Trippin'

This morning, I woke up with the familiar paddle soreness in my delts and lats, which made me happy, happy, happy.  Last night, after missing three trainings, I returned to the water with shiny new blade in hand and paddled 10km.  My god, how I love the sport. It is intimately intertwined with the love I feel for New Zealand. It's awesome to be home. 

My trip to the US was a good one although there were a few bumps in the road.  

I arrived in Los Angeles, checked into the hotel, had authentic Mexican food for dinner and was nearly creamed trying to cross the street.   You see, somewhere between my last trip in July and this one, my brain had firmly made the switch in traffic laws.  I looked right to see if there was a car coming, then looked left to see if I was clear in the opposite lane and then promptly stepped out into the path of an oncoming car, which happened to be barreling towards me on my left.  My brain took a nanosecond to realize that I'd made a mistake but not before another pedestrian grabbed the neck of my shirt and yanked me backwards.  I'm chalking it up to jet lag.  It scared the tar out of me.

The following morning, I flew to Arkansas and spent the next three days sweltering in inhumane temperatures.  "It's so much cooler this week than last," I was told.  Jesus.  I can't believe I lived through those summers for twelve years.  Don't even get me started on the grasshoppers which were everywhere.  These things looked like they were the product of a nuclear spill.  They were large, fleshy, things that were, surprisingly, able to hold onto the windshield wipers while I did 60 mph on the freeway.  I kept waiting for the skies to darken, the moon to turn blood red and four horsemen to appear. 

Driving proved to be slightly challenging, which is just ridiculous considering 28 years of my life were spent driving on the right hand side of the road and just 11 MONTHS have been invested motoring on the left.  However, that didn't stop me from flicking on the windshield wipers instead of the blinkers and it didn't seem to matter as I sat at a few "T" junctures and parking lots having to really think about which way to turn.  While in Los Angeles, I was terrified by the sheer number of lanes and the speeds at which people flew from their auditions to their restaurant jobs.  I barely drove the speed limit because my car in New Zealand does not have any cruise control so I've developed a pretty good feel for 100km/h (60 mph).  I'd look down at my speedometer as cars zoomed by me on both right and left to realize that I had become THAT driver...the one that people who need to BE SOMEWHERE despise.  And the biggest takeaway from the whole driving thing is that I now park like a complete asshole in both countries.  

Excellent. 

The unrivaled highlight of my trip was (*gasp*) Las Vegas.  We arrived in the morning, checked into the newly refurbed suites at the MGM Grand and hustled over to a trade show, which was much larger and much better put together than we had anticipated.  That night, we met with our customer and had dinner at Tom Colicchio's Craftsteak.  The meal was among the top five restaurant experiences I've had in my 45 years on the planet.  The waygu tartare was sublime.  The lobster bisque, one of their signature dishes, was something that I could happily consume every, single, day for the rest of my life.  The wine flowed and the conversation was easy.  After dinner, we hit the craps table, which was not an especially good decision.  At about midnight, we put our customer into a cab and then my colleague and I did the worst thing imaginable.  We went to a bar and (both of us former nicotine heads) bought cigarettes.  Not good.  We continued to drink and smoke until we realized that our flight to Los Angeles was leaving in less than five hours.  The next day was a painful mix of dehydration, sleep deprivation, blinding sun and cigarette hangover.  I spent the next two days sounding like the Marlboro Man.

All in all, the trip was a success, which is great but the best thing to come out of it was a deeper understanding of my husband and the emotional conflict he experienced living in America while his heart remained in New Zealand.  This trip, I got it, loud and clear.  While I appreciate everything that the US has to offer, I was pretty excited to return home to the shores of Aotearoa.