Well, I got a promotion (a few months ago) and a week and a half ago they finally assigned me an office. I’ve never had an office before so the first few days were weird. The lighting in the office is extremely bright. So much so that I had to bring a floor lamp and a desk lamp to use instead.

Then the desk in the office is higher than the desk in the quad. I had to raise my chair higher so that I could comfortable use the keyboard. Of course, this meant that my feet barely touched the ground. By the end of the work days, my knees were sore because my legs were pretty much just dangling above the floor. My lower back was also sore from sitting up straight so that I could reach the keyboard. I didn’t really think 5″2 was that short until I sat at this desk.

All is well now. The nice guys in IT installed a keyboard tray for me. It’s mounted underneath the desk and I’m able to lower the keyboard however low I want. Thus, I was able to also lower my chair. My feet rest on the floor now and I can type just fine.

I really, really, really want to decorate the office. You really shouldn’t clutter up your office in the event that you have to make a hasty exit or they make you leave (please don’t let that ever be me). I can’t help it though. I live in a bedroom. There’s not much decorating I can do at home so I really want to make my office purtty.

Of course, I have commitment issues so I can’t decide on what wall decorations I want to put up. I did put up a wall decal of a leafy tree with birds though. EVERYONE loves it. I guess I could stick with decals. If I get tired of the design I could just peel them off and put up a new one.

I guess you could say that I’m waiting for the perfect piece of artwork. In the meantime, I’m quite content with the Asian boy band picture I have up.

Then I saw this Gabby Skye dress online today:

This is the exact same dress, right???? Who actually owns this dress????

I should mention that I flew Korean Air. My family always flies Korean Air when we travel abroad. Their service is amazing and we’ve flown with plenty of airlines. American, Thai, Cathay Pacific, Singapore, British Airways, Japan Airlines, United…etc. I also think their flight attendant uniforms are the best. Just a personal opinion.

The flight from Bangkok to Seoul took 2 hours less than the flight from Seoul to Bangkok. Something about tail winds. Anyway, I slept some, but there was this crying toddler a row over from me that made me rethink having children. It must be really hard on parents with small children that fly. I hated flying as a kid. I don’t enjoy it much now, but as a child it was awful. I get really bad motion sickness so traveling is always hard on me.

Moving on. For breakfast we got to choose between an omelet and green tea rice porridge. Word of advice. If you ever fly Korean Air, always choose the Korean food option. It’s just better. Of course, I chose the rice porridge. They give you a green tea seasoning packet to sprinkle onto your porridge. It’s basically rice flavoring with bits of seaweed and different seasonings. It was pretty good. It didn’t turn the porridge green though. Well, maybe a tiny bit.

I was suppose to arrive in Seoul at around 8 AM and have a 2 hour layover. I had planned on spending some money in the airport gift shops. However, we arrived an hour and a half late and by the time I got through security, I had only about 20 minutes until we boarded. So, I didn’t go anywhere but to the potty. Oh well. I guess I’ll have to be satisfied with the Korean super market that we have here.

On the flight from Seoul to Dallas, I had the pleasure of sitting behind a VERY cranky 3 year old. She cried and whined for 12 hours. Straight. It was hard to sleep even while medicated. I am not a mother so I don’t know what the right thing to do is when your child gets out of hand. Her mother did nothing. Literally. The flight attendants kept stopping by and asking if everything was okay. At one point the lady in front of them stood up and started yelling in Filipino. The mom (who is also Filipino) didn’t put up much of argument. She seemed defeated and so for 12 hours I listened to Misty cry and whine.

The Korean lady who sat next to me thought Misty was cute. I smiled and nodded when she would say how cute Misty was. The Korean lady must be a mother. Like I said, I’m not.

Anyway, I got 3 meals on the flight to Dallas. The signature Korean dish, bibimbap (mixed rice), pizza (which was a like a chubby breadstick and was pretty good) and some beef dish with rice and bok choy. All yummy.

We arrived in Dallas at about 9:45 AM. The immigration line (is that what it’s called?) was LONG. It took almost an hour to get through. By the time I got to baggage claim, they had taken all the bags off the conveyor belt and lined them up on the floor. I was actually glad they did this, because my bag weighed a ton and I was wondering how I was going to be able to pull it off the belt by myself.

It took another 20 or so minutes to get through the baggage check area. They didn’t even open my bag. The customs officer (is that what they’re called?) just asked if I had anything to declare. I said dried fruit and he said have a nice day.

When I walked through the doors leading to the arrival waiting area I was expecting my mom and Athip to be standing in the crowd waiting for me. I walked through and saw a sea of faces. None belonged to my mom or brother. No one called out my name and I was like WHAT THE HELL!

I, who got off a 12 hour flight, was the one who spotted them. They were sitting down in an area that was surrounded by people who were standing up. No wonder they couldn’t see me. Serious with this?

It could have been worse. They could have forgotten to pick me up. My mom took us out for a sushi lunch, which made up for it. All I ate in Thailand was Thai food. Which is not a bad thing, but I was starting to crave other ethnic foods.

When I got home I tried to stay up as long as I could so I could get acclimated faster. I lasted until about 6PM. I crashed and didn’t get up until 5:50 the next morning. I still feel floaty sometimes, but other than that I think I’m good.

It is nice to be home!!!

I am not allowed to eat anything that will upset my stomach or cause me to have to run to the potty. This means I am not allowed to eat anything fun or tastes good… I am going to have to be okay with this, because the alternative is no bueno. I cannot be running to the potty every 5 minutes on the plane.

I am not looking forward to the flight. It’s going to be really long and my knees are going to swell like last time. Hopefully, I will just sleep through the entire 2 flights. I have enough medication to make sure that happens.

I am going to miss all of my relatives. It’s been so long since I’ve seen them and it was really great to spend time with them. I didn’t have a lot of opportunity to shop around so I don’t have that many souvenirs. I do have a lot of snacks, which is what I really wanted anyway.

I’ve really enjoyed being in Thailand, but it’s time to go home. I miss my kids and I am ready to get back to the real world.