bye snow, hello sand

Tomorrow morning at the very crack of dawn we're heading to the airport. We've had snow for a week now and so it might take a bit longer than expected to make it to Thailand with flight delays and such. But Lord willin' and the creek don't rise we'll be there by Saturday night.

I don't imagine I'll do much or any blogging while in the land of sun and smiles. We'll be back home on February 12.

At this point I don't want to even imagine coming back home but probably by that point I'll be ready. It's good to leave and it's good to return.

Wherever you are, enjoy your winter. I know I'll be enjoying mine.

moving time

Well my house looks like it did at some point when we moved here about 2 years ago. Boxes lying around, no pictures up, hammers, cleaning rags and tape sitting in random spots around the living room. It's a mess. Another move, more good-byes and mixed emotions. I'm going to miss... ..real CH food whenever I want it for dirt cheap, ..a tailor that made all my curtains and waves to me every time I walk past her shop, ..the little boy who's parents own the light bulb shop and yells, "hello!" every time we pass by, ..all the little kids that very politely say, "Ayi" (Aunt) when they pass me, ..our first friend in Chengdu who owns a local shop and buys birds as a hobby - bird guy, as we call him, ..the best dumpling makers, the steamed bread makers, the shopkeepers that deliver our milk for free and know our address by heart, ..the courtyard of our complex where Maddie can play by herself or with her friends while we keep an eye on her from our 4th floor, ....

Fickle ol' solidarity

At some point in March when this virus deemed that it had spread so far that it could be called a pandemic, I told the girls they should do video journals to remember the days of living in a pandemic. Here now in the middle of April, I realize that I need to write for myself and the girls can just have lots of regret when they're older because they didn't do what I said. When the whole world started moving to stay-at-home orders, I felt such a strong sense of solidarity. I looked at all of us (literally all of us - okay, most of us) in our different areas of the world facing this beast together. Jimmy Fallon's wife filmed him hosting from home. John Krasinski started SGN in his home office. Everyone was joking about toilet paper, sweatpants, and cutting your own bangs. Italians were singing from their balconies. Wuhan folk were singing from their high-rises. Hospitals in NYC were being surrounded by patrol cars each evening with lights flashing and ...

spring rain and various randomness

This morning feels so fresh. Apparently, we had rain last night and the air is cool and clean now. I would love to be on a farm doing the morning chores and then coming in to a big country style breakfast. With biscuits and gravy, of course. I have two never wavering dreams for my life - one, have a small farm with goats, chickens, sheep and a dairy cow or two. Two - buy a house on a lake (ideally in the NE or NW of the US) that is used several times a year for family gatherings. I want us to be the great, great, great grandparents that the house was originally bought by and has been in the family forever. There were lots of people out this morning exercising . One lady was doing the breaststroke as she walked. I can never get the video going quick enough to catch these precious moments of inhibition . Exercise is one thing our neighbors do really well. I watched a lady in her late 50s early 60s doing kicks and bends the other day that I haven't been able to do sin...

sore thumb

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