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Home!

Or, at least I think it is my home. Do you have any idea what an 18 year old can do to a house in 3 weeks? Pretty much I described it to Gary last night as his bedroom, just spread over a larger square footage! Actually wasn't TOO bad and got him up this morning to pick it all up since Alma, my very pregnant house cleaner, is coming at noon. I am sure after that my mood will pick up!

The trip was OK so far as a trip that is 29 hours from doorstep to doorstep can be. I discovered what LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) stands for: Ladies Are Xcluded. Got off my 14 hour flight from Australia, needed to visit the ladies room but decided to check in and get through security first (mainly because I could not find a restroom). I SO know you want to read this story .... Anyhoo - got in the first line - seriously: 200 people, at least, in front of me. The line to check in to Continental was out the door of the building.

Done. Checked in - got my boarding pass - cool.

Looked around for a rest room, still no go so on to the security line - also for the non-god-like status people - no special 'elite access' for me ... yet. I assume at some point I will earn enough miles to get to go through the 'special' (very short) lines ... So this time, get in a Disneyland-ish type line just to go up the escalator - at least triple the size of the Continental line. I sighed and stepped in line.

Halfway through I spot a restroom - yeah - now that I am 233 instead of 548 I'm gonna step out of line and go - so I waited, and waited and waited. Homeland Security decided I was not a threat and stamped my boarding pass and on to my gate I go ...

Get there and the restrooms have a 'Closed for Construction' sign and the doors are boarded up. I said some choice words, retraced my steps to the first official person I saw and asked where the nearest restrooms were - he pointed me the way and off I went.

I was dumbfounded that this was the nearest restroom to where I was actually standing when I asked the person (not) and so I snapped photos on my way back:

I believe that was at least 2 km people. I decided that couldn't be the nearest so I headed back - taking that sequence of photos and continued on past my gate (which looked like a dead end, but mysteriously split off on both sides via very narrow hallways (can not figure out who is in charge of remodeling LAX but they really need to be fired) and found a restroom - and a mecca of shopping! So I decided to spend the rest of my time in LA plopped down on a chair near there until 1/2 hour before my flight.

Time to go! Get up - turn the corner to head to the restroom one more time (when they were handing out bladders in Heaven I was obviously over in some other line ....) and saw a sign: "Closed for repairs". My head exploded just a tiny bit.

Boarded the plane and ... home!

Yeah - you needed to know that.

I didn't realize what 3 weeks worth of mail would look like - pretty much a ginormous pile - which I weaned down to only the important stuff:

Which is basically why you got the story "Lori and the Loo at LAX" - don't EVEN want to start going through this.

Oh well ....

... better start!