...And We're Back!

After days and days of tedium and silence, we finally have internet and cable! Hurray! I have a ton of stuff to post over the next few days: the long-awaited Montana slideshow, video of our apartment, my first impressions of Tempe (hated, bizzaro world, but maybe eventually okay), and so on. Stay tuned!

Is This Thing Still On?

Is this thing still on? I haven't a clue. I've decided, kind of by default, that until we move to Tempe in a week, posts will be kind of scarce. We see you (or you see someone we see) on a regular basis, so it seems reasonable that things will be in stasis for a week or two more. Naturally, this puts our out-of-area readers at a disadvantage, but it is only a week and there are only four-ish of you. Paul's job quest continues. He's applied for a couple of good positions and one company told him to call next week and set up a formal interview, which is exciting in a hurray-maybe-you-can-begin-a-career-and-pay-the-bills sort of way. We also have put a deposit down on an apartment, which seems like the right thing, but of course until I physically inspect it with a fine-tooth comb, I will worry about it. Mostly though, we're just trying to make the most of our time left in Provo before we leave everyone again.

General Update and Associated Shout-Outs

Dear All,
Sorry for the lag. I promise once Paul and I get settled in Arizona, things will get more regular. Anyways, Paul and I spent the weekend at my grandparents in Montana. There will be a post on that after I finish putting the slide show together. In the meantime, I thought I'd give a shout-out to the three people we know who've had babies in the past four weeks. Paul's cousin, Jordan, and his wife had a baby girl, Clara, back in mid-June. You might recognize him from his comments on our blog. Or his own blog, if you're a Muhlestein reader. Our good friends, Ben and Melanie Haslam, had a baby girl, Kathryn Hope, on Saturday. Ben and Melanie served in Russia with Paul and gave us our first apartment--for $395! Ah, good, cheap times. Finally, Paul's cousin, Dennis, and his wife will have a baby (girl?) this week. Technically, she's only due this week, but she's not a very big person, so I'm optimistic about my advance congratulations.

Wide-Eyed and Bushy-Tailed And ....

Dear All,
Well, Paul and I made it back home finally. I assumed you guessed that from the lack of obituaries and family phone calls. We've also gotten on a kind of sleeping schedule. (Guess who was able to sleep for more than 5 hours straight last night? Me!) Now we're just kicking back and working through our back mail and to-dos that can finally be done now that we're in the same country as they are. It's exciting.

As for the surprise, I dyed my hair purple--well, cranberry-colored. Except it didn't quite work. Apparently, when you take a red-violet tone and layer it over dark brown hair, you get that superheroine red-purple color like in X-men. Which was cool until I took a shower (tragically, days later due to travel) when the color lost its intensity, making it less superheroine-y and more boring red-y. Oh, well. I've always said I wanted to be a redhead. I guess I got my chance.

There's a picture of my hair right after it was done, which I will post as soon as I can remember where we packed the connection for the camera.

A Gold Star and an 'A' for effort

For any doubters out there, I can hereby testify that Jennifer Jean Bussio can in fact board a flight, ride it for 11 hours, and disembark without
A- Going Crazy
B- Weeping Constantly or
C- Getting Drunk
In all seriousness, howver, she was great and I was very proud.
Paul

LAX Sucks

LAX sucks. I dare you to find a worst airport. We had to wait to disembark the plane because no one had moved the walkway over. Then we had to wait to go to the terminal because the airport is so dang big that you have to ride a shuttle bus to get from the place the airplane drops you off and the terminal. Customs is a puzzle. We had to wait in a long line where three different people looked at our form and waved us through. Three people in the space of 50 feet. What, just in case the first two managed to miss the parrot you're smuggling, the third can (literally, given the distance) jump right in? Makes no sense. We also had to wait FOREVER for our luggage because the conveyor belt was broken. Well, it wasn't broken, you see, some luggage was just caught on it, but the people who work at the baggage carosel expressed profound ignorance of how to fix it or who to call to get it fixed. They work at the baggage carousel, for heaven's sakes! Isn't that their job? Anyway, one eventually climbed inside and unjammed it but it took like twenty minutes after that to collect all of our luggage. Then we sent off in search of terminal 8. Despite what the map says, there is only an entrance labeled terminal seven. To get to terminal 8, you have to go through terminal seven. Not that this is ever clear. Oh, and none of the terminals connect (except, oddily, 7 and 8), so you have to go outside and walk around forever until you find your terminal. to get into the terminal, you must complete the security walk of death, which actually wasn't too bad due to the poor man running the 1 metal detector who was constantly repeating "You need your boarding pass and nothing metal." At one point he did mix it up by announcing to the line that 1) there was but one line so keep it single-file and 2)cell phones DO have metal in them, so please do not clear one in your hand and try to pass through the metal detector. I kind of felt a little bad for him. What he was saying was not rocket science, but only half the people were listening so he had to keep repeating himself.

You may not know this, but terminal 8 has a newstand, a Starbucks, a hamburger place, and a bar. All of these places close at 10 pm. It's an airport!!! There are flights coming and going at all hours of the day and night. So we're starving, alone, and sleeping on those black airport chairs.

Oh, and internet access costs ten bucks. I hope you're getting ten dollars' worth of something out of this post.

And Ambien, 10 mg? You and I have a score to settle. I demand sleep from a sleeping pill!

Better Pack Your Bags and Run

Well, we're all packed up--or mostly, since select toiletries can't be packed until tomorrow and I have a small load of laundry to finish. Not vital, though. I'm cool with just throwing them in a bag at this point. I feel a little better about the flight, since I realized we're flying on Singapore Air instead of China Air. I have much more confidence in Singapore Air. Still going to knock myself out, though. No reason to slit my wrists there. Oh, and I have a fabulous surprise--well, I think it's a fabulous surprise. If you'll only be pleased by a smuggled antique or small child, you will be disappointed. Anyway, 10:24 am July 3, SLC Airport. Be there or be square.