Inside the giant Pink Lady.

*warning*

The following may contain minor grammatical errors. it also may contain car wrecks of sentences. im not going to proof read so suck it up and figure out what I was trying to say. Love Cel.

So not long after I finished my last blog post a girl came and sat next to me. The whole trip the rather jovial train driver had been threatening that the train was going to be COMPLETELY full. Sure enough, we hit Rochester and there was an all out brawl in aisles between people trying to get a seat. Not really, but if just one person was having a crappy day then I reckon there might have been. A young woman saw the spare seat next to me and I think there was mutual relief in our eyes when she sat down. After a reasonable amount of silence we started chatting. She is one year older than me and she was on her way to Albany to visit her boyfriend. She had never been on a train before so she was unnecessarily tense. Every time the train rattled she thought we were derailing and she was standing up ready to leave about 5 minutes before we pulled into the station because she was scared that the train would leave before she had time to get off. I guess I was like that the first time I had to get off the bus in year seven.

So my new friend Danae departed the train, promising to add me on Facebook and her spot was replaced by an old man who reminded me peculiarly of a cross between oma and opa. He was a retired political science professor. We had a great conversation and talked a lot about politics. My goodness I love politics. Mr ompa, whose name I never found out, and I chatted all the way to Penn station. Did you know that Penn station is short for Pennsylvania station? I did not know that. There was a cute little girl behind us who was singing Christmas carols and star spangled banner.

When I got off the train a guy who had been sitting in front of us asked me if I was meeting someone or knew where I needed to go. It was fairly out of the blue but I assured him that I was sorted and then attempted to find my way out of the maze of Penn station. All I can say is I now understand the usefulness of exit signs being giant, red and lit up.
And now for the tricky bit. Catching a taxi in nyc with a hiking pack, a backpack and no previous taxi experience. I found a little white haired lady an asked her how to go about it. She also had no idea, so we stuck together and translated for each other until we found a queue for a taxi. It turns out that 5 pm is exactly when all the taxis knock off. I'm not kidding either.
While we were in line some people tried telling us that we only had to pay 25 dollars for a five minute taxi ride. This seemed wrong but I had no point of reference so I asked a confident looking woman in a ridiculous fur hat about it. Madam fur hat became the personal tour guide of me and all my fellow morons in the near vicinity. When she left with a better offer the woman who had been standing in front of her struck up a conversation with lol (little old lady) and I. Oh, by this time lol and I had figured out that we weren't too far from each other so we were going to share a taxi. The woman in front of us, I'm going to call Mel Scott, was really cool. She was Scottish but had lived in Melbourne for eight years. They asked what brought me to nyc and I told them my plan, Mel thought it sounded great and lol exclaimed that I was the most grown up nineteen year old she had ever met. She said it almost disapprovingly. We waited in that line for an hour. Mel and I hit it off and it was great talking to an (almost) Aussie who had travelled a lot. Lol was a tad annoying.

After I made it to my hotel I walked down the street to a pizzeria joint for some dinner. I thought it would be fun taking myself out to dinner. It was just awkward silence because talking to myself just makes it awkward for everyone around me. I was sitting uncomfortably close to a father daughter dinner, so I eaves dropped on them. They were discussing a trip that the daughter wanted to take for spring break. she was trying to convince her dad that it was a good idea. The daughter mentioned surviving the school year, I could relate to that, then they started talking about her tumour and her health. Eek! I felt bad for eavesdroping then cos it got pretty serious. I think she literally meant survive the school year.
There are some perks to eating alone. I got to eat all the bread. I could eat as slowly or quickly as I wanted. ..and not much else. Still I was proud of myself for going out for a decent meal instead of sitting in my hotel room with my jar of nutella.
It is at this point that I will say that if someone wants to join me for the rest of my trip then I will shout you every single meal.

After my meal I hailed a cab. I. hailed. a. cab. All by myself! Cool cel slides into the back seat and says casually "times square please" then with a head toss of indifference she begins to look out the window vacantly. My cool movie mimicking cab antics finished when I realised just how carsick I felt. I have a taxi mantra, here's how it goes- "don't throw up cel. Don't throw up cel. Don't throw.." the smooth cel got even bumpier with the taxi driver and I's awkward conversation discussing where exactly in times square I wanted to be dropped off. (sentence carwreck? I think yes.)

When I got out of the cab I realised just how happy I was. Through completely my own doing I was standing in times square by myself soaking in the atmosphere and completely free to do whatever I wanted. I went into the mnm super store which was fun until I got stuck in there. That is one terrifying building. In all the corners and hidden behind giant mnms I found Prams and families trying to regroup and develop a game plan. I swear the only people who make it our of that store alive are those who have had some experience with urban warfare gaming. Luckily for me, the few LAN parties I have attended set me up for success when I planned my escape from the mnm palace of hell, as it will forever be remembered as.

After that ordeal I decided to get a coffee from Starbucks and walk around confidently with it in my Takeaway cup like a yuppie. That, too, was lots of fun until it started going cold and I had to scull it. Then I hailed another cab worked really really hard on not reaquianting myself with the coffee in my way back to the hotel.

That brings us to now, where there is an italian woman cussing to her computer like a madwoman, thinking that no-one can understand her.

No photos, because technology still sucks. You have no idea what I did just to get this to upload.

there is a cute boy sitting across the aisle, i think he is reading sci fi.

im on a train. AND the internet. best. thing. ever! we are currently stopped in the middle of nowhere because the level crossing isnt working so they have to do it manually or something like that. i guess its better than just plowing on ahead. trains stopping when they arent at stations always freaks me out because it makes me think that dementors are going to get on.
so i am currently on my way to NYC. i was feeling nervous a couple of days ago but now i'm excited. its going to be fun!
oh it just started snowing outside. how cute, i feel like im in a movie.

is it possible to walk too much? the shooting pain in my foot thinks so.

i keep thinking that i should type more about my holiday, and then i dont. i thought i would upload a couple of photos that i like. tomorrow im going to new york city. eek! i cant sleep, which is why im doing this.
Today Cory and I went for a walk together for TWO AND A HALF HOURS. it was lots of fun, we walked to literally every corner of houghton and then got lost in the woods. we chatted and fought and thought up some really cool ideas. the poor boy has never had roast pumpkin, can you imagine a life of such emptiness?
after hanging out with cory, sally, nancy, ally, deborah and I went to buffalo to drop me off :'( and do some shopping. after we went shopping and I bought the cutest most out of character dress ever we went to outback steakhouse. we told the waitress that it was sallys birthday tomorrow, but in australia its sallys birthday today because it is already tomorrow there. we scored her a free dessert and a terrifying rendition of happy birthday.
alrighty, thats all i feel like writing, here are some photos..

..never mind. technology hates me.

MOAR PICKTURES!!

 Me and my new friend Joyce were sitting at java waiting for the coffehouse to begin.












The nationalities of the cookie makers represented in our finest cookies. Andrea is from honduras.












Cookie decorating at christmas time is definitely something that should be brought to australia.

Claire, the murphys and I went to see hugo at the cinema. it was in 3d, we dont just naturally have great taste in semi hipster glasses. Oddly, the female protagonist, despite being 12 years old, kinda reminded me of me.

I love this sign. We have about a hundred photos from last time when granny couldnt keep her eyes open. it made me laugh.

Oh yeah, and I henna-ed my hair.

disjointed musings at altitude.

So I am nearing the end of my flight to the USA. When I got off at Sydney to connect I realised that I was looking at the front of a very long queue that I needed to be at the back of. Luckily, a girl from my form also happened to be flying to America today (not to be mistaken with tutty, who I knew was coming.) She gave me a sneaky oi and I slid into the front of the line with her. When I got on the plane I checked the back of the seats for a little screen but there was none! My lack of anxiousness regarding how the 13 hour flight would go was directly correlated with my self assurance that there would be little screens.

When I got seated the old man sitting one seat over acquainted himself with me, apparently he is going to a boxing conference with a buddy of his who is sitting directly in front of him. Next to old mans friend are two guys who are either Italian, African, Indian, or a combination of all. They got sloshed and giggled for the WHOLE TRIP. Man giggling, less irritating than beiber fever giggling, more irritating than silence.

It is nearly the end of my trip and I have gotton up ONCE! What is this? This is not the Cecelia we all know. Help I think being on a plane by myself is making me act grown up! Luckily there was a spare seat beside me otherwise I might have just imploded.

The biggest craziness of all was the four hours that I slept for. About an hour in I woke up and worried that someone had stolen my tablet, they hadn't. It was under my pillow, but after that I snuggled it.

I am trying my hardest to refrain from taking a photo out the window because even though I think its amazing, I know with certainty that nobody else cares. Its like standing at the top of a dune and taking a straight on picture of the beach. It is never a pretty as in real life.

...

So I have figured out how to get around lax with ease and no confusion.

1, wear a reasonably cute plane outfit

2, reasonably early on in waiting in the queue,  pull out a Rubik's cube and casually complete it.

3, wait a few moments then ask a general question pertaining to the customs form.

4, some interested person who has been paying attention to you since the Rubik's cube will try and help you.

5, if they are knowlegable, they will probably be keen to be a helpful as possible the whole way until you part ways.

6, if you aren't yet at you destination, repeat the process.

I know it sounds a lot like manipulative design but i accidentally discovered this method for getting around. A kindly bogan who does this trip twice a month helped me out. He lives halfway between sale and bairnsdale, has kids, and used to play Footy for omeo. Also apparently I am the first person he has ever seen complete the cube.

 ...

Flip! What have I done? I was just dreaming, planning this trip around the world and all of a sudden I'm sitting in Chicago. The thought of seeing my friends again is making me hyperventilate.

IM IN AMERICA! I can't just get mum to pick me up when this all turns out to be a terrible idea.

And on another note, I am burning up right now but everyone is wearing jackets and there may be a smattering on snow on the ground outside so I would look a little silly in a singlet.

The Americans can't understand me. I have already got an affected accent trying to let them know that I am from AUStralia and I would like some WAHterr. I have reverted to my old American way of saying than you and I'm not even the whole way across the country and I'm thinking in an American accent.

SIX DAYS TO GO! just sayin'

Do you ever go through phases of favourite photos? I do. At the moment my absolute favourite photo is this one.

It was taken at Mums 50^th birthday when all the Tyler/Dixon/McInerney Children (the youngest child is 17 and the oldest is 26. Three have university degrees, one has a serious Partner, five are working, four have had teaching positions, and six have their VCE. Hardly Children.)

were hanging out for the first time in a very long time. It was a great time filled with planking, wrestling, ImaginIff, cheating, fart scenarios and lots of raucous laughter. I think we had a better time than the adults did! This is my favourite picture..

And just because I like sharing photos:

Some of my other recent, and not so recent favourites have been..

I designed this last year when life sucked and I thought that people should be more aware. I keep meaning to send it to beyond blue seeing as how I stole their catch phrase and everything..

I wish I had a house so I could put this on the front door. I probably wouldnt actually do it, but I like the idea.

This picture is a bit seedy, which is fitting really. When I look at it usually i've scott a smile.

I always wanted to have a super tight posse of girlfriends. I love this photo because it was taken at a time when I did. Plus, we are gorgeous.

I have this photo framed on my wall. its so silly but it perfectly captured the moment. Jack's getting ready to slap the ribs out of Dylan, Dylan is telling me what he is going to do to me for a dare, patto is thinking that Dylan might actually be serious. Im feeling an acute amount of remorse mostly brought on by the thought of retribution.

I LOVE this picture. Patto is great, that night was great and we both look so happy.

That's all for now, I have things to do!