...the experience continues...

Hello, and welcome back to Baby G and Dizzle's Kiwi Experience!

There have been several wannabe posts since we arrived back in the good ol' U.S of A, but none were comparable to our previous posts (they were actually funny and interesting), so we bagged them. At some point, either Baby G or myself (it's Dizz, by the way. Duh.) will cut and paste those rough drafts into the little window to "Create New Post" and you'll see how lame and inept they are. They were written in the depths of jet lag. In addition, we haven't actually stayed in the same place more than three nights in a row since April 26th, so it's been a little difficult to focus.

Sooner or later, there will be a post reflecting on what we learned while in New Zealand, who we became, and what's next for us, your loyal and jet set heroes. We will discuss culture differences and war, technology and communication, the future and the past. It'll be bitchin'. For now, however, there's about 3 weeks of bouncing around we've done since we landed in Pennsylvania on May 10th, and we, in typical BG&D style, got pictures of all of it.

We rolled into Philly after being awake for 36 hours straight and got picked up by BG's cousin, Celina. She was nice enough to stop and let us pick up cheesesteak sandwiches, which was therefore our first American meal upon our return. Scoff if you want; tell us how bad that is for us or let us know how badly you feel for the poor cow who gave his/her life so we could dine upon this greasy concoction of meat, onions, and Cheese Whiz. Yell at us, spit at us, write us nasty letters, we don't care. You know why? WE'D BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO IT! And we agreed, it was one of the best *&^%ing sandwiches we'd ever had. God bless America.

After an 11pm dinner like this, you're in the mood to do one of two things: sleep a long time, or go to New Jersey. We did both. In that order.

My dad, Reverend J., picked us up at the Newark Train Station the next afternoon (we literally took two boats, three cars, three planes and a train to get to this point from Wellington, NZ, 10 days before). Here's a picture of us in my dad's car in Newark:

If we look tired, it's because we were. Oh, God, so tired.

Anyway, we made it up to Warwick, NY, where my parents live, in time to have a lovely BBQ in the springtime sunshine. It was quite lovely.

Mother's Day was coming up only a couple of days later, so we had to split up for the first time since Kev-Bo and I moved our stuff ORIGINALLY from DC to the NY/NJ area. Seriously. We've been together pretty much all the time for 6 months. In an effort to say "I love you" to our moms, we made them both the famous Kiwi dessert pavlova:

"Yum!", said Lady T.
"Yum!", said the Divine Mama
"Now that you're home, you can weed the garden!", said Rev. J.
"Mow the lawn," said The Chemical Bridge.
Sigh. Happy Mother's Day!

Following this ultra-sweet dessert weekend, we headed out to New York, New York, the city so nice they named it twice (a saying so nerdy since the city's so dirty). As we mentioned WAY back, the Ridgewood Power Trio is composed of Baby G, Jocelyn, and Jamie. These are the girls who go way back to High School together. It happened that early the next week was Jocelyn's birthday! So, the two of us, Jocelyn, Jamie, and Jamie's fiance Tony all got together and had a wicked good Italian feast and shared pictures from New Zealand. This was, however, not enough time to spend with them, so we decided to do it all over again a few days later, this time, with Jocelyn's boyfriend Julian! A great time was once again had by all.

Clockwise from left: Dizzle, Tony, Jamie and Julian. At one point, we had four part harmony to an acoustic version of a song by Tool. How rock n' roll.

This is Julian soloing. This is such a rad picture.

Tony, Jamie's fiance. This picture is not a mistake: his eyes actually glow red when he smirks.

Jamie and her invisible guitar, Lucille. "Hello, SoHo!"

Jocelyn's birthday wish: "I wish that no one takes my picture while I'm exhaling." Sorry, Joce!

The Ridgewood Power Trio: Jersey Represent!

We also had a great time with Dasha, Baby G's sister, and her boyfriend Kreeson. They were nice enough to take us to a fantastic Cuban restaurant and listen to us babble on and on about how beautiful New Zealand is. PLUS, Dasha took us to TWO movies! We saw "Pirates 3" and "Waitress". One was over loud and long, the other was charming and nice. Take your best guess. Still, it was astoundingly nice of her to take pity on our weary bones and let us just enjoy her company without having to be on out best behaviour or, you know, talk.

So then we went and bounced back to Warwick for my sister's 3rd and 4th grade choral concert. Ya Ya (my sis) actually got these adorable little kids to sing in 3 part harmony, which is not an easy feat. We were very proud of her that night, and she did a really great job...

...but WHILE she was conducting, her daughter Molly decided to go up to the students and be a part of the show herself! In front of everyone!

This is my sister, Ya Ya. You can tell from this picture she's got a little Heavy Metal in her, too.

Not long after this phase of hopping around, we took a quick trip up to Ithaca to visit a couple friends we hadn't seen since December, Paul and Sue. We were thinking maybe we'd walk around, or play Frisbee, or get some other form of outdoorsy activity in. Instead, we missed each other so much we all just sat around and talked. It was really nice. Plus, my mom sent us along with some homemade muffins, so there's that, too.


Paul and I being thuggish in each other's shades.

Baby G and Sue in another episode of "Armlength Theatre"

So that brings us up to about as current as we can get. We got into Washington, DC two days ago and are still couch-hopping in rock-star style. We are at Jake and Jenn's now, and it has been a blast catching up with them and exchanging photos (they got married last month and flew home from their honeymoon the same day we flew in from Christchurch). Tomorrow we go to David and Miriam's for the weekend, and then off to Patrick and Erika's for a week, though they'll be in Seattle, so we'll still be missing them. After that, we FINALLY get to spend more than three nights in a row at a place! We're staying the last three weeks of June at Meredith's house, and we couldn't be happier.

So that's the last month. We're in DC making money and saying our final, permanent goodbyes before whatever is next. As Baby G & Dizzle's Kiwi Experience comes to a close (or: "Final Act"), we'll keep you posted on our future plans. In the meantime, we're safe and sound. Though we have no "home" of which to speak yet, we're looking forward to inviting you over to it once we do.

Now go outside and do something active. Do some of it for us, too. We are exhausted.

Peace,
Dizz

p.s. Okay. I've spent a long time trying to get blogger to format this post the way I typed it, and this stupid program won't let me. So now, if anyone has this problem and Googles the phrase "I don't know why I bothered formatting the blog the way I did if Blogger is going to do whatever the hell it wants to, anyway" will be directed here. I feel you.