MADE IT!!

Alrighty, I'm alive!
The flight was actually very awesome!

We'll take you to the play by play... over to you Jerry

Thanks Mary!

So hanging out with Samia was great, we went out to a very nice breakfast in Beverly Hills, mocked the 40 somethings that are still trying to be 20 somethings with their botox, mini skirts (with ruffles I might add!) and tank tops with the fake tans, plastic body parts and topped off with the most gaudy, LARGE jewelry pieces you could fathom. All real of course.
Then we went to the store got some stuff, chilled at her place and then went to meet by buddy Jesse for coffee. That was an adventure since Samia's phone with GPS sent us about 2 miles in the wrong direction!
But that was great and had just enough time to chill for 20 min before going to the airport. We drive up to the drop point at 5pm and I see there's this huge line inside, so we hurry out of the car and say our goodbyes and I'm off running inside to take my place in line.. just to find out that, that line is not the right line and that the line I needed to be in was around the huge group of people... soooo I follow along and go around to a spot where there was no line.... no one... and I walk up and am like "is this the right line?" and the steward is like "yep, come on up". So I get checked in, in like 5 min and go over to the ID checkpoint and there's another long line.. . so I'm like "ok, here's where I have to wait"... erm.. no
A man comes up to the back of the line 2 seconds after I step up and says "y'all in the back of this line go over to the other side, there's a new line open".. sooooo I go over there and am the first one up and get through there in 1 minute and am off to the actual security checkpoint. Get through that easy peasy lemon squeezy and am up at my gate by 5:20pm. NICE!
So I have like 2 hours to hang out before my flight, get a chance to Skype with my mom and my man and then get to board.
The boarding process was interesting... since there was no process. Everyone just kinda gathered around the gate and squished into the isle to get the passport and boarding pass checked before going down the forever-corridor to the plane.
So get on the plane and it's niiiiiccceeee, and HUGE. Full bar at the front, with first class and then business and then economy.. the whole time I'm lookin for my seat and I keep going... and going... and going.. till TA-DA, row 50 of 51. That's me!

The flight was very nice, a bit jiggly but nothing horrible. The food was pretty good too! I KNOW RIGHT?! I had a beef stew and potatoes with bread, pasta salad and cake for dinner, and then fruit crepes with yogurt, OJ and a croissant for breakfast (I know, no lunch, but it's ok.. I snagged a couple snacks from business class while everyone was asleep *evil grin face*
The plane also had built in monitors in the back of the seats and all of the options were FREE!! So I had movies, tv channels, tv shows, games, and music that I could listen to/watch to my hearts content! And the movies were good too! Recent releases and olden classics, not crap that's constantly replayed over and over on like TNT or something. That was the best, and the fact that they had these hand-held remotes to play with and a USB port to plug in a thumb drive or iPod was even neater!
So I didn't even have to open my laptop once, which was good because it was dead from skying with my loved ones earlier. But the stewardess was so nice she offered to take it back and charge it for me (even though I was informed that I would have a charger port on the plane and was kinda miffed that there wasn't one)
I managed to sleep a little too.. don't know for how long.. but my neck is sore enough to have made it at least a couple hours.
OH YEAH aaannnnd they also had pillows and blankets and free headsets! You don't realize how much you miss those things in the states until you get them back for a minute and realize how nice and cozy it is!
Made it to Sydney right on time, went through customs lickety-split and got picked up by my mate Anton and got to his pad and met his wife and dog and got the tour.

Interesting factoid: All the old houses and apartments and the like here in Sydney do not have air conditioning or heating installed, not even ceiling fans, (unless you put them in yourself) they figure that there's no real point in having them because it is only cold a couple months out of the year and doesn't get too hot cuz there's always a breeze that it's a waste of money.
ALSO: I have not YET come across a toilet that has water that swirls opposite of the US. All the toilets I've used this trip and the one before all cascaded down the middle and didn't swirl at all. But I'll definitely keep you posted if I come up on one!

Anyway.. I hope that was cohesive enough for you.. I'm still hella tired and am planing on taking a very good nap, so sorry if it's a little scatter brained and not as witty as I was hoping it to be.

More to come...
~The Almost Quasay Australia Backpacker