ooops, missed a day
Nov. 17th, 2013 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aryanhwyI figured I wouldn't make it all Nov. posting every day, given the amount of travel we're doing. In fact, I didn't think I'd make it through Nepal posting on a daily basis, so I'm impressed with that. But yesterday I didn't think about posting in the morning before we got on the road again, and then didn't bring my computer with, expecting there wouldn't be internet access. (I was pleased, when Gwen woke up at 3:15am and we spent an hour wandering the hotel, to be proven wrong, allowing me to get caught up with some email and blogs on my phone. But I digress).
Yesterday we heading out mid morning to have lunch in Madison and do some shopping. We went to Himal Chuli -- so pleased that it's still there, though Shakti, next door is going out of business! -- because I didn't really get my fix of Nepali food while in Nepal, given that we had mostly Japanese food at our Japanese hotel. That, and I wanted to have the opportunity to tell the owners there that I had just the previous day be in Kathmandu. :) We then headed across the street and spent some time at Ragstock, since Joel really needed to be better outfitted for the wedding than he was. We found two vests for him; one that is spiffy and fits, and one that had six buttons that I could cut off to replace the ones on the other, since they were so old and brittle they were breaking. We then stopped by Pegasus Games to pick up the wedding gift, and were on our way.
Because the whole point of coming back to the States now, rather than for Christmas, and the whole point of doing Kathmandu -> Istanbul -> Chicago -> WI in one day was so that we could go to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
leleth_faery and Aaron's wedding. When we moved over here, I had a mental list of non-repeating things (i.e., not regular holidays) that I would make a priority of getting back to the US for, and one of them was her wedding if she ever got married, and I am so, so pleased we were able to. We got in to the hotel about an hour before the ceremony, and she was in the lobby getting some pictures taken just as we arrived, and I'll admit, we spoiled the photograph as she saw us just then and there was a flurry of hugs. The wedding itself was short and sweet, consisting of exactly everything that a wedding should be, and nothing unnecessary. Gwen climbed from my lap to the chair and back and forth throughout it all, and then at the end began asking for a nap. There was about an hour and a half before supper was scheduled, so we both went up to our room and lay down. Unfortunately, when Joel came to get us, she was absolutely flat out; even with the lights on and me sitting next to her saying "Gwennie, food", didn't cause a stir. We eventually woke her up and got her downstairs, where she picked at my salad and had some of my role, and then asked to go back to bed, so we decided not to push it any further. She was out within about 5 minutes of me returning her to the bed.
We were sitting at the same table asbelmikey and pixel39, which was really, really nice -- whenever I've seen them lately, we haven't really been in a position to sit and chat, but here once the ceremony was done, belmikey was off the hook, and we didn't have anything to do but chat. It was also neat, if a bit strange, to see my two college roommates, and a few other people who were part of my circle of friends back then but whom I haven't really talked to in nearly a decade.
I ended up crashing about 9:15pm, which is probably good since, as noted, Gwen was up at around 3:15. We wandered the halls for about an hour and then she asked to go back to bed, and after a bit of fussy and bed swapping, she fell asleep between us until nearly 7:00, hurrah. Joel then got up and entertained her for awhile while I slept a bit more, and then when we got ready to head downstairs for breakfast, we met up withleleth_faery in the lobby and got to do what you don't often get to do at a wedding -- actually sit and talk with the bride. I'm so glad that we were able to have some time to hang out, that she got to see Gwen at her bright and happy charmingest cheerfullest, that we got some pictures of all of us together. It was so totally worth all the travel to be back for that day -- as she was walking down the aisle, Joel leaned over to me and say "She looks really happy", and yeah, I'm not sure I've ever seen a bigger, brighter smile. It was one of those things that was a long time coming, but all the more wonderful when it finally did, and I'm so glad were there.
After we had breakfast we headed back to Mom and Dad's, since the plan for this afternoon was to have Thanksgiving dinner with them, Grandpa Friedemann, and Grandma & Grandpa Kelbe. I haven't had a proper American Thanksgiving (turkey, ham, AND duck, plus all the fixings, two types of cranberry salad, three types of pie, AND fruitcake. Even Gwennie eventually stopped saying "mehr food") in nearly a decade. It was everything I would've wanted -- well, it would've been nice if Andrea and Matt and kids could've come down as they had hoped they might, but Krassi's been home only a month and that would've been just too much of a trip, I don't really blame them.
Gwen napped on the ride back to North Lake, and then around 2:30 was asking to nap again, but unfortunately we couldn't get her to lie down quietly long enough to fall asleep. Eventually, we kept her up and then gave her a bath and put her to bed about half an hour ago. Unfortunately, this means she'll probably be up around 3:30-4:00 again tomorrow morning, ugh. I've got a feeling I'm not going to last much longer, though, and will probably go to sleep early tonight.
But we've got three days of hanging around doing not much to relax, sleep, and try some more to get her onto a better schedule, before we head over the Iowa.
Yesterday we heading out mid morning to have lunch in Madison and do some shopping. We went to Himal Chuli -- so pleased that it's still there, though Shakti, next door is going out of business! -- because I didn't really get my fix of Nepali food while in Nepal, given that we had mostly Japanese food at our Japanese hotel. That, and I wanted to have the opportunity to tell the owners there that I had just the previous day be in Kathmandu. :) We then headed across the street and spent some time at Ragstock, since Joel really needed to be better outfitted for the wedding than he was. We found two vests for him; one that is spiffy and fits, and one that had six buttons that I could cut off to replace the ones on the other, since they were so old and brittle they were breaking. We then stopped by Pegasus Games to pick up the wedding gift, and were on our way.
Because the whole point of coming back to the States now, rather than for Christmas, and the whole point of doing Kathmandu -> Istanbul -> Chicago -> WI in one day was so that we could go to
leleth_faery and Aaron's wedding. When we moved over here, I had a mental list of non-repeating things (i.e., not regular holidays) that I would make a priority of getting back to the US for, and one of them was her wedding if she ever got married, and I am so, so pleased we were able to. We got in to the hotel about an hour before the ceremony, and she was in the lobby getting some pictures taken just as we arrived, and I'll admit, we spoiled the photograph as she saw us just then and there was a flurry of hugs. The wedding itself was short and sweet, consisting of exactly everything that a wedding should be, and nothing unnecessary. Gwen climbed from my lap to the chair and back and forth throughout it all, and then at the end began asking for a nap. There was about an hour and a half before supper was scheduled, so we both went up to our room and lay down. Unfortunately, when Joel came to get us, she was absolutely flat out; even with the lights on and me sitting next to her saying "Gwennie, food", didn't cause a stir. We eventually woke her up and got her downstairs, where she picked at my salad and had some of my role, and then asked to go back to bed, so we decided not to push it any further. She was out within about 5 minutes of me returning her to the bed.We were sitting at the same table as
belmikey and pixel39, which was really, really nice -- whenever I've seen them lately, we haven't really been in a position to sit and chat, but here once the ceremony was done, belmikey was off the hook, and we didn't have anything to do but chat. It was also neat, if a bit strange, to see my two college roommates, and a few other people who were part of my circle of friends back then but whom I haven't really talked to in nearly a decade.I ended up crashing about 9:15pm, which is probably good since, as noted, Gwen was up at around 3:15. We wandered the halls for about an hour and then she asked to go back to bed, and after a bit of fussy and bed swapping, she fell asleep between us until nearly 7:00, hurrah. Joel then got up and entertained her for awhile while I slept a bit more, and then when we got ready to head downstairs for breakfast, we met up with
leleth_faery in the lobby and got to do what you don't often get to do at a wedding -- actually sit and talk with the bride. I'm so glad that we were able to have some time to hang out, that she got to see Gwen at her bright and happy charmingest cheerfullest, that we got some pictures of all of us together. It was so totally worth all the travel to be back for that day -- as she was walking down the aisle, Joel leaned over to me and say "She looks really happy", and yeah, I'm not sure I've ever seen a bigger, brighter smile. It was one of those things that was a long time coming, but all the more wonderful when it finally did, and I'm so glad were there.After we had breakfast we headed back to Mom and Dad's, since the plan for this afternoon was to have Thanksgiving dinner with them, Grandpa Friedemann, and Grandma & Grandpa Kelbe. I haven't had a proper American Thanksgiving (turkey, ham, AND duck, plus all the fixings, two types of cranberry salad, three types of pie, AND fruitcake. Even Gwennie eventually stopped saying "mehr food") in nearly a decade. It was everything I would've wanted -- well, it would've been nice if Andrea and Matt and kids could've come down as they had hoped they might, but Krassi's been home only a month and that would've been just too much of a trip, I don't really blame them.
Gwen napped on the ride back to North Lake, and then around 2:30 was asking to nap again, but unfortunately we couldn't get her to lie down quietly long enough to fall asleep. Eventually, we kept her up and then gave her a bath and put her to bed about half an hour ago. Unfortunately, this means she'll probably be up around 3:30-4:00 again tomorrow morning, ugh. I've got a feeling I'm not going to last much longer, though, and will probably go to sleep early tonight.
But we've got three days of hanging around doing not much to relax, sleep, and try some more to get her onto a better schedule, before we head over the Iowa.
