Catch Up

Hey there. Time for a little catch up. Where the heck have I been? Around, I guess. It's been an interesting April. My brothers and I were on our own for two and a half weeks while my parents were on their Mediterranean cruise. If I weren't going to Greece, I would have been so very jealous. But as it turns out, the first thing they did when they got home was grumble about it! Apparently, each land tour was almost a sprint from one place of interest to the next. My mom lost a lot of weight, which I suppose is a good thing but she looked really drained. My fashion-plate aunt was without her suitcase for the entire cruise because the porters in Rome didn't put it on the boat, and after a couple of rounds of The Blame Game the authorities had the audacity to say that it was her fault for not making sure that her luggage was properly loaded into the hold. One of the members of their group had US$400 lifted from him by gypsies (the distraction was a large-breasted woman feeding her baby). My dad thought the pool on the ship was too small and the on-board entertainment was sub-par. Their hotel in London was pretty much a hostel. In the end, the verdict was that my mom didn't want to go on such a long vacation ever again.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, so many things went wrong within two days of their departure that I thought we would be left stranded on our front lawn by the time they got home. The motherboard of our home computer fried. Two clocks stopped (if I were superstitious I would have been freaking out at this point). A leaky drain in our kitchen sink caused a mini-flood (that I, naturally, had to take care of). My grandfather had a minor panic attack while my aunt and uncle were out, and he couldn't hear a word I said on the phone (his hearing aid can't really pick up electronic voices). I finally had to drive over to my uncle's house in Scarborough to sort it all out. Thankfully, that's was the last of the craziness. The rest of the two weeks went by pretty smoothly.

My birthday was a weird non-event. With my parents gone, it didn't really feel like my birthday. My brothers did take me out for dinner, my parents called me (in the middle of the night, long distance from Turkey, on my dad's cell phone), my middle-school friends put together a hilariously bizarre Amazing Race event for me at the local Ikea, and my university friends took me out for brunch, but it still felt kind of different than in previous years. Oh well, 28 isn't such a big deal anyway.

Some sad news that most of you already know is that my condo has been delayed by eight months. Boo-urns. I've had some time to get over this slight setback. At least I'll be able to save more money. The plan is still in motion.

I think we're up to date now. There have been some thoughts rolling around in my head but I'll put those in a different blog. Life goes on, but it always snows on my birthday.

"On the corner of main street, just tryin' to keep it in line"