Didja miss me??

Monday, Oct 6

Concrete rabbit, Jasper, and Halloween dog

I went a little MIA. Honestly, absolutely nothing has been going on. We just stay home quietly, watch sitcom reruns, sleep, eat. Barely leave the house. In fact, her Jeep has been at the mechanic for the past six days. And we barely noticed cuz…no interest in going Out There.

It’s been delightful.

I’ve been sloowwllyy sorting through all my clothes and things, trying to get it all down to one suitcases’ worth. I leave for Texas in 2 days and I’m not quite there yet. It’s extra hard because I can’t just leave everything I don’t want to take…but I also don’t want to get rid of…because there’s just so much room at Katie’s for things.

Tuesday, Oct 7

Jasper hard at work

Just a long day of sorting, packing, re-sorting, re-packing, laundry, and Parks & Rec reruns. I can’t believe I have to leave tomorrow.

Sadface.

On a brighter note, I got everything into the one suitcase…and I am juuust on the cusp of 50lbs. If the airport scales are more sensitive I could be over. BUT, I will put my genius packing hack into practice. I put the heaviest thing in the suitcase into a large lightweight tote. Large enough that I could easily put my personal item into it, making it my new personal item. It’s got shoulder straps, and will still fit under the seat in front of me. So none of that digging through the suitcase with annoyed people in line behind you…the bag is right on top, I don’t even have to unzip all the way, I just pull it out, let the suitcase continue to check-in, and off I go, with a larger personal item.

BOOM.

Wednesday, Oct 8

I like Tampa airport cuz they have lots of desk areas with functioning outlets

Had an uneventful flight to San Antonio…the whole trip went well…until…it occured to me I didn’t have my passport case – that’s like my wallet/purse in one when I travel. It has passport, ID, credit cards, medical cards, etc. And it was not with me. I didn’t panic cuz I thought I must have left it in my cousin’s car when we’d gone to Target. So I calmly waited for her to return so I could check the car. Not There. Ruh-roh.

RUH-ROH.

We called Target (it was the next morning), they said no one had turned it in. We went back to Target and retraced our steps and I went to customer service once more. Nada. Okay, now I was getting slightly panicked. With everything the way it is now, the world, government shut-down, could I get a new passport and all new cards in 3 weeks before I left for Japan? Not to mention about $300 in both Japanese yen and Korean won.

Got back from Target and looked in my closet. And there it was. Don’t ask. But I was releived.

Crisis averted.

Thursday, Oct 9

Cousin Daisy

I feel like we were on a loop – airport, home, airport, home. Fortunately they’re only about 20 minutes from the airport.

We all tried to help my cousin, who is an incredible cook, but I don’t know how much help we were.

Friday, Oct 10

Katie arrived in the early evening. Yay. Yes, I just saw her like 2.5 days ago. Doesn’t matter. I’m always happy and excited to see her. She’s the person I most like to be with.

Today was more food making and flower arranging. More people arriving.

Upgraded room from sharing the dogs’ room and bed at Katie’s

Oh, have I even mentioned that we were having a memorial gathering for my sister who passed away in May? My brother-in-law thought Texas would be a good location because a) more relatives now live in TX than anywhere else, b) my cousins graciously offered their home for people to stay and for the service itself, and c) my sister was born in Texas. I don’t know if that was really a consideration, or just a nice coincidence.

Anyway, that’s what all the prep was for.

We all went to dinner at a fun Mexican restaurant. Good Mexican is always a pleasure.

Saturday, Oct 11

Yellow Rose of Texas cupcakes

The Memorial was held on my sister’s birthday, October 11. Everything looked beautiful. People arrived around 3pm. My cousin Randy led the service in the living room, surrounded by friends and family. He sang a few songs, people got up and shared memories of my sister, there were tears and laughs. We sat outside to eat fried chicken, mac&cheese, biscuits, etc. The temperature leveled off a bit and when the sun dropped lower it got very pleasant.

Me & Katie

Katie & two California, oops, Texas cousins

Have I mentioned it’s hot in Texas? I’ve spent the whole fall going from hot to hotter to hottest…I look forward to Japan in November where it will really be fall.

We finished the night watching a ton of slides on the giant tv, of my sister and our families. That was fun.

Sunday, Oct 12

Breakfast crepes

Ahh. After a little more cleaning up, we just sort of crashed. We were back down to fewer people…and we just had that kind of day you have after a big event or party. Picking through leftovers, lounging on the sofa, no one expecting anything of anyone.

Origami

The airport loop started up again as people were leaving, which was sad. Goodbyes are sad.

Another week down.

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