Winds in east, mist coming in,
like something is brewing, about to begin.
Can't put me finger on what lies in store
but I feel what's to happen, all happened before.
The last month has been an absolute whirlwind. Fun, stressful, and, as always, a little on the weird side. Let me tell you about it.
The Domestic Whirlwind
The adventure began after Tax Day with a trip to Bethlehem, PA to be a stand in for my niece/namesake's baptism, followed by a hop skip and a jump back to New York City to see my best friend's capstone play performed. Shopping occurred and sexy dresses were purchased.
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| Best friends for two decades. Still going strong. |
And then we went back to PA again for some family time. Laura- the newer, fresher niece- is usually very concerned. While Grace is called "Cuter than the Gerber Baby," we like to call Laura "the Concerned Citizen of the World," but in a rare instance (and my photographic genius- if I may), I got Laura to smile and Blue Steel it for the camera:
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| I like to title this photo "From Grumps to Giggles" |
Before I could even get my affairs in order, I was off again to Florida with my mother, "the Giig," as she presented her research at the oncology conference. We visited Universal (mostly Harry Potter World) together and, while she was off attending lectures and being a smarty pants, I visited the Magic Kingdom.
It was a lot of fun seeing all the characters/sites, taking pictures with Rapunzel and Cinderella, and (probably the most fun was) playing this interactive Sorcery Game in which you get sent around the park finding portals and defeating Disney villains.
And excluding a surprising, and dare I say rather unprofessional experience with a persistent Uber driver, the week was another domestic travel success!
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| Town Hall at Magic Kingdom |
Flying Eastward
The first week of May marked the trip with my little sister to Germany. It began normal enough. We got to the airport, got Euros, lunch, sat down and chatted for about 45 minutes, etc. And let it be known, I am acting as tour guide for my sister as well as keeping a suspicious, watchful eye, so I will admit to mild paranoia when I noticed a man about 25 yards away who kept looking at us.... But he was far enough away, so we carried on carrying on. At the end of our 45 min lunch, the strange man gets up, walks over to us and presents me with the oddly unproportional, slightly colored-in picture of myself. His only explanation was, "I watching you, so I made this for you" and then walked away. I really don't have any words other than it was the second really weird interaction in a matter of days and my sister loves laughing about it. So Schadenfreude. You're welcome.
I did also share the shorten version over SnapChat, to which my youngest sister informed me that the point of SnapChat Stories is not to tell **actual** stories. So go figure. Kids these days.
Anywho. Marianne and I had a delightful time travelling to the Black Forest, and climbed to the top of their tallest waterfall. Followed by climbing the tallest spire in the world the following day and ending that trend a couple days later by visiting the largest waterfall in Europe, which was super fun, but we'll both admit was a little underwhelming if you've seen Niagara Falls.
Our next adventure was Switzerland, which reads a lot like the children's book "Fortunately and Unfortunately":
Fortunately, Marianne and Katie arrive to the train station on time to begin their trip to Switzerland. Unfortunately, the German trains had gone on strike and stopped running a third of the way there. Fortunately, the DB station conductor was super helpful and got them a bus to the next nearest train station. Unfortunately, that would mean that they would miss their tour of Zurich. Fortunately, Katie had the number for Zurich and rescheduled for the next day and they headed onto Geneva which was where they were going to end up for the night anyway, so it was all for the best. Everything was beautiful; M and K had a delightful time exploring the Gold Coast and took a cable ride to the top of the mountains in Zurich. Unfortunately, the Swiss are not as exact about timetables and M and K worried they would not make it down from the mountain in time to catch their train back to Germany. Fortunately, they caught the train with moments to spare and even had time to nab a sandwich and drink for dinner. Unfortunately, two thirds of the way back the trains just stopped. Again. Fortunately, K again enlists the help of the DB conductor man. Unfortunately, he says, no, there are no connections back to Ulm, where they are staying. Fortunately, he says that the DB will send them back via taxi for no charge since the strike ruined their trip. Unfortunately, the taxi driver has a heavy Bavarian accent and K can't understand him at all and after he starts driving, the meter goes from saying this is a free fare to running. This makes M very nervous. Fortunately, K tells M that the DB conductor assured her that it was alright. Unfortunately, K started to doubt her memory after the total reach 100E, 200E, 300E... she had had about 45 heart attacks and aged a decade since this trip began and was fearing that she was losing it. Fortunately, the taxi driver helped her get her bags out, shook her hand and said, Gute Reise (meaning good trip). K and M sighed in relief and went to get their luggage from the train stations' storage. Unfortunately, they had to wait for M's boyfriend to go onto the next hotel and apparently had missed the bus to meet them because he had been watching YouTube instead. Fortunately, he did arrive and they found the hotel. Unfortunately, they had missed the check in time. Fortunately, K was able to convince the guy at the bar to help her get their key. And FORTUNATELY the bed was comfy as hell and she was officially #done.
The rest of the trip was wildly uneventful and it was spent coloring, reading and occasionally doing yoga, which turns out was a mistake because I somehow did something to my hip and now every time I stand up from a chair after a long period of time I involuntarily let out a quiet exclamation of, "oh my hip." Like an old woman.
I've started tai chi with the self defense group and have already been working on my knee strength, so maybe I'll just sit in Pigeon for like an hour... Maybe that will help combat my body falling apart.
