from each room?

I have no idea when I started playing it. I have half a suspicion that it's something my mum the teacher would have invented to make sure that we were paying attention to the objects and reading the text labels and generally learning stuff rather than aimlessly wandering around. If it *was* my mum (HI MUM!!!), at least it paid off - she got a museum curator out of it!

Anyway, I played said game at the Art Institute the other week. And thank God I'm *not* filthy rich, or my house would need to be much bigger than it is, because i would now be the proud owner of the following:

• a Mayan stelae,
• several Monet paintings,
• a couple of grandfather clocks,
• Grant Wood's American Gothic,
• a medieval necklace in the shape of a dragon,
• a half suit of armour from sixteenth century Italy,
• a Van Gogh self portrait, 
• a frieze of donkeys from the wall of an ancient Egyptian tomb,
• some Chinese bronze water vessels,
• a painting of an orange grove in Spain,
• a truly awesome library ladder (though sadly not of the slide-y variety), and
• this painting, solely because of the completely ridiculous hat that (male) baby is wearing:

Awesome... I hope he gave his parents hell for this painting when he grew up. 

Of course, it stopped raining during the four hours I spent in the Art Institute, and started again the minute I left... And the rain was even harder than it had been on the way down there. When the rain started coming THROUGH my umbrella, I decided it was time to take shelter under the portico of a nearby office building. Still, by the time I got back to the hotel, my shoes made squelchy noises and my socks were so wet that I had to wring them out in the bath #funtimes #ew

But despite the thunderstorms, my last few days in Chicago were awesome. Well...except for the part where I dragged my suitcase three blocks in the wrong direction on my way to the airport because I threw out my map of Chicago at the hotel. And the part where I asked someone where the train station was and he gave me a weird look and then pointed about two metres to his left #FAIL But, ya know, other than that, it was great!! ;)

Seriously though, does anyone else play that game? Or am I a crazy person?? :S

K xx

Chicago, the "catching up with old friends" edition

So while I was in Chicago, I got to catch up with a friend of mine from uni in Canberra. It was awesome, because I hadn't seen her since she moved back to the US at the end of 2008, and in the time since I last saw her, she's gotten married, had a baby and is almost due to have her second one! Let's call her Hello Wisconsin, because that's where she's from and because I'm a huge That 70s Show fan, so that's all that comes to mind when I hear anything about Wisconsin (and because I don't know how she'd feel about me using her real name on the interwebs).

I met up with Hello Wisconsin and her husband, G-Man, on Saturday night after the Summit. We went out to dinner at Russian Tea Time in downtown Chicago, and it was OMG SO GOOD. I hadn't had Russian food before, so I was a little hesitant that it would be all pumpernickel and vodka and beetroot. But while there was pumpernickel, it was delicious, and there were plenty of options that allowed me to avoid the other two!

We started out with the latkes, which come with sour cream and apple sauce. They were amazing. Sadly, I was so busy catching up with Hello Wisconsin (aka "We were so busy bagging the crap out of Canberra") that I neglected to take photos of anything. #bloggerfail We also shared the Russian dumplings, which were wonderful. The carrot salad that comes along with them was another highlight.

I followed up the entrees with beef stroganoff, which was insanely delicious. Sadly, the latkes and the dumplings proved much more filling than I'd anticipated, meaning I couldn't even get half way through my stroganoff before I was completely defeated. I can't remember what Hello Wisconsin and G-Man had for their main courses, but I do remember that they didn't leave much on their plates!

Hello Wisconsin and I declared ourselves too stuffed to even contemplate the dessert menu, but G-Man ordered the farmer's cheese blintzes. Despite our claims, once the blintzes arrived and the waiter thoughtfully turned up with three plates, Hello Wisconsin and I miraculously found room to try them. They were the perfect end to the meal - the cheese (which was kind of ricotta-y) wasn't too sweet, and the berry sauce gave them a nice zing. Basically? Dinner was awesome, and if you're ever in Chicago you should definitely stop by Russian Tea Time!

During dinner, Hello Wisconsin had mentioned that their hotel room overlooked the Chicago River, and that there were going to be fireworks going on later in the evening. So we headed back to their hotel (which was all kinds of fancy - gotta love a good deal plus a free upgrade!!) to wait for the fireworks. They eventually started, and we had a pretty great view of them. Well, we DID, up until the point where they became completely obscured by smoke. Apparently, despite being the Windy City (although I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the nickname comes from politicians who liked to talk rather than windy weather!), Chicago couldn't muster up a breath of wind that night.

Me: Well. So much for the spectacular view.
G-Man: This looks like Baghdad or something...

It really did. I tried to find you a picture of fireworks hidden by smoke, but Google failed me. So I tried searching for a picture of missile smoke. Google gave me pictures of Kim Jong-Il, and Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi #wtf Basically? I gave up. I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about. Just watch Black Hawk Down if you don't.

The evening concluded with a stop off at the enormous Marilyn Monroe statue that's currently gracing central Chicago. Hello Wisconsin and I MAY have had our photo taken fondling her leg. Because we're mature like that.

So basically? It was a great evening, and I'm eternally grateful to the 20SB Summit for being in Chicago and allowing me to catch up with a friend I hadn't seen in forever!! Here's hoping it's not another three years before I get a chance to catch up with Hello Wisconsin and G-Man again.

K xx

Disclaimer: Russian Tea Time have no idea I exist. I just really liked their food.
PS. You can now subscribe to my little corner of the interwebs by email! Just put your email address in that little box in the top right corner and you're good to go!

Chicago, the bloggy friend hilarity edition

So I've already told you about meeting up with Sweeney and Lor and Penny at the 20SB Summit pre-party. This is the "Everything else that happened with Sweeney and Lor and Penny" edition. First and foremost, Lor brought me a box of Zebra Cakes.

Terrible photo courtesy of the sucky lighting in my hotel room

See? (If you're not aware of Lor's love of Zebra Cakes, click here.) OMG, exciting. Also, this was my breakfast a good chunk of the time because my hotel didn't have a restaurant and I was too lazy to find somewhere that served real food. Anyway, the Zebra Cakes led to the first of many Australian-American language differences.

Me: Ooooooh, Zebra Cakes!!
Lor: ZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEbra Cakes. They're called ZEEbra Cakes.

Subsequent exchanges:
Me: I kind of want another bag of crisps...
Sweeney: Crisps??
Me: These things?
Sweeney: You mean chips.
Me: Noooo, chips are hot.
Sweeney: Those are fries. Fries are fries and chips are chips!!!

Me in Lor and Penny's hotel room: Wow, those ARE weird power points.
Lor: Power...points?
Me: *points* Those things? The stuff you plug electrical stuff into?
Penny: You mean an OUTLET?
Me: Apparently.
Lor: Ohhhhhhhh. I thought you meant like on the computer. You know, PowerPoint.

Walking through Grant Park (and totally stolen from Lor's post because I'm too lazy to write it myself, and which you should all read because it's totally awesome):

Me: Oh no! That bubbler is running constantly. 

Lor: Uh, you mean the water fountain? Bubbler! HA.

Me: Well... we called it a bubbler in primary school.

Penny: You mean elementary school?

Me: PRIMARY. It goes from grade one to...

Lor: You mean first grade?

While eating waffle fries at Navy Pier which tasted like Velveeta (again, stolen from Lor's post, only with the emphasis on tomato changed):

Sweeney: Maybe if we drown it in ketchup? Or salsa? Pass the ketchup.

Me: Oh, you mean tomato sauce?

Lor: NO. To-may-to sauce is the thing you put on pizza. It's... sauce-y, you know?

Me: No, that's tomato paste. 

Lor: NOOOOO. To-may-to paste is the thing that comes in a can and is paste-y.

Sweeney: You really have the best definitions. To-may-to paste: paste-y.

In the bathroom at the Summit:

Me: Oops. I nearly tripped over the rubbish bin.

Lor and Sweeney: RUBBISH BIN!!!!!

Me: I feel like I'm in the middle of that scene in Love Actually where they make him say random stuff... You know, "BOTTLE!!"

Lor: I'm going to use that every time I don't want to do something. "Do you want to go to the movies tonight?" "Pff. Rubbish bin." 

Other Australian pronunciations/words that confuse Americans?

• Aluminium
• Vase (rather than vay-se)
• Arse
• Cowbag
• Queue
• Bathers

On Sunday after the conference finished, Lor, Penny and I went and ate our body weight in Chicago deep dish pizza, and still found room for this:

It was delicious. On Monday morning, we trekked down to the Field Museum. We saw Sue, the most complete T-Rex in existence. We saw stone age artefacts. Taxidermied specimens. A man-eating lion. Lor and I sat in giant plastic cicadas. They were NOT comfortable. And we laughed hysterically in the dinosaur rooms. Why? 

FAIL-o-saurus

Skulls with knobs on

This *bone* came from a gigantic dinosaur and you can touch it...

We're classy like that. Then we headed back to Lor and Penny's hotel to meet Sweeney. Cramming four girls and three lots of luggage into Sweeney's Mustang was an interesting experience!! From there, we headed to Navy Pier for a grand farewell to Chicago for Lor and Penny. 

We stopped to eat as soon as we got there. It was our last meal together, and we spent pretty much the entire thing in fits of hysterical laughter. I ordered a chicken salad wrap for lunch, which came with chips (sorry Sweeney, FRIES) or coleslaw. But there was also mac and cheese on the menu. So I asked for a side of that as well as my wrap. The waitress said that for like $2, I could sub in a serve of mac and cheese. 

Sweeney and Lor: (yelling) YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Waitress: *looks terrified* Okay then.

So all three of us were insanely excited about our mac and cheese. When it arrived, we each took a bite and then made this face:

Source

Lor: Uhhhhhhhh... 

Sweeney: This is made with smoked cheese...

Me: It tastes like bonfire.

Penny: *snort*

Lor: OHMIGAWD, YOU'RE RIGHT!!

It really did. Needless to say, we barely ate any of it. Lor's serve of mac and bonfire had been a lot bigger than mine and Sweeney's, so she felt the need to hide the evidence. In her sandwich. Under a lettuce leaf in Penny's salad. In the leftover waffle fries. IN THE SALSA. We could barely breathe we were laughing so hard. It was a bittersweet moment, knowing that we'd soon be going our separate ways, not meeting again for who knows how long.

After the lunch of hilarity, we wandered through the shops at Navy Pier, stopping to buy fudge, and to look at the stained glass museum (with added soundtrack courtesy of Lor singing 'Belle' from Beauty and the Beast). At the entrance to the pier, I left them to walk back to my hotel. I miss the bloggy friend bubble. Everything was ten times funnier in there... 

Oh, and? This crosses number 8 off my 101 in 1001 list - meet a blog friend in real life. It was a blast. I'd do it all again in a heartbeat. Sweeney, Lor and Penny - I love you guys. Come to Melbourne soon. Kthxbai.

K xx

Awesome sauce: A 20SB Summit recap

Yeah, yeah, I'm an epic slacker. The 20SB Summit was a full week ago and I'm only just getting around to writing about it... #timelinessfail

It's hard to believe, as I sit here melting into a puddle in Denver, that it was a whole week ago that I was sitting in Chicago furiously scribbling notes, listening to truly inspiring people, making new friends, and generally revelling in the knowledge that I'm not the only 20-something in the world who has NO idea what they're doing (*is relieved*).

I, like many others, was somewhat hesitant in the beginning. I had fears that it was going to be more of what I heard at Blogopolis only a couple of weeks before I left - entire days of how to work with brands, how to monetise your blog, the importance of SEO. I don't think I've ever been so glad to be wrong.

The two keynote speeches (by Scott Belsky and Jenny Blake) were fabulous, and applicable to life across the board, not just to blogging. And I know the whole room could relate when Jenny Blake talked about how between you and a big goal is "the fire pit of failure and death". (I wish to God I had a picture of her slide for you. But the downside of buying a $10 phone is that it doesn't have a built in camera, which makes taking pictures of things like Powerpoint slides rather more complicated!)

The sessions I attended focused on growing a community, integrating photography, collaboration, organising offline events from online communities, and establishing boundaries. As with Blogopolis, there was one speaker that was a stand out for me. At Blogopolis, it was Darren Rowse - Problogger himself. At the 20SB Summit, it was Ben Boudreau. His session "Oh no, I've said too much" was hilarious, while being informative at the same time. I only wish I hadn't been too much of a chicken to introduce myself afterwards. We *totally* could have bonded over having weird accents and coming from countries that have Queen Elizabeth on the money... *sigh*

The true sign of success for the first ever 20SB Summit? When our fearless leader DShan made his closing remarks, said "That's a wrap", and NO ONE MOVED. No one wanted it to be over.

I learnt so much from the Summit. To tell people your ideas so that you're accountable on following through. To be yourself. To engage with your community offline as well as on. To be vulnerable and push yourself outside your comfort zone in what you write. That participation matters. To think about what it is in a situation that caught your attention, and photograph THAT. And, most importantly, that bloggers are pretty much the most awesome people of EVER.

So thank you to all the sponsors for making it possible. To all the speakers for delivering content that hit the nail on the head. And thank you to DShan and the 20SB team for organising a truly amazing weekend. If it weren't so damned expensive to fly over here, I'd sign up for next year's summit in a heartbeat.

K xx

Ferris Bueller, you're my hero

I don't know about you guys, but when I think of Chicago, there are a couple of things that immediately spring to mind:
1. While You Were Sleeping.
2. The Blues Brothers.
3. Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Given that, I had high hopes for adventures while I was here. And Chicago, you delivered in fine form. Okay, so I didn't exactly ride a parade float down Dearborn Street, but it's been pretty damned memorable. Thursday was filled with jetlag, shopping and spontaneous computer purchasing. On Friday, I had every intention of going to the Art Institute. I decided I was going to walk around the lake to get there. And by the time I pulled out the map to check which street I needed, I was a couple of blocks past it. So I figured I'd go to the Field Museum. Only then I got to the museum campus and went "Oooooh, aquarium!!". So I wound up going there instead #decisionmakinggenius

The aquarium was pretty fun though. There were poison dart frogs and everything.

See?

Friday night was when things really got interesting. Because it was the pre-20SB Summit cocktail party at the Crimson Lounge of the Sax Hotel. So I got tarted dressed up and walked over there (which was when the pavement ate the heel of my shoe). I was anticipating all kinds of awkward standing around, seeing as I'm not the type to go and introduce myself to people. But it was all avoided thanks to Helena, who saw me standing there like the introvert I am and rescued me from myself. (Thanks lovely!!)

The party itself was fun - there were Viking hats and free booze and photo booths and all manner of good things. But the bestest part of all was that I FIIIIIIIIIIIIINALLY got to meet Lor and Sweeney and Penny. #OMGSOEXCITING An entire packet of Tim Tams *may* have been consumed.

The real story, though, started after the party. Penny and I were staaaaaarving, so we wandered around looking for food. Then the following conversation happened:
Sweeney: What time is it?
Lor: I think about 9.30?
Random possibly homeless dude walking down the street: Actually, it's almost 10.00, ladies!
All of us: Um, thanks.
Random possibly homeless dude walking down the street: So, what time do the panties come off?
Me: *snorts*
Lor and Sweeney: *horror*
Penny: How about NEVER O'CLOCK!!
Bouncer guy standing nearby: Did he REALLY just say that?!?!

Shortly thereafter, hysterical laughter set in. It was only made worse by the bouncer at the bar we tried to go to insisting that he wouldn't let us in until he'd fed us each a piece of the Mrs. Field's icecream sandwich cookie thing he was eating. There's a SMALL possibility that we threw Sweeney to the wolves and insisted that he feed her the piece of cookie sandwich thing and just hand pieces of it to the rest of us. I like to think of it as America delivering her with all the batshit craziness it possibly could before she leaves for Paris this week. So Sweeney, we were purely doing our part to make the weekend as memorable as possible! ;)

Sadly, my flight to Denver is about to board, so the rest of the weekend's insanity will have to wait until another time. Still, I think Ferris Bueller would be proud. Don't you?

K xx

Chicago, part 1 of a millionty

Holy shitballs, you guys. I have SO many stories to tell you, and absolutely no idea where to start... While I was at dinner earlier, I actually made a list of all the stuff that's happened since I arrived that I want to blog about, and it's two pages long. So I'm going to go with bullet pointing some of it purely to avoid writing the longest posts in history.

• Chicago is kind of anti-escalators. I caught the train into the city from O'Hare and lugging my suitcase up a  bazillion stairs was not fun.
• Deep dish pizza takes a really freaking long time to cook. Especially when you haven't slept in 26 hours and go out in search of dinner at 8.45pm.
• Despite seeming like the healthy option at the time, broccoli has no place in/on a pizza...
• I lasted a whopping 24 hours connecting to Wifi on my phone before going to Best Buy and spending $250 on a shiny new Netbook. On the plus side, it will make blogging a lot easier! 
• Despite saying that you're only in the country for six weeks and that you'll be travelling, the serving wench person will still try to upsell you to a $900 state of the art laptop. Urm. NO...
• When you buy a prepaid mobile phone that costs $10, you get what you pay for.
• American TV seems to show nothing but Law & Order: SVU. I swear, all I've seen in the past 5 days is that, adverts and baseball.
• The collective noun for a group of jellyfish is a smack. Random, right?!
• Chicago apparently has really wide pavement cracks and hates my shoes. On my way to the pre-20SB Summit party on Friday night, the heel of one shoe got stuck in a pavement crack. When I got home hours later, I found that the end of my heel had actually been PULLED OFF. So somewhere, in the depths of central Chicago, is the end of my heel...
• I can't for the life of me master the art of walking on the right.
• I'm pretty sure that the only reason I haven't been hit by a car is because I've been ensuring someone else enters the pedestrian crossing first just in case I've looked the wrong way and someone is running the light...
• I kind of suck at map reading.

And I believe that covers things up to the pre-20SB Summit party, which was where things REALLY got interesting. So I think that's a story for another post.

How's things with you guys?

K xx

Two weeks to go!

So I feel like death warmed up right now. Some time between yesterday afternoon and this morning, I developed a delightful cold. I tried very hard to find you a clip of this, but was unsuccessful so you'll just have to read the quote instead. It pretty much sums up my life at the moment:

"I'm fine, my nose was just overflowing with awesome and I had to get some of it out."
Barney Stinson, How I Met Your Mother (season 2, episode 11. And thanks to Lauren for putting that quote as her Facebook status and reminding me of its existence!!)

Anythesecoldandflutabletsaren'tworking, it took me a while to realise that it's two weeks today until I head off to the US. OH. MY. GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD. That is so insanely soon!

How could I not use an excited Jake Gyllenhaal GIF?? 

Okay, so I'm pretty much all organised in terms of booking stuff. I've got all my flights sorted. All my hotels are organised. I have a new dress for Megan's wedding (two, in fact!). I'm filling in my visa waiver form thingy and writing this at the same time, because even though my head is filled with snot, I'm awesome at multitasking. (Incidentally, I *really* want to know if anyone ever answers "Yes" to the question about whether you've ever been involved in espionage, terrorist activities or genocide...)

But I hadn't really realised that it was so SOON, you know? So now I'm all crazy excited and thinking of all the stuff I still have to do before I go, like get my hair cut so I don't look *quite* so much like a crazy person with two inches worth of split ends. And buy a 50mm prime lens because I just got my bond back from the real estate agent and I feel rich it'll definitely come in handy while travelling. And buy 500 packets of Tim Tams because I promised them to everyone and now have to deliver. And actually, you know, PACK.

Obviously, I'm not even remotely excited by the prospect of a 15 hour plane flight and a millionty six hour layover in LAX (the world's most boring airport) before I can board my flight to Chicago. But once the torment of the flight and the subsequent jetlag is over, it's going to be FUCKING AWESOME. I get to hang out with old friends, like Megan and Lyndsy and Annie, who all live in the US and I never get to see them. I get to travel with my BFFs, Kat and Sara (and I'm nearly EXPLODING with excitement about that part of it!). And I get to actually *meet* so many amazing bloggy/Twittery friends, like Lor and Lauren and Nicole and a ton of other people that I can't remember right now.

Okay, so the trip won't be QUITE as awesome as it would be if I could (guilt trip alert!) also meet up with Nikki and Bi, but you can't win 'em all (I love you guys - #pleasecometoMelbourneASAPkthxbai)! I'll make up for it by going to a shit ton of museums (that's the new collective noun. I've just decreed it), and going to a Red Sox game at Fenway Park, and going to see a show on Broadway, and shopping because the Australian dollar is actually worth MORE than the US dollar for the first time since I was born* and things that cost like $5 in the US cost $25 here and blah blah blahbitty blah, I'm so stuffy, give me a scone. (Sorry. I have seven seasons worth of Buffy quotes in my brain and sometimes they just break out...)

Basically? I'm doing a happy dance around the house. Or at least I would be if I wasn't having periodic fits of hacking up a lung... Now if you'll excuse me, I gave my dog a bath earlier and now he's giving me an "I will cut you" face, so I think I should probably hide for my own safety... o.O

K xx
*I'm pretty sure that's accurate but am too lazy to check, so don't quote me on it...

I-I-I so excited!

(Yes, I just paraphrased Rebecca Black. Deal with it.) You know how for the past however long I've been wibbling on about my trip to the US? Yeah, today I actually did something about it.

I've been looking at flights on and off for a while now, but haven't actually followed through on booking. Until today. Because today I realised that I had a ton of frequent flyer points sitting around gathering dust. So I figured I'd check how many points it would take to fly to the US. Well, I didn't have enough for a return flight, but I did have enough for one way. Course, having enough points doesn't mean that there's a seat available. By some miracle, there WAS a frequent flyer seat available on the day I wanted! So I started looking into flights home again.

Apparently it was my day for bargains, because I found a flight from LA to Melbourne for $800. Sure, I have to fly via Auckland, but for that amount of money, I'll take it! So I've wound up with a return flight to LA for $1100 ($300 worth of taxes on the frequent flyer points flight). Which is almost $1000 less than what I was anticipating having to pay. SCORE!!!!!!!!

Anyway, I still have a ton of stuff to book (like my internal flights, for instance!), but this is a massive step in the right direction.

Hurry the hell up, August. I'm WAY too excited to wait much longer! If you've missed it, here's where I'm going:

Chicago, for the 20SB summit:

Source

Denver, for Megan's wedding:

Source

Washington DC with Kat:

New York, with Kat:

Boston, also with Kat:

Source

There isn't enough squeeing in the world to demonstrate my levels of excitement. I have so much geeky fun planned - museums aplenty, a shit-ton of awesome things to photograph, and eating pizza on Beacon Street. (If you get that last reference, you get a million bonus points)

To my American lovelies - anyone know a good website to use for booking domestic flights? Do any of them search the discount airlines???

Also, I'm bringing you all Tim Tams. You're welcome... ;)
K xx