Back in the US of A

It's so strange being back. I arrived back last Sunday - but actually didn't make it to my parent's house until about 5:30 on Monday morning. There was some huge debacle about my luggage and one bag being misplaced. I ended up hanging around the airport in Newark until just after midnight. Thank goodness the Budget there is open 24 hours. If it had closed, I would have been in a lot of trouble. However I finally made it home. I'm a bit jet lagged. It's usually that I'm just tired really early on in the evening, then I'm wide awake at 3AM.

It's so strange being back here. Everything seems much louder and brighter. I hardly know what to think most of the time. Vienna and all of my travels seems more like a pretty dream than a reality and something that I actually lived through. I cried when I left Vienna - it was so sad to go. I didn't want to leave all my friends and the city itself. I know that all good things eventually come to an end. I am hoping that it is the beginning of something else that is just as amazing. I had a referral phone interview with Target on Thursday morning and within 24 hours had a blow-off email. It's times like that when you realize that they do it merely as a courtesy. When you tell me you're working hard looking for an opportunity that would fit my skill set but that you haven't found anything (blah blah blah) within 24 hours - I realize there isn't a whole lot of hard looking that went on there. It was a courtesy call and little else. I did apply for 2 jobs there, so we'll see if anything comes of them. I did have the shocking realization that this may end up being a year fraught with disappointments and rejection. Looking for jobs is necessarily that way. You know it may not be you per se, but it is rejection nonetheless.

Love my new car. It's zippy and fun. I did have to put new tires on it and in the process of doing so they found that one of the rims was cracked, but the tire place was AMAZING and took care of everything. I went to Tire Land in Nichols, New York. They really were astounding. The guy drove to Syracuse to pick up the new rim at 5AM on Friday and didn't charge me a dime for his time. It almost felt unfair.

Well, updating this at my parents is difficult - their internet is iffy. So happy holidays everyone!