Sunday, February 5, 2017

bon voyage

Writing this before kick-off, with no way of knowing how I'm going to be feeling in a few hours.  Did you ever notice that a loss for your team stays with you longer than a win?  I've been spending the last 24 hours wondering what Tom Brady was doing at this precise moment.  What did he do while I took a nap?  While we went out to an Italian restaurant?  While we watched Ben Affleck and The Accountant?  While we slept in late and had blueberry pancakes.  Mary assures me he was not dong any of those things.

Great news from Joe and Leonor (below).  When we went down to DC for the Women's March, Leonor was just beginning to show.  And a boy.  A healthy boy.  Wonderful.  

We had planned to go down for the inauguration of the first woman as President, but alas.  So we did the next best thing and joined the half a million of other people on the day after.  Pretty moving and fun.  Margaret helped steer us through the orderly chaos of the metro ride and walk across the mall.  Then we stood up on the steps of the East Gallery which turned into a kind of a reviewing stand for the crowd.

We stayed with Margaret and Andrew in their nice, comfortable new home, with kitties and Dee.  We picked up Marj at the airport on the way down and there was a bedroom for her too!  Margaret and Andrew are super busy as Andrew is into his second semester of a master's program.  

After the march, we Google mapped it over to Melodie and Jeffrey's new home, which is also quite nice with a sizeable backyard.  We helped move some furniture and gave too much interior decorating advice.  They joined us the next day at Margaret and Andrew's for the football game the next day.  Leonor and Joe who had just flown in from India, also came over the festivities.

On the way down, we stopped in Hightstown for the night, and Peter and Janet joined us at the Americana Diner for dinner?  Remember that one?  They still have Grandma's favorite - a quesdilla - on the menu, and Mary ordered that one  By the way, Peter had sent down a website which said that the Americana was ranked the best diner in New Jersey.  But we knew that already, at least ranked in our minds.  Talk was mostly about what lay ahead on the political front, and their pessimism against my trying to be hopeful looks like has so far won out.  In between, we managed to hear about Johanna's new job and Sean's promotion.

This past week, the running theme has been coughing.  First Mary was sick, and we had to call off our visit to Boston for Burns night.  Luckily, since that day I also got whacked with the chest cold, and it put me in bed for most of Sunday (what a baby.)  Mary's also had this lingering stomache-dizziness issue that she thinks she may have figured out, just in time for our airplane ride this week.

We also played host to John Boyle, who had come up for a week of skiing.  And did he pick the right week.  Last week was rainy and warmer than usual; this week was cold and we even got about 6 inches of snow one day.  Marilyn, for some reason, preferred to stay down where the temperatures were climbing to the 80s.  Colleen came over with Robbie and Julie and Robbie's girlfriend Jamie one night for dinner.  Johnny left this morning on the long drive home, with guess what?  A cold and cough.

I am beginning to see how Facebook does it.  My feed right now is full of nothing but anti-Trump tirades.  Wonder why?  Because I like every one of them, and even post a few of my own.  I see I'm not the only Dickson-Boyle in this cycle.  I should probably like a few more animal or vacation posts.

So, this time next week, we'll be in India.  We depart Wednesday and are back on March 8.  We'll send along our phone number when we get it and we'll have plenty of photos for Facebook and the weekly letter.

Love from up here, 


No comments: