China Travels: Eternal Flight Edition

So my dear readers ... all both of you... I have made my triumphant return from my two week (business) trip to China with my Aunt, Bettie Anne.  Please, please... hold your applause!

After approximately one billion hours of flying and one bedazzled van, we made it to our first destination: Shenzen, China.   Our first flight was Dallas to Minneapolis (circa de 3 hours).  Two hour layover... Minneapolis to Tokyo (circa de 14 hours... crying babies, people enjoying the free drinks, and a quarter of the book I started). Three hour layover... Tokyo to Hong Kong (circa de 4.5 hours... very tired and very grumpy at this point).  When we arrived in HK a driver was waiting for us to take us across the border onto mainland China into Shenzen. He pulled up the unsuspecting van and we piled in.  It was very clean and spacious, a very welcome change from the planes we had been on for the last 24 hours.  Shenzen is only about 20 miles away from HK but because we had to go through passport control to get onto the mainland it took about an hour.

While we were enjoying the terra firma, I first noticed that the window control on my side was bedazzled with silver stones.  I laughed.   Then I looked forward passed the driver side seat (which is the right in HK since it was a british colony for forever) and noticed that the entire airvent was bedazzled. More laughter.  I was trying to get my Aunt to see it but she was busy being in a zombie like- half-asleep-half-awake situation.  The real kicker came when He turned on the over head light, and shocker, it was completely bedazzled... like as in over the light.  Completely covered in rows of jewels.  It was then that I knew China and I would get along just fine.

When it was finally our turn at the border, the driver handed the dude our passport and the he opened the passenger door so homeboy Chinese gov't agent could get a nice look at us.  Little Creepy.

Not long after, we pulled up to The Best Western, Felicity Hotel.  No where has ever looked so beautiful.  Mostly just because I knew there was a bed waiting for me ! It was now about 1:30 a.m. Oct. 23 China time- 12:30 p.m. Oct. 21 Houston time - We had been traveling since about 9 a.m. Friday Oct. 21 Houston time.  It helps to draw a picture.

We bumbled into our room, I think I managed to shower before falling into the ROCK HARD (welcome to china) bed and falling fast asleep.  Our first meeting was the next morning at 11 in the hotel lobby so we had plenty of time to sleep off the travels.

zz.
zzz...
zzzzz....
zzz.
zz....


Then we were up.  We headed down to breakfast around 10 maybe ( i'm totally making that up- I just know it was AFTER the breakfast buffet was closed).  We ordered off of the menu, the "Western Breakfast"... so naturally it had eggs, sausage, slice tomato and the ever classic- breakfast french fries.  I would complain about how the rest of the world looks at us- thinking that we eat french fries for breakfast... but they were really delicious, so I won't.

-- business meeting.
--me listening.
--trying to learn.
--getting confused
--realizing my aunt knows a lot about stuff I didn't really know existed.
--cricket...cricket...

Around 2:30 we had a second meeting that was about a million times more entertaining than the first... but maybe not on purpose.  A company was coming to talk to my aunt about a product which she nearly severed her finger off with trying to prove a point (point taken).  Their faces, as Bettie's finger was trying to jump ship, were priceless.  I thought they were going to have heart attacks. I didn't really know what to do...other than laugh. So I did. 

The meeting went well, it was mostly just funny. I think it was more of a "you had to be there" kind of funny, so I won't try to explain it... I don't think it would appear funny at all that way.  Maybe some day you'll catch me after a drink and I'll give it a go!

Anyway... We dinner'd and then it was amazingly bed time again!  My favorite part of the day!  Of course this was preceded by some chinese television watching.  Let me tell you... the chinese have got the talent tv shows down!  Every channel ( like 5 ) each night had its own version.  And you would think that in a country of 2 billion people...there would be more talent. 

Ok. There's day 1 for you! 

To conclude this post, I would like it include a "lost in translation" photo... as I will in each China post there is.  ENJOY!

just because you said so !

The Holidays!! : Halloween Decorations Edition!

I am so happy it is OCTOBER and no one can judge me for having out Halloween decorations.  The kick off of holiday season is pretty much what I needed to get my bum moving to get the house much cleaner and better organized.  I'm still not quite done with unpacking a few boxes but I am LEAPS and BOUNDS from where I started. 

Last week I began rummaging through cabinets, closets and cubboards ( i just wanted to keep the alliteration going) to find all of our Halloween and Fall decorations my mom collected through the years.  Once I got all of that stuff put out... I may have gathered some more things from my neighbors Michael's & Garden Ridge.  Don't judge me.  Shopping is how I deal with things. 

I'm pretty excited with how everything looks.  I have all the major decoratable zones of the house covered.  I mostly stayed inside... meaning I hung two hangy things on the outside of the house because I could... but then went a little nutty inside. BUT I LOVE IT.

And, as I know you are just DYING to see how it all looks... I present to you: Halloween, Johnston Style.



Let us begin with the kitchen table... Mostly all old stuff.  I picked up the little pumpkin and the far left today at Garden ridge for $2.99... why is he so special? GLAD YOU ASKED ! Mostly because he has an OWL carved in him.   DONE !

 Next week move through the kitchen to the pantry(ish) area.  Yes ! those are apothocary jars.  Yes! They are awesome! YES! I love them so much! and YES ! the orange one does say "crystalline smelling salts" which made me feel the need to fill it with tiny clear beads that NO ! I did not spill all over the floor while filling it up!   (I'm lying... I did spill them...everywhere)

Ah! Yes.  Our next stop is the formal dining room.  My mom made the pumpkinS a long, lonnng time ago out of dryer duct that you staple together then spray paint orange.  Totally. Brill.

Stuffed animals on the staircase.  Classic Johnston decorating move.

 Now we have arrived at our third and final room, the Den.   This is the card table.  It is lovely.  Check out the sweet family picture in the back.  I'm rocking bangs if you can't tell.  OWN IT .

The Mantle... Mr. Scarecrow was $5.99... but don't call him cheap! He's a classy man.  Again, sweet family photo.

Ready for his close up....

And a full room shot.... take it all in.

Also, my new BFF is flameless candles.  You would think I discovered the moon.  They are everywhere... i got a set of 24 tea lights and then all the candles on the mantle are flameless also.  Some are even on timers.  I thought it was Halloween, but they sure make me feel likes Christmas!


SO.  I hope the ever anticipated Halloween house tour has filled you every desire.  I know it has mine!

P.S.  I won't even be here for Halloween because I will be in China on a business trip. Yes, yes... A business trip.   And you all thought I was a bum !

A (not-so) Wise Choice: Garage Door Edition

I'm going to make this post pretty straight forward. 

Don't take offense to it.

Don't think that I'm talking down to you.

Its just that... sometimes... people need little reminders about the mundane things in life...

SO...

Next time you're driving into a garage and you think you can start closing the door when your car is only halfway in and still make it in... you might be sorely mistaken. 

You might end up hurting the roof of your car a bit.  It might not cause any serious damage, but it might end up worse than when you started pulling into the garage.  And worse, you might break the garage door. It might not be able to close.  This might happen in the middle of the night when there is no hope of getting it fixed.  You might stand in the garage for twenty minutes determined to figure out time travel.  You might have to leave your roommate a note stating that you broke the garage and it is temporarily out of commision. You might let yourself sleep in an extra hour because you don't want to have to call your dad first thing in the morning and ask him what to do... or explain that you shut the garage on your car.  You might spend your sunday morning looking up garage door repair companies.  You might give them a ring.  They might come out to fix it.  You might have to explain the story again of how you closed the garage on your car...while you were still driving.  THEN... you might have to write them a hefty check. 

And you might feel kind of dumb.

Naturally, this is just a hypothetical story of something that might happen if you don't think things through.   


sorry there are no pictures.....of this completely hypothetical story.

A (not -so) Wise Choice: They Let me Fly a Plane Edition

My dad has been wanting to get his pilot's license for a while now and decided to get me on board with the quest for myself.  So yesterday while he was in town, we went for a "discovery flight" out at Hooks airport.  Its meant to be a mini intro into the pilot training program. 

First we started in a classroom where our Pilot, Robert, talked to us about flight maps (or whatever the real name is) and all the other crazy acronyms and french words the aviation industry deems necessary.  It hurt my head.  You have to be really smart to be a pilot.  I don't know if my people are made for this.

We'll see.

So after the classroom - map - times, we ventured to the flight simulator.  It was awesome.  It looks just like a cockpit- but with a computer screen instead of... er... the earth.  My dad went first. It starts you on the runway for take off.... he was in the grass before he even left the ground.  Ha. Then you fly around and practice turns and leveling out.  It was amazing.  I was up next, I did slightly better than my dad, but only because I had watched him and paid extra attention to not do what he did. It worked, kind of.  After the simulator times we were off to the real thing ! 

We did a pre-flight inspection of the plane...checking everything.  It was all there. Whew.

I was in the hot seat first and dad observed.  We took off and I was slightly freaking out.  There is so much to pay attention to.  My tiny little blonde brain was blown.  Once we were up in the air, I took the controls. 

HA.

They'll let just anyone fly one of those things.  Suckers.

So I had to level the plane, then go up...then down....then once we were over Lake Conroe he decided I should do some turns.  Naturally.  Turns in a plane are....freaky.  You lose lift when you turn so unless you correct it you naturally start going down slightly, so as I was turning us right it actually looked like we were heading straight for the lake... or what's left of it at the moment (anger fist to the drought) .  So as I'm freaking out and saying my final prayers in me head the pilot man tells me its a beautiful turn.  Irony. 

After 30 minutes we landed and I switched places with dad.  We were both a little air sick, but shook it off so dad could have his moment to shine. 

and shine he did!

Ok, so i might have slept a little in the back....BUT we didn't crash so I take that as shining! GO DAD !

He did the same thing as me and then we returned.

mission accomplished.

Roger.

And that was that. Typical day .

Clean-a-thon : front yard edition

So what did I do this afternoon ? ? ? 

Well, when I rolled back into town Sunday afternoon, there was a little surprise awaiting my arrival.  Toilet paper was strewn about our yard.  So today I cleaned the soggy, semi-paper-mache-esque toilet paper that draped the azalea bushes in our front yard. 

I guess this counts as my yearly throwback to middle school.

It wasn't even that much.  We have no idea who did it, because I know no one who would do it... because everyone I know is a responsible "adult."  I think it was meant for the neighbor boy two houses down who is in middle school.  We also think it was girls because they kind of did a terrible job, not that I'm complaining.  The worst part was that it rained the night they attacked so there weren't nice, fluid strips of toilet paper that I could grab.  Rather, there were clumps that had glued themselves to the foliage. Excellent. 

I found an entire roll lodged in the middle of one of the azalea bushes.  It was completely soaking wet.  Delicious.

All in all, I didn't really mind cleaning it up that much.  It was probably the most time I've spent outside in a while and the weather was nice. Plus, I had Justin Bieber stuck in my head.

That's all.

xo

Random Thought: Jesus Loves Me Edition

On Friday Kristen was kind enough to pick me up on her way through Houston so we could ride together to College Station- I was going for the weekend and she was just popping through for a few minutes on her way back to Plano. duh.
God has such cool timing and such a bigger vision than we do... of course Kristen would have an interview in Galveston (WHOOP!) and be driving through CS on a weekend I was going... I'm sure it was all so we could have time together.  Thanks God.

 As we pulled back onto University we were talking about how weird it was to be back and how different things are.  Nothing major has necessarily changed about A&M or BCS, but its crazy how different it feels to be there sometimes.  Time is a weird thing.  When I think about my freshman and sophomore year vs. junior and senior vs. now- I have completely different life perspectives in each stage.  There is a different air about each little time chunk.  I hope you get it because that's about as articulate as I can be on the topic. 

Moving on...

So we pulled up to the back on St. Mary's around 4, Kristen was dropping me off and was going to go do her thing and I was going to go to mass and do my thing.  Sitting in the car in the back lot I started having a slight freak out ... What was I going to do for an hour and a half before mass? Where was I going to put my duffel bag I was toting around? Where were all the people I know?  Why do I feel like I'm 75 years old? ... Kristen validated the awkwardity...but alas I had to forge the unknown.  So, waddling with my bag I strayed from the safe confines of the car and walked the long, dark path of the breezeway. 

Once inside- things went well.  I put my bag down and then went in the church to pray and possibly nap.  I was sitting downstairs right under the front of the balcony, per the usual. 

It felt so good to be back in St. Mary's.  It was almost like going back to your grandparents house.  Its so comforting and familiar.  I would have cuddled with it if I could have...

While I was sitting there praying, Crazy Girl by Eli Young Band kept popping in my head.  I love it.  Its my favorite song right now.  I listen to it too much.  It makes me happy and sad at the same time.  It might be unhealthy. 

What was cool about it though is that as the chorus was repeating in my head, I was hearing Jesus singing it:


Crazy girl, don't you know that I love you?
I wouldn't dream of going nowhere
Silly woman come here let me hold you
Have I told you lately I love you like crazy, girl?

It was a really cool moment.  I don't usually have a "feelings" reaction during prayer, I don't usually receive consolation.  It was really calming and comforting to hear a song that is meant to be in a romantic context as a love song from Christ.  The rest of the song doesn't follow suit, I know.  But that need not affect the Jesus love chorus.  It was a rare moment when I really felt like He was speaking to me, letting me know I'm in His care.

After, I tried to nap in the balcony ( so I did try to cuddle with St. Mary's) but I couldn't.

Then it was time for mass.  The church was waaaay packed and I was noticing how I knew circa de.... no one.  That's a cool feeling. Thank goodness for Ms. Evelyn Fontana who came and sat with me and made me feel loved ! Father Michael Sullivan rocked the house, Jesus made an appearance, all was well.

The rest of the weekend continued to show how much blessing God has to rain down on us. 

Snaps:
-tailgating
-42
-watching the game at the alumni center (WHOOP!)
-new friend, Frank, class of 1946
-The Village girls
-Gumby's pizza rolls
-Cousin Carley
-free parking
-rain
-dancing
-fuego
-Katie K and company (BABY BOY!)
-Mass with Morgan and Ragan
-Yogurtland for 2 hours


oh! and then getting back home in houston and finding that my house was wrapped... ?!?!  Who wraps a strangers house?  I'm pretty sure they had the wrong house on accident. Awesome.

A Wise Choice: the wisdom teeth removal edition

I decided that it was time to add some spice to my life, oral surgery style.

So I had my wisdom teeth sliced from the confines of my mouth.

The lovely Katie C accompanied me as my "over 18, responsible adult" since my dad was still in Alaska on his moose-less moose hunting trip (boooooo!) 

When the doctor was about to put the I.V. in, I told him I don't do I.V.s well and that I usually get close to passing out.  He told me that it was ok because he doesn't do them well either, so he is really good at giving them. 

Now, now.

Apparently they don't teach you in Med School that its not a matter of pain when it comes to people with needle/IV freak outs. I barely felt it go in. He was right, he can give them very well... but then comes the racing heart. Apparently I held my breath while he was putting in the I.V. and turns out that isn't so good. So then come the sweats and the fidgeting, heart hurting, room spinning.  

The last thing I remember is hearing him say "Now, I'm going to give you something to make you feel better..."

And apparently before they woke me up, Katie had the opportunity to take this lovely shot... 

Consider me posting this pic, my random act of kindness for the day.

  The next thing I know, I can hear the doc telling Katie that I fainted before they put me under! I had no idea (duh)!  That's the first time I've ever passed out.  Gotta check that off the bucket list!  Katie and the Doc walked me out to the car and we came back home.  I then slept...for a while.  :o) Post- Surgery Katie is one of the easiest versions of me to get on board with... it involves a lot of sleeping, acceptable whining, couch lying, movie watching, and mushy food eating. Check. 

Katie proved to be an excellent caretaker.  She even partook in some of the optional nap times! Talk about sympathy pain!  She was so sweet to pick-up my drugs at target, and even some frozen peas to ice down my cheeks!  :o) After nap number 2...or 7... Katie was kind enough to snap these photos of me and my fluffy face. 

Random act of kindness #2

Random act of kindness #3

Yes there are peas on my face.

Yes I'm cuddling with a stuffed animal.

Enjoy.

So Katie and I spent mostly all the day in the dark fortress that is the gameroom of my house.  Apparently it didn't occur to us to open the blinds during the day, reinforcing the 17 naps.

After "dinner" (an 8 oz. bottle of vanilla Ensure) we rented "Hanna" on Video on Demand.  We were reeled in by the 10 minute "freeview"... it started out strong, and got weirder and weirder.  I liked it.  It was just weird. But good.  Good and weird. Weird and good. 

By then it was around mid-night-ish, so we got me drugged up and into bed.  It took me a while to fall asleep since I was a bit nauseated from the druggin' on a not so full stomach.  But eventually I was out, I woke up circa de 7:20 this morning, just in time to hear my dad walk in the door from the airport!  Then I passed out again for 3 more hours!  #noshame

When I emerged from my fortress I took a long walk down the stairs, through the kitchen and plopped on to the couch! Aah yes, to relax after a long nights rest.  I earned it. 

Starting today I have to rinse my mouth every three hours with salt water, and can start carefully brushing my teeth.  Somewhere around movie # 3 today, I found myself napping through "The Prince and Me."  I was in that semi-sleep state when I was half dreaming.  So in my dream I was hearing what was actually on T.V. (mostly) but with my own images.  I was hearing the end of the movie, when he comes back to get the girl, but in my brain's own setting.  Oh, and I was the girl.  So I remember be kept kissing me and I would get grossed out because he had really bad breath.  This happened like 5 times before I woke and realized that it was my own terribly disgusting breath that had been infiltrating my dream. Classic.  And classy.  I laughed out loud at myself.

Post- breath dreaming, my dad arrived with some soft foods from Boston Market. He brought me mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, mac and cheese and sweet potatoes.  Word to the wise- the spinach and sweet potatoes go down the easiest! ( And are the tastiest)  So I snack timed.  mmm...

Dad went back to the store and roommate Katie was shopping, so I took this opportunity to shower.  I figured I could only pull off the post-surgery grease ball look for so long, and I didn't want to push it.  Shower's make everything a little better.

To sum up the rest of the night:
Lounging
Pinteresting
Movie-ing
Alaska State Troopering
Michigan Vs. Notre Dame-ing (included some nappage)
SNL-ing
Face peas-ing
Snacking
Anti-bioticing
And the 20 teeth brushing and saline solutioning.

All in all, I call that a pretty productive day.  I plan to reenact most of it tomorrow, with the addition of Mass-ing.

So, that's my wisdom teeth update.  Super thrilling and only semi- painful.  I am milking this for all its worth. 


Sidenote:  On thursday I ran a bunch of pre-wisdom teeth removal errands.  One of them include getting new passport photos taken for my visa for china in october. I had the option of taking them thursday, with my hair up and two day old makeup OR getting them taken after my wisdom teeth were sawed from my face and possibly facing puffy face photos.

So I went to Walgreens and after the lady set up the screen, I stood in front of it and smiled for my close up.  She looked at me, cocked her head sideways and as sweetly as she could, asked if I wanted to look in the mirror first. 

Confidence boosted. Ha. 

I told her no and explained that it wasn't actually for my passport, so it would only be on my visa for one trip and I didn't really care blah blah blah.

"are you sure? sometimes people get upset afterwards..."

Confidence rising. 

So she took the picture. 

Sidenote^2:  You aren't allowed to smile anymore in passport photos, apparently they want everyone to look how they will after an 8 hour flight. 

So wait no longer and behold : KTJ- the swedish runnaway version:

xo