Home Safe and Sound

We survived our trip, although it'll take us a few days to get out of jetlag mode. Over the course of 3 weeks, we visited people in 7 cities in 2 states; we managed to see all of our parents, siblings, grandparents, and nieces and nephews, and a few friends to boot. It was quite an undertaking, but everything went surprisingly smoothly, in large part due to the generosity of our loved ones.

And much to our delight, we had 2 days of sunny and relatively warm days since we got back. Of course, it's cloudy with sporadic showers today, but at least we got in a little sunshine first.

I got my exams back yesterday, and I got an A in linguistics and a B in Latin. Go me!

Here are my jottings (as promised) since my last post:

Wednesday, Dec. 15
I am going to throttle my husband. He thinks that just because a real mini-xmas tree has candles on it, they should be lit. We now have a blackened tree on our balcony and a lingering scorched smell throughout the house, especially upstairs (our bedroom). And it's freezing, so no airing out. Aaargh!

L.H. begged me not to tell everyone as soon as we get off the plane, so I'm doing it here. *evil grin*

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Great. I've just started my period, and I have a 10-hour international flight coming up in 2 days. It never fails.

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Thursday, Dec. 16

I should be freaking out and compulsively list-making only 47 hours before our flight, but I haven't added anything to my lists in at least 2 hours, and I managed to read for class this morning without jumping up to do little tasks around the house. [Note: Even with all the lists, I managed to forget my driver's license in Germany.]

On Tuesday I had exam preparation to avoid, so I got a lot of trip- and household-related stuff done then.

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Friday, Dec. 17

L.H.'s sore back has turned into a full-fledged crippling. He's walking with one hip cocked way out to the side, because that's the only position that doesn't hurt his back. He has an appointment with an orthopedist this morning, and I hope he can fix it, or at least make L.H. more comfortable.

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Saturday, Dec. 18

We're sitting on the plane, waiting to take off. It was a close thing, too. We checked in our luggage, then found out that D.D. and L.H. were on STAND-BY. The disemboweling urge was strong, let me tell you.

We bought our tickets 2 months ago, and now only I had an actual seat. United Airlines and Lufthansa are now officially on the shit list with American Airlines. They did manage to come up with 2 more seats, but not next to the original seat. So I'm sitting with D.D. and L.H. is about 8 rows back.

I hope L.H. isn't crippled with back pain by the time we land. The orthopedist gave him a shot in the butt yesterday, but today L.H. insisted on schlepping around our luggage, and I'm afraid his back will pay for it after sitting still for so many hours.

I have to mention L.H.'s super-cool coworker, Eric, who insisted on driving us to the airport. There were so many new security measures implemented, we might not have got the 2 seats if we hadn't got to the airport early. And he insists he'll be there when we get back. He's a hell of a guy.

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Tuesday, Dec. 21

Everyone's heard the details of our trip and itinerary by now, so no use writing a travelogue at this point. I do have to say that we have had it proved to us yet again what wonderfully generous friends and family we have. We're lucky ducks.

L.H.'s brother loaned us his truck to drive all over the state of Texas. What a mensch. And if anyone needs to start a humor blog, it's him. Here's an excerpt from the note he left us in the truck when we picked it up: "Eat mints, use buttwipes at your leisure. ... Drive it like you stole it, I DO :)" He's a little bit like Uncle Bob, without all the gratuitous mention of fellatio.

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Thursday, Dec. 23

There are indications that I am metamorphosing into my husband's grandmother. *Please kill me now.*

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I ran out of steam at this point. There was a lot of driving interspersed with a lot of lying around going on, so you can see that I had a lot to occupy me.