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Back from the Sates

Due to the time difference, it takes forever to feel right after returning from the states.  Our flight is always a night flight so we can get an extra day with friends and family.  We suffer for it later because we don't sleep on the plane and we arrive in London in the morning.  We come home, unpack, sleep for a couple of hours and get up until the evening to try to get on England time.  In the end, we end up with only about 2 or 3 hours of sleep in a 36 hour time span. 

It fucks with your body clock and after 5 days back, we still feel like hell.  Wayne is sleeping now (It's 2pm) after being up all night and I slept until 3pm yesterday and didn't get to sleep last night until 3am.  I got up this morning at 10 so hopefully, I'm getting back on track.

The trip went well.  My visa appointment was so easy, it was ridiculous!  All that stress and preparation for 10 minutes at a window passing paperwork back and forth.  It was no more difficult than the DMV!

I envisioned our appointment to be like something out of the movies where they put you in separate rooms and grill you about each other to prove your relationship is real, asking questions about our favorite foods and brands of toothpaste.  That never happened.  It was over in 10 minutes and they said I could pick up my visa in an hour.  When I picked it up, I walked away, fell into Wayne's arms and cried from relief because it was finally over. 

The rest of our 10 days were spent driving from place to place all over NJ and NY.  We covered from Long Beach Island (Jersey Shore) to Manhattan.  We stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Princeton to be near my father and drove an hour or so to see my family near the shore, we went to Red bank to visit a friend on one day and LBI the next and up to Staten Island NY another.  It was non stop from the day we arrived to the day we left. 

All in all, it was typical - a few family issues (as always) and a lot of time spreading myself too thin and trying to please everyone else but me.  I really enjoyed my time with my friends and family (most of the time), but I'm tired and quite honestly, glad to be back.

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