Whilst I traveled, by plashy brink of weedy lake...

Hey, Sis! Over here!

"Whilst, whilst, whilst, whilst, whilst!"

There. Got it out of my system.

My little sister has just taken me to task for my poser-y use of various British-isms, including using the word "whilst", spelling words like "specialise" with an "s" instead of a "z", adding a boatload of "u"s to words like "colour" and "glamour", and generally being a prattish put-on.

"After all," she said, "you did speak American English for 44 years. It shouldn't be that hard to switch back."

I lied and told her the spell check on my word processor was still set to British and was going to stay that way until I finished my dissertation, but who am I kidding?

She's right, even if she only has one kidney. Not that there's anything wrong with being one organ short of a full set. We can't all be perfect, can we? (And that's the Queen's Royal "we", in case you're wondering.)

So I'm just gonna click reset on the ol' computer, and I'm going back to Americanisms, for real and for ever. Until I change my mind again.

*****

A few weeks ago I was feeling sad that, since leaving Johannesburg, I'd never seen another jacaranda tree. I believed, mistakenly, that jacarandas only live in Gauteng province, and mostly in Pretoria, for that matter.

It would be pretty nice if only the great stuff about South Africa stuck in my mind... but unfortunately, although there are images like this:

F1000006 jacaranda, originally uploaded by ehdindigo.

there are a lot more images like this:

F1000008 fence, originally uploaded by ehdindigo.

So, Southern California, where have you been all my life?

IMG_7443, originally uploaded by ehdindigo.

Jacarandas are everywhere, and they're just as beautiful in the northern hemisphere as in the southern. Perhaps more beautiful, because you can enjoy them without palisade fences or razorwire cluttering up your view.

IMG_7600, originally uploaded by ehdindigo.

So much for unnecessary nostalgia, then.






Anyhoo, the trip to So Cal was all about this one:

IMG_7570, originally uploaded by ehdindigo.

and her All Singing, All Dancing, Explosive and Totally Amazing Show,
Aphrodite: The Extravaganza.

We had front-row seats arrived just in time and barely found a spot to alight, due to a multitude of problems involving the application of sunscreen. Whatevs.

IMG_7581, originally uploaded by ehdindigo.

There she is! The blonde.

In addition to three years of university tuition and loads of airline flights, we also paid for that double lei draped around her neck. Thirty bucks. But how often do you graduate from UCSB? Right, once. We hope.



Anylei, the $30 was totally worth it, because it enabled her to say, for at least three days following, "I just got leied the other day. Har har har. Get it? Get it? Do ya? Do ya get it?"

IMG_7592, originally uploaded by ehdindigo.

For this, we paid out-of-state Cali tuition? *sigh*



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