London - Day 1

Day 1

We arrive early - helped by a significant tail wind (that you can see change speed on the 'flight status' app in the entertainment system of your seat).  How did people ever survive long flights before these modern miracles of TV and movies and games accessible from every seat? The mind boggles - guess we read paper books and slept more.  And played with our hand-held gaming devices.

Our 5:45ish arrival in London necessitated circling the airport for 15 minutes 'cuz you can't land a jet in London before 6AM.  They are very sensitive towards noise abatement in the wee hours of the morning.  I passed the time taking pictures of the plane on the flight status going round and round.  The plane icon stayed in the same place - just nose down; nose left; nose up; nose right...over and over.  Finally, we land.

We get through customs much more quickly than ever before in our travels - guess arriving at the crack of dawn has something to do with that - and we go to find our luggage and our driver.  The driver is a little late but he locates us and we head to our hotel.  He is from Somalia - very nice young man.  J. tries to converse with him but he doesn't answer - and I am glad and fine with that 'cuz I'd rather the driver concentrate on driving.  It is a little disorienting to be on the wrong side of the street - but what was hardest for me was him being on the wrong side of the car.  The driver on the right?  Blew my mind way more than driving in the wrong direction.

Our hotel is a Holiday Inn and it's nice - and busy.  We get there just after 8AM and they don't have a room for us.  They suggest checking back at noon.  I hadn't slept a wink on the plane and J. had slept a teeny bit.  I was exhausted - but we decided to head out to Kensington Park to locate the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain.

We walk a long, long way - and I had on the wrong shoes and socks for a long walk.  By the time we got to the park, my foot had a huge, sore blister on it.  Every step was painful.  We trudged on - finally (FINALLY) found the fountain - which didn't open until 10AM.  AND was running with only a portion of the water due to 'ground water testing'.  A little disappointing since it was designed to encourage folks to dip their feet in - Diana most certainly would have - but oh well.  It's cold and overcast and fenced off and we had no illusions of hanging out until 10.  We checked 'see Diana fountain' off our list and started to head back towards the hotel.

Thankfully, J. realized I needed a cab - but we couldn't get one to pull over for us.  We were on a very busy street and in their defense, there wasn't much of a place for them to pull over. We finally walk a ways and there's a slight 'turn out' lane and a very nice cab pulls over - the nicest, British cabbie ever.  He can't wait to hear what J. thinks of the place (and is very quick to say 'I want to hear what he thinks 'cuz he's never been here before, ma'am').  He was so nice and gave us good advice re: keeping our back packs close to us at all times.

We get back to the hotel in time to see them check-in a massive group of flight crew from an airline....and behold - our room is ready.  We head upstairs and get settled in one of the smallest hotel rooms I've ever been in.  So small we couldn't open our suitcases and leave them out anywhere.  We extract some clothes for the few days we'll be here - most importantly for me, different shoes and socks.  J. makes me fall in love with him all over again when he says 'I could really use some sleep'...and we proceed to take the best four hour deep sleep nap ever.  Awaken refreshed and ready to go again.

We explore the neighborhood we are in and find a local pub for some food.  It's still early so they aren't serving their full dinner menu but they have fish and chips on their early menu so we are good! The owner was very nice and let us sample a lot of different ales.  It was a delicious meal.

We head back to the hotel and are asleep pretty early.

Post-Anniversary

Yesterday, both J. and I got up like a typical morning.  I was up earlier, as usual - coffee, dog routine, Facebook for a few minutes.  Catching up on emails.  Bank account maintenance.  Chatting with H. who gets up early most days, too, for some reason.  (Maybe he's just going to bed.  I'm never sure about his schedule).

J. arrived downstairs.  Made his coffee.  We kibbitzed about current events, both of our schedules that day.  Typical morning.

I arrived at work and started my day.  First thing is almost always signing something.    And I wrote the date:  3-25-14 and ZAP!  Like a lightening bolt.  Holy crap - it's our 24th wedding anniversary and I totally didn't recall that this morning.  I said 'I have to call my husband'....felt terrible about not remembering and assumed he had remembered and was likely disappointed I hadn't.  But no.  He hadn't remembered either.  Isn't that great?  Our aging minds are serving us well in that we both forget pretty much everything - including the day we got married.

So we shared a moment over the phone and decided to go out to dinner.  We had thought about Mikasa (sushi near us)...but a co-worker suggested Simply Fondue in Livermore.  Have heard a lot about it but never been.

H. joined us, too - so we had fondue.  Our reservation was at 5 and we didn't leave the restaurant until close to 7:30.  We splurged and got the 'feast' - so cheese fondue, salad, meat fondue and chocolate fondue.  The place is also known for it's 109 types of martinis but at $19 a piece?  I skipped it.  It was already close to a $200 dinner for the three of us - so adding a drink tab to the bill?  No.  Not happening.

It was delicious and fun and different.  On Tuesdays, they have a two course special - two of either salad, cheese fondue and chocolate fondue for $28 a couple.  I can see J. and I doing that on occasion and adding a salad.

I'm glad we tried it - but it was a long, long dinner.  Takes a long time to cook and eat your four course meal.

When we got home, there was a lovely Spring bouquet on the desk by my computer - and the best part is all the flowers are from our garden.  It's lovely!!

Yesterday, I felt like I shook off the cobwebs and got back into the work of working.  Felt great to get things 'moving' again and get back in the swing of things.  It's been very hard to get back into it - I've felt discouraged about that.  Too far past the trip to be jet lag?  Right?  Though I sure get up a lot later post-trip than I ever have.

I hope I'm turning a corner and have enthusiasm towards my job returning 'cuz it's a hard job to do even with a mountain of enthusiasm.  Without it?  It's just torture.

Good Wife!

If you watch Good Wife and didn't see last night's episode, then STOP READING!

Otherwise....if you don't watch, then stop reading right now 'cuz I'm going to get a little loopy about last night's shocking (SHOCKING) episode.

They've gone and done a Downton Abbey on us - only at least with Downton we had a clue.  The character that died at the end of last season's Downton had been very public about his desire to move on from the show....

But Will?  Played by Josh Charles since day one of the show?  Never a hint that he hadn't renewed his contract last year.  Not a clue that they negotiated with him to work part of this season so they could end his character in a huge, stunning plot twist.

Holy Crap.  Twitter is lit up like crazy - and one of the suggestions is a group hug - and that seems appropriate.

I'm not sure if I'm more upset about the surprise of it all - or upset about the entire ....I can't come up with the right word.  The entire premise of the show just got knocked on it's ear.  We all knew Alicia and Will would end up together....at some point, they had to end up together.  It's the premise of the show.

Now?  Who the heck knows what will happen.

The only redeeming thing is that Michael J. Fox will be on the show again as a 'main' character and that will be awesome.  While others swear they will never watch again, we will keep watching just to see the way that character plays out.

RIP Will Gardner.  You will be missed.

Happy!

I'm doing taxes!  And practically dancing!  How is that possible?  "Happy" by Pharrell Williams, that's how!  Can't help but groove when this song is on and it's the best $1.29 I've spent in a long time.  I'm also drinking coffee from my cool London coffee mug - one of the few souvenirs I bought on our trip.  I started to get the usual SB 'London' mug (same mug design that they just slap a new location on wherever you are - we saw them in every country that had Starbucks [Rome doesn't, just so you know]).  But I already have that mug with Playa del Carmen on it - so I opted for a really neat, colorful mug.  I'll try to get a pic of it later today to post so you can see.

I am really behind on travel log posts (as in I've posted none).  J.'s been doing great posts on Facebook so if you aren't a friend of his there and you want to see, ask him and he'll add you. I will try to write a bit 'by city' later today - but taxes and getting outside for a bit are top priority.

Yesterday was sort of a hard day.  The funeral for my co-worker was lovely.  An amazing family who did an excellent job paying tribute to the amazing woman they all love so much. There were many district folks in attendance - while the comments on the obituary in the paper and the guest book at the mortuary site were sort of 'quiet', support was shown by showing up.  She was truly a treasure and will be so missed.  Our cafeteria's won't be the same without Miss Lezlie.  She will be missed -

Funerals always make me melancholy and I realized yesterday that is more true the older I get.  Mortality is a fact.  Makes you want to rush right out and live to the fullest 'cuz - well, just 'cuz.

So today, I tackle our taxes and get to the truer 'number' - grateful we made a lot of massive culling donations of clothing and household items 'cuz boy, those donations really help!  I'm ready to clean out everything not nailed down - tax write off AND less junk.

J. is playing music at church this morning and heading to Costco armed with a (short) list and the cash card with our annual rebate on it.  What's left, anyway - 'cuz we spent part of it last month.  We are buying more and more at WinCo these days - realizing that if you just don't go to Costco, you spend less.  My 'splurge' (because we did get a huge rebate - the Europe trip really added to our annual reward) is a set of new garden gloves (hopefully in lady colors) and a new set of garden trimmers.

Gardening is on my mind...beautiful, sunny day today and I want to get outside and work away on pruning and cleaning out Winter!

Dinner tonight will be country fried steak, mashed potatoes and green beans!  Yum.  We did Dickey's BBQ for dinner last night - also delicious.  J. and H. actually went there Friday night for dinner (I had it for lunch that day and was so stuffed, I skipped dinner!) but it was mobbed so they got McDonald's instead.  J. went pretty early (for dinner) and got there before the huge rush happened.

Last week was sort of the 'ease back into it' week at work.  Met with my boss and got caught up on construction stuff (oh my God, I wish I could write about stuff here 'cuz I'd like to blast our architect to bits right now).  Next week, starting tomorrow - I am digging in to budget and other huge topics.  Always busy.  I love that about my job.  Time goes so incredibly quickly - it's already the end of March and it (really, truly) feels like this school year just started a few months ago.

And!  I will be off for Spring Break - six days in April.  I asked my boss if I could do 'non-work days' - so not working and not counting those days against my contracted days and he said 'of course!'.  Yeah!  B. is coming home for sure Easter weekend!!  and I will enjoy having a week of some vegging days.  The trip was wonderful but it really has zapped my energy and I'm having a hard time recovering.  Some 'home time' will really help.

Back to taxes.  Brewing my 2nd mug of coffee and digging back in.  "Happy" plays over and over and I dance in my chair along with the tune....

First Day Back

Survived the first day - enjoyed catching up with friends and co-workers.  Two of the four people in my office bought new cars while I was gone - the parking lot looks like a luxury car lot with shiny new vehicles everywhere.  I joked 'you did remember to put the decimal in the right place, yes?' 'cuz our 5% raise was just 5%.  Nothing more, nothing less.  LOL....happy for people with shiny new cars 'cuz that's so much fun.

It was great to feel missed - everyone saying that 'you were gone a long time and we really missed you'.  And my boss said 'I was so happy to see your car in the parking lot this morning'.  Though he was out and about all day and I barely saw him - but we'll catch up eventually.

I'm up early this morning and feeling more 'awake' than I have since we got home so that's good.  Jet lag was a lot harder on the return than on the arrival in Europe and it takes my body a long time to get back on 'this' time vs. thinking it's night when it's morning, etc. .

Saturday will be the funeral for the co-worker who died - and I moved a haircut appointment to late afternoon Saturday.  Hoping to NOT work this weekend just to ease back in but budget development is on the horizon and there's much to do.  There's always much to do.

I head to Lodi this morning for our monthly CBO meeting and to celebrate the 60th birthday of a co-worker from our County Office of Ed.  Shhh.  It's a surprise.

J. has been doing great posts on Facebook to 'log' our travels - and was (appropriately) pissed as heck when rearranging the pics caused the posts to disappear.  Argh.  Now he's re-doing but it's not the same.  Still great - but the fun of the posts were all the comments (mine included) and those are gone.  Oh well.

Chloe is doing better now that we've got the steroids actually in her system.  J. found the pills on the floor (two days worth) and realized that she wasn't swallowing them - so we're hiding them in canned food and she's hacking less and less now.  So that's good.

H. is working on a craft project - making a frog stepping stone from a kit we've had forever. Thinking I'm going to suggest he design a mosaic table top for our family room (or outside) and I'll get him the supplies to make it.  A trip to Hobby Lobby this weekend (I've never been in that store) would be fun!  Or even just good 'ol Michael's here in town.  He does like to be creative so giving him something to focus on besides his sad unemployed existence and parents who are refusing to fund his constant monetary requirements other than gas and some pocket money now and then.

I've got to get going.....much to do today!  I'm back!

Work Eve

Vacation is officially over.  It's now 5:20PM and it's officially a 'work-eve'.  Time to figure out what to wear; pack snacks and lunch; steel myself for a day of constant catching up.  My boss has done a stellar job of keeping me looped in on very little with frequent promises of 'we can touch base on this when you get back'.  Long list of stuff.  So the day looms large.

There are people in my life I care about very much going through some health things right now (shout out to my cousin D. in OKC and my cousin S. in PHX) that have my mind reeling. Thinking good thoughts and sending powerful prayers, cyber hugs and anything else I can think of as they navigate health stuff that is hard to deal with.  They are strong, amazing women and I have no doubt it will all work out.  All will be as it should.  Let go and let God....and trust that He's got it all covered.  Every worry.  Every fear.  Good and bad; hard and easy.  He's got it all worked out.  It's not 'perfect' 'cuz in times of stress and worry, it's hard to remember that - but I believe it and when embracing that, you just have to trust.....'cuz worrying won't change anything.  Let the health care workers take care of the big stuff....and just rest and chill as much as you can while it's all figured out.  Love you both more than I can say - truly.  You two mean the world to me.  Two amazing blessings.....

I'm singing 'Let it Go' in my head....thinking about worry.  How it's draining.  Exhausting.  I worried a lot on our vacation - worried.  Always worried.  Next to envy and jealousy, worry is a(nother) wasted emotion - 'cuz you can't control what you can't control.  Still, worry is a part of the process of any health stuff - it's normal to worry.  Just try to 'let it go'.  [I don't mean to be 'preachy'....really.  I don't.  I just know that all the worrying in the world isn't going to change 'what is'....and whatever 'is' will be dealt with one thing at a time.]

I sure love you both and wish I could be in three places at once.

(S., skip this part.  D., you too....).  I need to write what's below but don't want you to be upset reading it.....

At breakfast in Rome, J. read an email from our church about '[insert name here]'s memorial service is March 22nd.  I almost choked.  I said '[repeated name'}?  My friend [insert name]? She died?  And she had.  She was the friend I wrote about a few years back after seeing her in church unexpectedly and she was there with her new husband.  I don't know what happened. I hadn't been in touch with her much - we had coffee a couple times.  She and her husband divorced.  She got a job and was busy - we weren't close friends.  But still.  We were awhile back - in our corporate days, we were very close.  It stunned me - still does.  She is survived by her two children.  She was 47.  (You can read about our reconnecting here.)

And yesterday, someone who reported to me up until her retirement at the end of November died.  She fought a brave fight with breast cancer that turned to liver cancer.  And she died. She was an amazing person, full of fight.  When she was diagnosed, she went through chemo and radiation while continuing to work.  She said 'I don't want to stay home and worry.  I want to keep on working and keep busy.  I love my job'.  She was amazing.  One day, it was pretty obvious that she couldn't keep working....and she retired shortly after.  I knew things weren't going great.  But you always hope.  It is sad for her family - so hard on them to lose their wife and their mom.  And hard on her department - a wonderful group of dear people who are all sad while they serve meals to the students that are the reason we are all working our hearts out.

It's a constant reminder in life that we are fragile.  We should all be labeled "Handle with Care"....handle with extreme care.

And the person we need to remind of this most is ourselves.

Hi!

Hello!  We are home!  Nothing feels like home after a long trip.

I tried so hard to blog during the trip - but guess what?  While every financial institution we do business with had no problem with me logging on from 5000+ miles away, Blogger stopped me at every turn.  Frustrating!  But oh well.  I hadn't logged on to Blogger via the iPad ever and I think they were being 'safe'.  When I logged on this morning, they had a 'flag' stating they had stopped a possible fraudulent access - I confirmed it was me and then all was OK.

We had a long, long flight home - 2.5 hours from Rome to Amsterdam and then a mad dash from Terminal C to Terminal G (AND we had to go through customs too) and an 11.5 hour flight from Amsterdam to SFO.  Watched Frozen and Gravity and plenty of TV - and dozed off and on.  By the time we got home, visited with H., had dinner and surfed the web for a bit, we were approaching 24 hours awake - so I went to bed around 6PM and slept until 4AM this morning.

Now it's catching up on banking; mail; chatting with family; laundry (oh, the laundry!).

Am proud to report the house looks very good - H. did a really good job of keeping things tidy.  Floors were swept and mopped; dishes done and ready to unload; entire house vacuumed. Now we just do our laundry, his laundry and every towel in the house.

I am off until Wednesday and so glad to have today and tomorrow to regroup.  It was a whirlwind trip with constant movement and I need to chill for a bit.  And jet lag is a bitch.  I feel tired and disoriented.  It will pass.

We are already planning a return trip to Paris in March, 2015, for our 25th wedding anniversary.  We're hoping to rent an apartment!  We loved all three places we visited but Paris has so many museums that we want to explore - so we want a block of time there as our first return trip.

Bye for now - I will be back with a 'travelogue' (which I will warn you about at the start of each post so if my vacation memories don't interest you, you can skip it).