the great scotland road trip, part 2

so, to recap: becca and i were gone for 10 days visiting karen in scotland, and the only big things we missed in houston, as far as i can tell, were 1) the texans beat the cowboys and 2) a tanker of ammonia exploded at a chemical plant nearby. lovely.

so i’m back at work and absolutely wide awake, feeling as if it is 3:30 in the afternoon. flying west is always easier than flying east. when we arrived in england, i spent the first day alternating between groggy attempts at figuring out where i was and periods of being zonked out in the backseat of karen’s little purple car (henceforth known as the lpc). i swear, you could have made some wacked out music video if you could only have filmed the day through my eyes. black…hmm, random scottish hillside on the left, other lane of traffic on the right…black…oh, look at the sheep…black…can we stop at a moto, i need to pee!!…black…ooh, pretty rainbow…black

but the trip was good. i’m thinking i’ll just post some of my journal entries later, as that would be the easiest way to recap for those interested. in the meantime, highlights were:

• flying on a kick-ass fancy 777 with individual tv screens and american airlines’ generous seat spacing
• seeing the concorde taking off as we rode away from heathrow on the bus after arriving in london
• the intial freaking-out and trying to readjust all of karen’s mirrors because the steering wheel was on the wrong side of the car
• making it to the top of arthur’s seat in edinburgh, despite having been soaked to the bone half an hour earlier in a sudden downpour
• scones with jam and cream, mmm
• cool piles of rock (i.e. castles, cathedrals, etc), especially those in st. andrews and stirling
• riding ponies through the hills
• stopping on “the road by the phone booth next to the sign that says ‘cairn of get'” to climb down a random cliff-side staircase
• riding bikes through splendid sunshine (and quite a stiff headwind) in the orkney islands
• karen and i constantly teasing becca (to her credit, becca is quite a good sport)
• discovering karen’s new thursday night plans, a funny british tv show called “fat friends”
• feeling conservative because we didn’t drink enough, and being encouraged to drink more by karen of all people
• seeing lots of sheep and hairy cows
• being trapped and subsequently preached to by a (slightly disturbing) singing potter
• listening to an elderly woman completely rag on americans for an hour on the bus ride back to heathrow
• having lunch with nick in the airport before bidding him adieu on his way to france

i’ve decided that the real point of working is not to get anything productive done, but simply to earn vacation time, and money to spend during those times. becca and i are already dreaming about our next trip. the ae mafia will likely fly again, next year…in greece.

(1:39 p.m.)

this from an article in the new york times. i love it. love the shoes, love the hair, love it:

In one spot, poignant music swells as a woman buys a new lamp and leaves the old one on the street in a driving rain. Suddenly, a man appears on screen. “Many of you feel bad for this lamp,” the man says in a Swedish accent. “That is because you’re crazy. It has no feelings, and the new one is much better.” He walks off and the spot abruptly ends as “Unbî’šing” and the Ikea logo appear.