okay, firstly : i used to be photoropic on deviantart. some of you know me as jebus, and my newest sn i like is 'penguinmessiah' - so here i am.

well, i've finally gotten back and settled down, so i thought now was the time to share some stories and pictures from my trip to the USA.

as most of you know, the main reason for my trip was to see jenn, of course, so i'll concentrate on that - most of the pictures from my trip to california mrmcpheezy has already posted anyway.

the night before the trip i didn't sleep at all. i was way too excited. i went shopping with some friends and stressed about getting some kind of a gift for her parents. i ended up with a pen set (i know, wtf, jebus?) but luckily found a pretty ceramic painting in the airport in taipei. i still have the pen set, hah.

sleepy jebus

the flight from brisbane to taipei (taiwan) was pretty uneventful. the flight was only about half full, if that - i had lots of room and space to lie around and ... try to figure out if it was better to hold a low pair or a single high card in a poker game that i got on my tv.

my flight

my plane!

trying to pwn poker

in taipei i hung around the airport for about five hours, and had a look at a lot of nice art exhibition things and jewellery stores they had there. pretty much just killed time.

part of the art exhibition

the prettiest jade i have EVER seen

a loooooong terminal

the flight to LA was also pretty uneventful. Los Angeles airport turned out to be awful for a number of reasons, mostly to do with a seventeen hour layover i did get to talk to jenn on the phone, though

yeah, i'm a nerd

just a pretty airplane picture

a big... thing outside LAX

the flight to dallas was a huge relief, even though i was incredibly tired by that time. i arrived in dallas, collected my luggage, and caught a bus up to the remote carpark where i was to meet jenn and her parents. i had thought i wouldn't be too nervous about it, but the anticipation of it all had me freaking out by the time i got off the bus, got inside the building, looked around a little bit wondering where she was - and found her sitting to my right with her mum. she got up and i hugged her and it was such a relief to finally be there. i think i shook a little bit as i hugged her. i then went to shake her mum's hand, and she looked at me funny and demanded a hug. i was relieved to get one from her, too. her dad came and picked us up, and after a bried introduction, we were off.

the first part of the drive was a little awkward - i hadn't expected any awkwardness, but it was there. jenn and i sat in near silence in the back seat of the car until we arrived at a restaurant where we had dinner with her parents. that went quite well - by the end of my trip her parents and i got along quite well, even if i was really shy and usually extremely quiet around them. after that they drove us to jenn's apartment, where we sat around for a bit, and then they decided they were going to go home. they had planned for me to stay at jenn's friends place, but when they got up to leave they didn't make a move to pick up my luggage, and that, i gathered, was pretty much their blessing that they thought i was an okay guy. that too was a relief. jenn's friends had a party that night, and we were dropped off at that, even though i was still extremely tired.

it was still pretty awkward, but as the night went along she had a little to drink, and my tiredness wore off, and then quite suddenly the awkwardness disappeared and everything was well in the world we stayed at the party quite late, and then were driven back home by a friend, where we quite quickly went to bed, but were both too excited and happy to sleep and ended up staying up even later. eventually we got to sleep, though.

the next morning we pretty much began what was to be our daily routine for the next two months - staying at home, enjoying each others company, or wandering around the small university town of denton - going to a nearby pond with turtles in it (one of which we named 'toshio' after a character in a gamera movie), eating at various places not too far away, and generally just being with each other. jenn worked at night five days a week, but aside from a few days when i either fell asleep or jenn was too busy, i walked her there and back, as well as went to see her halfway through her shift. occasionally we did something with her friends, but that didn't happen that often either.

CUTE!

toshio!

jenn, looking pretty. she does it very well, doesn't she?

jenn impersonating my second favourite girl in the world

after being in texas for three weeks, i think, i left to go to california for a week to hang out with mrmcpheezy, oftenlost, eyesofafallenangel, matteran, cry and the colonel. it was a fun trip but by the second or third day i really wished that i was back in texas. it was good fun seeing the area, though, and meeting everyone was very cool. oh, norcal > socal, by the way.

as soon as i returned we went to stay with jenn's parents for a weekend, which was cool. i got to see the town of paris, texas, and got pictures taken by the eiffel tower with a cowboy hat on it. awesome, of course. i got to go with her parents to a family gathering, which was extremely intimidating considering i hadn't slept at all the night before. (jenn had come to pick me up from the airport with a friend - i had planned on getting a shuttle, and of course, we ended up staying up until her parents pickes us up early in the morning) her family turned out to be very nice, especially her parents - who were pretty much nerds too, so we got along pretty well.

jenn and i by the paris, texas eiffel tower

jenn's parents

after that weekend, things were pretty much the same as the first few weeks. we enjoyed being together, it didn't matter too much what we did. we made pizza, bought each other nerdy things, and she made me AWESOME lasagne... twice! near the end of the trip i was getting extremely low on money - when i got home to australia i had $2.80 in my bank account, haha.

my new favourite meal

cutest. couple. ever.

two awesome things jenn bought me

jenn looking pretty again. *sigh*

the UNT albino squirrel. i didn't have my camera when we saw him, but jenn waited around so he didn't run off while i ran home

pizza!

the flight home was crazy. dallas to la : they lost my guitar (i got it back, eventually). la to taipei : an old guy sitting a in my row on the other side of the plane died. he fell asleep and apparently never woke up. taipei to brisbane : flight delayed for an hour by a typhoon.

i figured it was something trying to tell me i shouldn't have left

it was, truly, the best two months of my life. tomorrow i'm calling her parents to ask their permission to fly jenn here this december for about a month. she'll get to see the country, meet my friends and parents, hug a koala - and if we're lucky, we might see some penguins down south somewhere.

we decided something else, recently. after my trip we were certain that we'd get married one day. we had mid year 2007 planned as a rough estimate, but we've both realized that after seeing each other we miss each other WAY too much - and if we manage to get things sorted out in time, when jenn goes back after seeing me in december, she will leave with a ring on her finger, and by the middle of next year i hope to fly to texas without a return ticket.

we're not exactly sure what we need to do to make it work, but we're going to try. luckily enough her parents have already pretty much gathered that it's going to happen one day, and have started researching the matter on their own. it shouldn't be too difficult to tell them of our plans, and i'm quite sure they'll approve. my parents will both meet her in december, and i'm convinced that they'll immediately see why i'm so smitten with her and agree that she's definitely the one for me.

so yeah. i'm extremely sad to be home, but i'm also very happy to know that it all worked out and that we have a wonderful future ahead of us.

thank you, jenn, for making me so incredibly happy. i love you

cheers everyone else for reading this - i figured some of you might want an update, since i've been pretty scarce recently and will probably continue to do so.

i <3 you all.