East Coast, West Coast...

Sitting on the comfiest chair in the living room, the one in the corner. Laptop. One cup of black tea, courtesy of Dunkin' Donuts, in my favorite Snoopy mug, history. Still in the clothes I slept in, hair unbrushed. 

I'm home, in other words. 

It feels good, despite the layer of dust covering everything and the mess and the sort-of-stressing-but-also-too-tired-to-stress feeling. The layer of dust is because our bathroom was being remodeled while we were gone, and it's not quite done yet. 

I'll start from the beginning. 

Yesterday morning, when I woke up (still on the East Coast), Dad, Grandpa, Blaze, Penguin, Mary Rose, and Lilian had all gone fishing. So my mom, my grandma, Ronnie and I had kind of a lazy morning which eventually led to packing. The others came home from fishing with some fish (Blaze caught seven fish!!). Then Penguin and I went on a bike ride around town. The town is so small we could've ridden all over if we had time. 
Then we left for Boston. The ride there wasn't very exciting, except for Blaze and Penguin talking to each other via walkie-talkies (we had taken two cars). 

Then we got to the airport and when we went through security, I guess I made the metal detector things beep or something because I had to go back and go through a big machine and then an extremely quick and un-thorough pat-down. I realized afterwards that it might have been my earrings or my Miraculous Medal or something. Not really sure. 

The flight itself wasn't bad. A lot better than the one we took going out. I got to watch Cinderella again, and then the Lorax with Lilian, Blaze, and Penguin, because who doesn't love Dr. Seuss? 

When we were landing, I looked out the window and saw LA and mentally ran through all the country songs I know that mention California. Then I saw the silhouette of a bunch of palm trees and screamed inside.
Then got the worst stomach ache ever! So that kinda ruined the sentimental moment. It hurt so badly to move. Sadly, we had to go through baggage claim and then get our car and ugh wow. It was late at night the night and everyone was tired and hungry and the little girls were cranky and my stomach hurt. We were all crammed into our car for a few hours on the drive home. I think I fell asleep, half on a suitcase, half on Blaze's shoulder. All our voices sounded cracked and strained, like fingernails on a chalkboard. At one point, Ronnie cried out, "Does anyone have any milk?" Except she pronounces it MEE-wk. She then started crying and saying how thirsty she was. Thinking back on it now, I'm laughing, but at the moment I was feeling rather like a tea bag that was used too many times. 

I took a break from writing this to change, brush my hair, clean, finish unpacking, etc. 

Anyways, I only slept until seven-thirty this morning because of the time difference. I'm giving myself a rest day of sorts, but tomorrow I'm going to try to get back to my story. This trip may have put me behind schedule a little bit, so I'm going to make myself write at least 5K words a week. So I'm not going too hard on myself. I probably should go a little harder on myself, but I'm tired and I want to go to the beach, so 5K words a week it is. 

Blaze reminded me that I lost our bet. He bet I couldn't finish a book I was reading before we got onto the plane. I had about three days and I was only at the beginning. I thought I could. 
I couldn't. 
He's singing a victory song as I type this. 
Not really sure how much money I owe him now, but I'm afraid to ask. I don't remember betting money, but we probably did, knowing us. 
...
He told me how much. Ten bucks. 
*whimpers* 
Sooo not paying him ten bucks. 

--Abby