Home. I am so happy to be here. A month is a very long time to be away.
And I'm so happy to be able to say our trip home was without major incident.
We left Raja's sister's house at midnight, India time and made it to our house by 8:30 pm. With the time difference, I believe that amounts to 31 hours of travel total.
My classes in high school were 75 minutes long and as a little daily prank, after the first 15 minutes of math, I would lean forward and whisper to the girl in the seat ahead of me, "Don't worry, Courtney, just an hour left of class." That hour felt like a lifetime. And we spent 17 of those lifetimes on actual airplanes. I always wanted to apologize in advance to the passengers around us. Because kids aren't good fliers, mine especially. They were so much better behaved this time though, because it turns out, the TV shows held their attention better than the movies and I let my small children watch all the Scooby Doo they could handle because I figured their future nightmares would pale in comparison to my real-life nightmare of being on planes with them.
Vera had a cold-induced runny/crusty nose, infected eyes, mosquito bites on her face and long dirty nails. She looked like a little homeless baby. So much so that Raja expressed some concern that she might be removed from us by the authorities upon our arrival.
She avenged herself mightily with those claws for the duration of our trip, scratching and pinching the heck out of us. Serves me right for losing our nail clippers two weeks ago.
Maya, Teja and Vera took turns whining and crying uncontrollably in exhaustion because the times they were desperate to sleep laying flat magically coincided with the times when that was not possible. Like during take off or landing when that seat belt was especially necessary. Vera took many a nap on the floor at our feet but would wake up and flip out, because she deemed that an unsuitable place for a baby to be. She's a bit of a diva like that. In India I saw many families of 4 or 5 riding on a single motorcycle together, nary a helmet in sight, with Mom riding sidesaddle at the back and a sleeping baby flopped over one arm. They certainly weren't demanding a comfortable crib! Vera also invented this fun trick of kicking the crap out of the tray of food Mama or Dada was trying to eat. Throw in some tiny hands reaching at said food, hot as heck (how do they do that?) and it was just a grand ole time. Because, once again, the universe punked us by giving all the on board bassinets to other babies. Babies who did not have a trio of siblings. Babies whose parents ended up holding them for most part while I glared daggers at them because I sincerely felt they were *insert swear*s. That is called covetousness. Whoopsies.
So it was very stressful at times and turbulence scares me into making promises I'll never keep. And when it came time for Raja and I to drive our minivans home, (Yes, we have two. They are fraternal twins and we don't feel it's right to separate them.) we were so, so, so tired. Driving while drowsy is seriously wrong. But we were trying to get home before the blizzard hit, which would have had us stuck in a hotel room for a couple of days, or in a ditch waiting for the helicopters to rescue us. My brain felt a bit foggy and my eyes were bleary and I had to slap myself around a bit to stay alert. Raja did too, and he said he pulled his own hair. I would have liked to have seen that.
The snow held off until we were about 45 minutes from home so it didn't have the chance to cause huge white outs on the road yet. Suck it, snow!
My prayersto Ganesh were answered. (He knows I'm kidding because He's the one who made me this way.) The kids slept the whole time and went straight to bed when we got home, making it an extra early morning. I slept 7 hours last night and after bathing and dressing the kids this morning, I went down for a little nap. Which turned out to be another 7 hours. I asked Raja why he didn't wake me up, but apparently he knows better than to wake me up. Turns out, I can be a bit grumpy at times. Quelle surprise.
Everyone else went to bed just after supper tonight, so it's going to be a few dysfunctionally scheduled days around here, I guess. My plan to become reacquainted with my old pals pork and/or beef was postponed since I had no intention of stepping out of doors today to barbecue. Spaghetti to the rescue!
The aftermath of this trip will come in the form of a veritable battleground of laundry. Instead of bodies, it will be piles and piles of the dirtiest clothes that ever graced this continent. I imagine. Because I haven't started yet. That nap really ate up my day.
So our trip is officially over and so is this blog. A big, fat Thank- you to everyone who has followed along, joining us for the ride. A couple of people were sweet enough to suggest that I continue blogging, but the fact is, I've plumb run out of jokes, folks. And now that I'm home, how many more posts talking about laundry could you really handle?
Thanks again for reading! All the best to each of you!
Hugs and Namaste!
And I'm so happy to be able to say our trip home was without major incident.
We left Raja's sister's house at midnight, India time and made it to our house by 8:30 pm. With the time difference, I believe that amounts to 31 hours of travel total.
My classes in high school were 75 minutes long and as a little daily prank, after the first 15 minutes of math, I would lean forward and whisper to the girl in the seat ahead of me, "Don't worry, Courtney, just an hour left of class." That hour felt like a lifetime. And we spent 17 of those lifetimes on actual airplanes. I always wanted to apologize in advance to the passengers around us. Because kids aren't good fliers, mine especially. They were so much better behaved this time though, because it turns out, the TV shows held their attention better than the movies and I let my small children watch all the Scooby Doo they could handle because I figured their future nightmares would pale in comparison to my real-life nightmare of being on planes with them.
Vera had a cold-induced runny/crusty nose, infected eyes, mosquito bites on her face and long dirty nails. She looked like a little homeless baby. So much so that Raja expressed some concern that she might be removed from us by the authorities upon our arrival.
She avenged herself mightily with those claws for the duration of our trip, scratching and pinching the heck out of us. Serves me right for losing our nail clippers two weeks ago.
Maya, Teja and Vera took turns whining and crying uncontrollably in exhaustion because the times they were desperate to sleep laying flat magically coincided with the times when that was not possible. Like during take off or landing when that seat belt was especially necessary. Vera took many a nap on the floor at our feet but would wake up and flip out, because she deemed that an unsuitable place for a baby to be. She's a bit of a diva like that. In India I saw many families of 4 or 5 riding on a single motorcycle together, nary a helmet in sight, with Mom riding sidesaddle at the back and a sleeping baby flopped over one arm. They certainly weren't demanding a comfortable crib! Vera also invented this fun trick of kicking the crap out of the tray of food Mama or Dada was trying to eat. Throw in some tiny hands reaching at said food, hot as heck (how do they do that?) and it was just a grand ole time. Because, once again, the universe punked us by giving all the on board bassinets to other babies. Babies who did not have a trio of siblings. Babies whose parents ended up holding them for most part while I glared daggers at them because I sincerely felt they were *insert swear*s. That is called covetousness. Whoopsies.
So it was very stressful at times and turbulence scares me into making promises I'll never keep. And when it came time for Raja and I to drive our minivans home, (Yes, we have two. They are fraternal twins and we don't feel it's right to separate them.) we were so, so, so tired. Driving while drowsy is seriously wrong. But we were trying to get home before the blizzard hit, which would have had us stuck in a hotel room for a couple of days, or in a ditch waiting for the helicopters to rescue us. My brain felt a bit foggy and my eyes were bleary and I had to slap myself around a bit to stay alert. Raja did too, and he said he pulled his own hair. I would have liked to have seen that.
The snow held off until we were about 45 minutes from home so it didn't have the chance to cause huge white outs on the road yet. Suck it, snow!
My prayers
Everyone else went to bed just after supper tonight, so it's going to be a few dysfunctionally scheduled days around here, I guess. My plan to become reacquainted with my old pals pork and/or beef was postponed since I had no intention of stepping out of doors today to barbecue. Spaghetti to the rescue!
The aftermath of this trip will come in the form of a veritable battleground of laundry. Instead of bodies, it will be piles and piles of the dirtiest clothes that ever graced this continent. I imagine. Because I haven't started yet. That nap really ate up my day.
So our trip is officially over and so is this blog. A big, fat Thank- you to everyone who has followed along, joining us for the ride. A couple of people were sweet enough to suggest that I continue blogging, but the fact is, I've plumb run out of jokes, folks. And now that I'm home, how many more posts talking about laundry could you really handle?
Thanks again for reading! All the best to each of you!
Hugs and Namaste!
sad face. me want more laundry jokes.
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