Sunday, July 5, 2009

Retail+Tacos+Apple to Re-Boot Life

From hang-gliding in Switzerland to a plane bound for Texas - And everyone is asking "what are you guys doing now?"
"How does it feel to be home?"
"Have you eaten Mexican food yet?"

For the purpose of those questions, and for anyone curious what it takes to move your foreign affairs around in this day and age, we took the camera out with us yesterday.

The first day we were home, July 3, I slept off the previously mentioned anxiety medications I have to take for flying. I think the Wehkamp family ate a few meals and Chris did some laundry.

But when I finally woke up yesterday, Chris and I set off to re-boot our lives in Texas.

First stop, Verizon.

Second stop, AT&T.



Third stop, bank.

Fourth stop, AT&T round two where we gave them all our monies and they gave us 2 acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) thermoplastic mobile devices that make phone calls and would probably make me a lasagna if I wanted them to.





Yes, we have phones now. No, I do not know how to use mine so please don't be offended when I don't pick up.
Not that that could happen anyways as neither you nor I know my phone number.

After AT&T and the bank, a close third is always Target. We zipped inside on a whim to try to find cases for the new phones.



As I was walking in I saw a girl leaving and I thought, "hmmm...that girl actually looks a lot like me."

Turns out, it's my little sister Emily whom I hadn't seen in 7 months. Just cruising through Target buying a hat for a day at the lake.



And then, the jackpot, grand prize, first place in all of Lewisville for lunchtime satisfaction: Abuelo's Mexican food Embassy.



After lunch we had to drive back to the Wehkamp house to get my sick laptop. Maya, as I call her, started overheating in Europe and had a Dr.'s appointment at the "Genius Bar" in Southlake.

On the way out of the neighborhood, we passed a lemonade stand. I always stop for these. Even though Chris and I had no more than $1.35, we ended up getting a piece of watermelon, a huge brownie, one cookie, and a tall glass of fruit punch. Have lemonade stands gotten more fancy or have I just been frequenting the wrong neighorhoods?



As we drove off they yelled "God Bless!" and "Happy 4th!" and "nice car!" I'm going to pretend a group of 11 year olds weren't being sarcastic about the quality of my 1997 Ford Escort with no power locks or windows, but they probably were.

Next it was on to Starbucks to blog and work on our new phones. Starbucks has a very complicated wifi system that took both Chris and I and two employees to work out, but we finally managed to log on. (This stuff is just as riveting as France and Switzerland right? Right?)



Apple store to fix Maya



(Chris wanted me to note the pink bag in the picture is mine, not his)

While we were waiting for our appointment, we saw a lady with this purse



That was neat.

Turned my computer in to get fixed, then we drove around neighborhoods in Argyle to look at properties.

I have no pictures of that because I had no idea where I was and for a little while felt like I was back in Italy with Chris navigating and neither of us having a clue where we were.
Until we found Google maps on the iPhone. And now our marriage will forever be bettered by this tiny little mapping device.

Got hungry again, got chips and salsa again.

This picture perfectly encapsulated the way Chris was feeling by this point.



We went home and he immediately ran to the bathroom. Jet lag isn't particular about who it affects. It affects everyone. Chris had his turn at about 8 pm last night. It weren't pretty.

So.......We're at a bit of a crossroads now between old and new.

The rest of the trip pictures are at another location. We still have many exciting stories to tell from our remaining days in Europe. There's still some high speed adventures, beautiful Swiss towns and good-bye sentiments.

We also want to continue to keep you informed of our lives here. Not sure how exciting it will be - but we'll try hard to find an angle.

If there's a part of the blog that you really enjoy, let us know. We're at a point where we're re-evaluating what kind of content we want to include.
Obviously posts about what we had for dinner and who I saw at SuperTarget isn't going to fly for long.

Drop us a line if you want and give us some direction one way or the other. Do you like the personal stories, are you just wasting time at work and could care less what we type, are you interested in re-entry to US life, do you want some stock tips, more photos, marriage stories...now's your chance.

I know a lot of you live abroad and might actually be interested in what American restaurants look like and lemonade stands, etc. Others at home might find that as interesting as reading a shoebox.

I'm not saying we'll take all suggestions, but since we're reflecting and repurposing, we thought it would be nice to have your two cents as well.

More to come...first official house-hunt today.

1 comment:

  1. I would find your re-entry in American life stories intresting. I know there is a lot of colored tape involved in your next few months. Chris telling the phone company that you are moving to Iraq kind of content. Then again, I didn't understand what was wrong with reading a shoebox.

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