You buy socks???

Upon returning to Australia (from New Zealand), I stayed with a friend of my mom's. She was wonderful to host me and a friend of mine, and I enjoyed staying with her, although it was a little much at times, and she'll merit her own friend-of-mom blog shortly, but what's notable about her for now is that she had me call my mother every day (well, each of the four days I was at her house). The third day saw the following conversation:

E: Oh, let's call your mom.
A: I talked to her yesterday, and the day before?
E: So?
A: So, I don't need to call her today.
E: Last week, whenever I called her, I asked where you were and she always said, "I don't know,"
A: That's okay.

She called my mom non-stop to interrogate her (my mom's word) about my food preferences. She also called her twice to make absolutely sure that I didn't leave the greeting area at Sydney airport. More on that later.

Anyway, I called my mom. One day she asked whether she should bring ankle weights to DC (no thanks I have some/but you used ours when you were here/yes, because mine were at my house-- I have some at my house). Another, she asked whether to bring tights. I said absolutely not-- I barely wear them/have enough/but yes if you have any dark grey but absolutely no for any other color. I hear arguments: "well, I'll just bring them anyway..." "NO! I don't have room for extraneous crap."

Well, you guessed it, tonight (well, technically last night) she handed me a dozen or so pairs.

"I TOLD you not to bring them!"
"Well, you never know when you might need them."
"I DO know I won't need them."
"Just keep them anyway."
"I DON'T WANT THEM. I DON'T HAVE ROOM FOR THEM. Except for the grey ones"
"What about the others?"
"No."
"That color will come back in style..."
"Tan will NEVER come "back" in style and if it does we have bigger problems..."
"You never know."
"I am NOT taking them... I don't want the clutter."
"Here, I also brought you some socks."
"I don't NEED socks."
"You can never have too many socks."
"I have plenty of socks."
"How? Where'd you get 'plenty of socks'? What, did you buy socks? Why would you buy socks?"

I was speechless for a few seconds. Then I just said what was in my head:

"I just spent over twenty-four hours mostly on airplanes and otherwise in airports. WHY are you making me defend my right to buy socks and not take the ones you brought?"

That seemed to buy me a temporary out of that conversation. More later, and more on Australia and New Zealand later.

It's great to be in my own bed, even though I'll most likely wake up without and wonder where I am. My sense of place isn't the only thing that's out of whack-- my body has no idea what time it is; I understand, in my mind, how the international date line works, but it's hard for me to grasp that I've somehow had two of the same day. I also spent weeks listening to people refer to the arriving winter, talk about how it's getting cold, etc... and all of the sudden it's getting warmer and lighter. Temporal, locational and seasonal dissonance, all at once.