Bon Voyage, Almost

Thanks to Ruth, Jorge, Ray, Glenn, Luke, David, Darren, Matthew, Damian, and Lisa for coming along to my 'farewell' dinner @ Flavour of India in Glebe. I had the Lamb Korma. Yum! I'm sure everyone is sick of me and all Lori-ed out from the past few weeks, but I appreciate the effort :-)

Tomorrow I have to ring my lawyer to find out all the bits I have to do for my visa application and I have to finally go and pick up my plane tickets. Oh yeah, I should start packing soon ;-)

Here's Lookin @ You, Mum!

Happy birthday to my Mum! Congrats, Mum, you are finally 35! You made it! I hope you have a super b-day and I will be seeing you very soon! - Love, Lori (your favourite - and only - daughter) ;-)

WOO to the HOO!

It's been great fun trying to get lots of work done at work before my departure, sorting out immigraton paperwork, planning trains and accommodation in Europe, trying to pack and clean my apartment, all while not knowing for sure whether or not the whole visa thing was even going to happen. *Cue Aerosmith Livin' on the Edge music.* And thank you to all those doubting-toms who asked me things like, "Are you going to give up the apartment?" "What if you can't get back in the country?" What if the visa doesn't work?" Look, I'm a glass is half-full sorta gal, so believe me, it's not like I hadn't thought of those things and I love you all for caring, but I have to just keep plodding along like everything will work out in the end, and it usually does.

The good news is that I just found out that my company's nomination (of me) has been approved! YAY! That means I can now officially apply for my visa - well, I can once I'm in the States. You can't even apply for the visa if the nomination is rejected. So half the battle has been won. Hence, WOO to the HOO!

Going to celebrate by seeing Spiderman tonight with Graeme. Weeee!

La Noche de Nachos

Huge thanks to Ruth for having me over for dinner tonight. We had yummy nachos and wine and nachos and more wine. Ruth can talk as much as I do, if that gives you any indication of the great chat session we had. :-) It was a good night of gossip! I was telling Ruth about this poem I wrote yesterday. It's in Spanish and the English translation is SO cheesy, but of course it sounds nice in Spanish. It's probably not all correct, but I think most of it is okay. I had my first dream in Spanish ever two nights ago and I woke up yesterday morning and wrote about it. It's a sad poem about a fisherman who has never known love before. I'll post it here, soon. I think :-)

¡Sueños felices!

Writing Weekend, Chatty Sunday

Had an amazing weekend down in Kiama with my Writer's Group. I love those gals! It was a weekend full of writing, chatting, gossip, more writing, writing exercises, good food, tea and biscuits, wine, and walks along the beach. Kendall Beach is gorgeous. I highly recommend. This is just a quicky to say the birthday pics are just about ready to go, I've just been too slack to put them up live yet.

Just got home from Kiama this arvo and then I went to see my friend Bonnie's blues band play in Newtown. She is fantastic! Lisa and I ran into Graeme there and I've been meaning to catch up with him for ages. We ended up at The Townie with Nick and Deb, two funny characters. Deb asked me about 5 times how I met Graeme. It was hilarious because she mentioned the movie Memento at one point and that's exactly what talking to her was like. I should have started making up crazy stories about how I met Graeme. Anyway, we didn't get to hang with Bonnie long, but she was fabulous and we'll catch up soon. Lisa, Graeme, Nick, Deb, and I had one hilarious conversation after another. Nick first greeted me with a "I know you from somewhere!" and I said, "Yup, you've driven me home before!" (Get your minds out of the gutter, it wasn't like that!) Sydney is such a small small world!

To Rachel and Ant, I am so sorry I missed you once again! I will actually try again to call you tomorrow or the following day!

Happy Belated B-day to Uncle Sean. I will make it up to you, I promise :-)