Only Dogs Can Hear

Toilet paper

While my parents were here, I noticed we were going through toilet paper at a much faster rate than is typically the case in my apparently toilet paper efficient household.  So, on Monday night, when Dad said, "hmmm, looks like we need to buy toilet paper," I agreed without actually checking myself (it seemed to make sense at the time).  We bought more toilet paper a few hours later.  When I put the new toilet paper away in the cupboard I saw EIGHT rolls still sitting there.  When pressed for a reason to explain his insistance on the purchase of four new rolls of toilet paper when there are already eight in the cupboard, he had no apparent reason.  Well, other than that one can never have too much toilet paper.  Dude, I'll only be here a couple more weeks.  K is in Darjeeling.  Who is going to use all this glorious toilet paper?  Come to find out, Dad expects me to store the extra toilet paper for when K comes back from India.  Seriously, storage for toilet paper...I thought that was called the grocery store.

Have I mentioned my parents are visiting?

And those two are total night owls.  I haven't had so many late nights (in a row) in years.  Are we having fun?  YES!  It's great having them here.  Plus they're fixing and cleaning things that are in desperate need of fixing and cleaning (so nice of them!).  I'm pretty tired though.  Between the late nights, resigning from my job here and the prospect of moving accross the country in less than a month, exhaustion is my new middle name.

Fever

K has been running a bit of a fever for a few days now.  Last night was the worst it's been for sure.  He woke me up at around 3 am to talk me through a particularly unintelligible math problem that was plaguing his fevered brain.  Something about 1 through 5 of 10 and then 1 through 6 of 10 is what I remember prompting me to ask if he was thinking of permutations in his sleep.  I then forced more ibuprofen down his throat and convinced him to go back to sleep.  He was understandably annoyed that I wasn't entertaining his mathematical prowess.  Clearly I don't know genius when I hear it mumbling incoherently in the middle of the night.

Happy thoughts

We're getting excited about my little brother's arrival over here!  Suffice it to say that after decorating the house over champagne last night, thinking about my baby brother actually flying out to see us, and consciously detaching from everyone else's expectations, I know we will definitely have a great weekend See...meditation works. 

Also, our friends that were at the retreat last week brought me a signed copy of Sogyal Rinpoche's book, the one in this month's reading list!  So thoughtful of them.  Thanks guys!

Confirmation of crazy

In preparation for a week in Michigan, K and I had our first fight in months last night.  I mean, being as out of practice as we are, a few warm-up rounds are completely necessary before we can really go head-to-head Sunday-Friday.  It seems we may even be losing our touch since instead of being pissed all night, we came to an understanding really quickly.  What the hell?  We might be losing our touch.

Story telling

My parents visited K and I last February during one of my "R&R" trips out of Sudan.  We all went to dinner at a local brewery, where my parents started telling all sorts of family stories my dad's older sister had been telling them the week before. 

Like the one room cabin they lived in during the Depression.  Or my great uncle who cut someone's toe off with an axe because they didn't take deer camp seriously enough.  Or that my grandmother almost left my grandfather. 

Ever since then I've been mulling over this idea that I should interview them.  My dad and aunts.  Get them together to talk about family.  What they remember and what their perspective is today.  I asked if I could record these talks.  It seems they've agreed. 

I'll be visiting them next week.  We're going to kick this little family history project off together then.  Wish me luck.

Countdown to Michigan

We're going to Michigan in 2 weeks.  The countdown has begun.  Tonight, as we were looking for fiber supplements (I know, sexy, it's all him though, all him) at Long's, K turns to me and asks, "Will we get any time to ourselves while we're there?"  Good question.   

I'm going out on a limb here to say that we'll be running around like a couple of crazies for the whole week trying to see everyone we possibly can.  We'll get totally worn out.  At least one of us will get sick.  We may even end up in a big fight, something that often happens when we do family visits.  Michigan, here we come.