Singapore & a broken toe!

So…I dropped Andrew off at the airport at 4am yesterday.  He should finally be in Singapore at 9:30am today (our time). I’m trying to imagine what he’s feeling like right now. Exhausted, confused, excited…lost? I can only imagine how the people sitting next to him felt after 15.5 hours on the plane. Let’s be honest, sitting still is not one of the boy’s strong suits! Hopefully he managed to get some sleep and relax. Hopefully he’ll find a way to let me know he made it safely before noon today as promised. I cannot wait to hear about all that he gets to see while he’s there and see the pictures I have no doubt, he will diligently take. From what I hear there are animals everywhere. For those of you who know him…you’ve seen his ability to get completely distracted by a hawk flying around (he’s seen hundreds of hawks) WHILE DRIVING and lose sight of the fact that he should be paying attention to the road. I can’t imagine how distracted he’ll be by monkeys & other strange animals. While I’m thankful he won’t be driving…I hear the drivers there are crazy so I’m hopeful he doesn’t wander into the roads. I love him…but he gets distracted VERY easily!

It’s funny how you never really think about all of the people flying around in the air until a loved one is up there. Thousands of flights take off and land EVERY day. And yet when someone you love is up there you’re convinced it will be the one plane something happens to. And then you realize you really have no control over it, remember that 1000’s of flights go on every day and try to relax. I watched the news every morning and it appears as though everything went smoothly. Which is less than I can say for train travel right now. A derailment in Chicago, a T crash in Boston and a ‘run-over’ in Maine, wild. All I can say is that we are lucky people and pray for those that were injured in the crashes. But enough with this saddness…

The last thing Andrew said to me before heading off to check in yesterday morning was…see you in Australia. What? So strange! I leave in 2 days and I don’t think it’s hit me yet that I also will be taking that dreaded 14 hour flight from LA to Australia. But it will be well worth it! We’re meeting in Melbourne, then off to Cairns and finishing in Sydney. It will be one amazing trip and I cannot wait, though laundry and packing still stand in my way! 50+ hours and counting!

In regards to the toe…let’s just say it was late, it was dark, there was luggage out and my 2nd toe on my right foot is now throbbing and difficult to walk on. GREAT!

NO Goat!

After a lovely day of eating to celebrate our mom’s on Mother’s Day, we headed home at around 9:30 at night. While conversations are always a little ridiculous at that time, ours tend to be particularly strange. We have been having the ‘goat’ discussion since about a year after we started dating. Andrew is determined to get a goat at some point in his life. Why, you might ask? Well, I’m still trying to figure that one out. But the conversations go something like this.

“So…when we get a house with a barn…” NO GOAT! “When you say ‘no goat’ you mean not right now, but when we get a house with a barn…” No barn…NO GOAT! Why in God’s name would you need a goat? “Goats are great, they’re cute and easy and eat everything” Exactly, they eat everything…and they’re stinky & dirty…no goat! You can get a dog, I’m fine with that. “Soo…a goat in dog’s clothing…hmmm. How can I dress a goat up like a dog?” NO GOAT! “Then maybe a monkey? or other farm animals?” NO WAY! “Not even if we’re going to save the poor innocent goat from being slaughtered?” NO GOAT! We can find someone else to take care of the potentially slaughtered goat. “Here’s what’s going to happen…we’re going to live close to a petting farm. And we’ll visit the petting farm every day and once you stare into those loving goat eyes you’re going to agree we should get a goat.” HA…not going to happen…NO GOAT! You can have a dog. “We could have goat cheese & goat milk…it will be great.” NO GOAT!

The conversation continued on like this for a good 40 minutes, back & forth about goats & other various farm animals. But always comes back to the goat argument. The scary part is, if I give him a glimmer of hope…we really could end up with a goat in our backyard! What in the HECK do we need a goat in our backyard for? My husband is officially crazy…but he does make me laugh, just about every day. How could you not laugh at the idea of a goat and staring longingly into it’s deep black eyes! UGH! HA! Again…welcome to life as a Barry. I never thought a conversation like this even existed until I met Andrew. wow!

As a follow up…this was the email I received from Andrew this morning:

Bleeeeeeeah!

Wanna go to Australia?

That’s pretty much how it went. I was out for a walk, wondering where Andrew could possibly be. Finally, a call (we’ll talk about the fact that I answered the phone while I was walking later). “I haven’t left work yet.” grrr…okay. “But I wanted to ask you something before I said yes.” Uh huh???… “I might get flown to Australia for work…would you want to go?” Big smile…OBVIOUSLY!

It’s funny how quickly you can go from “grrrr…. to hee hee”. But it seems to happen all the time. In this case it is a VERY exciting ‘hee hee’! Thanks to all the work Andrew has put in over the years, a company has asked him to come and speak at their Asia Pacific conference tour. He will be traveling to Singapore, Brisbane & Melbourne in June…and I will go meet him in Melbourne and travel to Cairns and Sydney. I never thought that I would have the opportunity to go back to Australia and I could not be more excited!

Now…what to see? Great Barrier Reef, Cape Tribulation, Great Ocean Road, Opera House, etc? So much to see, so little time! Andrew of course would like to drive the entire country. I continue to remind him that Australia is almost the same size as the US…and we only have 2 weeks! None the less he thinks he would like to drive the 36 hours from Cairns to Sydney, stopping along the way. If you have ever seen Andrew in a car for more than an hour, imagine that, times 36…driving on the left side of the road. I won’t say any more, you get the point!

While the plans are still up in the air, I think I might have convinced him to fly to the 3 cities & do day trips from there. We’ll see. Needless to say this will be a fun & exciting trip. I still cannot believe we’re going! AUSTRALIA HERE WE COME! You have been warned!

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