i visited my granny at her old people's home. she forgot i was coming so she was really happily surprised. we ate the pastries i had brought and she 'forced' me to eat all but one cookie on the table. when i couldn't eat it all, she made me take it home with me for later. hehe. granny. we hugged a lot and i left sometime around 7.15. *sigh*

impulse overrode me and i found myself in the beauty section of a store on my way home... i ended up with a jar of max factor lipgloss - sugar shine. it's pale, it's pink, i can use it as shiny blush - it rocks ass. i also got 4 eyeshadows - i can't remember the brand but the shadows were called 'snowflake' - shiny stuff: white, pale yellow, pale pink and pale grey. combined with the lipgloss i get all pale and shiny.

if i may say so, the combo of the stuff makes me look slightly kick-ass. hah. and then to top it off - i bought l'oreal's feria hair color. i think it was called red intensity or something, not sure, but it had gorgeous milla jovovich on the cover, with gorgeous red hair so i thought 'why not?'- it's not like my hair wasn't 4 inches of brown outgrowth and 4 inches of pale blonde-orange, y'know? and home i went...

oh.my.ghod. dyed my hair, dried it and.. it's not vibrant red. it's almost black with a deep purple tint. let's put it this way - my hair hasn't been this close to black since i dyed my hair black when i was 14. it was weird. i didn't know what to think, heh, so i went to bed after cussing milla on the cover a bit.

mom woke me up 15 minutes too late. she saw my hair. her jaw dropped and she went "i can't believe you, you spend all summer with slob hair and now when you're leaving you make it all gorgeous!" in other words, she loved it. and once i got me make-up on and woke up a bit, so did i. i cut half an inch of the front hair off, so i've gone from unruly shoulderlength mess with no shape to semi-long really dark hair which i don't need any hairclips to get a shape to. i'm happy.

hugged mom lots, got two friday papers from my brother and a bye, and off dad and i went in his car to go to the malmoe airport.

dad and i got to the airport an hour earlier than expected. he bought me breakfast and we waited for KLM to open to let me check in. they opened around 9.am, i checked in and found out the limit isn't 40 kilo's of weight to america, i could have brought 64 kilos (about 128 lbs). i weigh in at 60 lbs and cussed coz i had left so many books behind i wanted to bring but didn't think i could.

dad left and i waited at my gate. and then we got to board the plane and it was this TINYTINSY thing! shared the shit out of me. i got my seat and found the seatbelt were just long enough for me to be able to close, but the stewardess didn't seem to believe me and tried to push an extension belt on me. argh. i know i'm fat but come-on here, i know when something will fit or not. she made me feel like the biggest elephant on earth, heh.

lift-off to amsterdam. kids in the seats across the aisle that wouldn't shut up. food was wonderful - a breadroll with a WEDGE of brie in it. i got bored and talked the stewardess into giving me a pack of crayons and sheets of paper with motives to be coloured in like i saw the 5-year old's across had gotten. she gave me a funny look. i didn't care. i got it and spent half an hour colouring an island with two palm trees and three penguins in. it was entertaining, okay? okay.

we landed at the amsterdam airport. the pilot told us he'd 'taken a short-cut' so we were half an hour early. could somebody explain to me how a) a pilot can decide to take a short cut if he wants to and b) why the short-cut isn't an official route since it's half an hour faster? yes yes, i know, it's all in the weather conditions, i know, but still.. weird.

i hurried through the airport, found a nice bathroom half-way through it, used it and then went onto gate F5 where my flight to detroit was boarding from. as we were about to board we were told the flight was over-booked. they tried to get people to give up seats by offering cash, and i was tempted (hey. money.) but i didn't wanna jinx things and end up not getting to charlotte early enough, and i knew gene was gunna be there waiting for me so.. i boarded.

it's a BOEING 747. huge-ass plane. it was my first time on a plane of that size so my jaw dropped every now and then, but it was fun. the seats were huuuge compared to what i was used to, and i had a perfect view of the tv set in the aisle. hah.

the window seat was occupied by a guy who i later found out was 23 and from sri lanka, and the aisle seat belonged to a guy from chechien (sp?). as we landed i informed them that they were both reading the same book but in different languages (something by wilbur smith). hehe.

landed in detroit. heh. got through customs allright despite my worries that i would be thrown out of the country

discover that one of my suitcases is missing - naturally the one with my clothes. cussed.

got onto my plane to charlotte. 5 minutes before we-re about to take off we-re told that an engine parts insurance is EXPIRING within the next hour so we have to get another plane. i was so tired and cranky and all i could think was 'oh no - how'll gene hear about it eh?' hah.

get on the new plane. stupid-ass redneck tried to sit in a first class seat even though he hadn't paid for it and got caught but held us back 10 minutes while whining and trying to get to stay in the seat. lift off. i fall asleep.