--1--
Last week, we traveled to Boston for the wedding of my husband's youngest brother. It was a short flight (thankfully) and relatively uneventful, but the rental car place (Hertz) was something else. Lines out the door, people waiting for hours to get a car--a total nightmare. I've never seen anything like it. We were on a tight time frame as my husband was scheduled to give a lecture at 12:30 and our flight arrived at 10:45, so the situation was less than ideal. It turns out that having three squirrelly kids, two of whom have major diaper disasters in the waiting room puts you right to the front of the line! We did have to wait almost an hour, but there were people who came in ahead of us still waiting when we left.
--2--
Our hotel and room left a lot to be desired as well. The front desk person was completely incompetent, and it took a manager to get someone working on our (reserved) room. We still had to wait almost two hours to get into our room, though, and we hadn't had anything to eat since our very early breakfast that morning. Oh, and I was by myself with three completely manic children in a hotel lobby with lots and lots of breakables. Fab-O. And then the room was damp. The carpet was soaking wet in front of the bathroom area and damp throughout the rest of the room. We had reserved two pack-n-plays for the younger kids, and were told they only had one available, leaving us no where to put Boo to sleep. Again, complete and utter indifference and incompetence from the staff. I started having a bit of a freak-out at this point, as none of the kids had napped, and I was stuck in the hotel room by myself with the kids for hours and hours, and somehow Birdie's bottle had stayed in the car with my husband. And she won't yet take a sippie cup. By the time Stephanos came back to the hotel, I had been force-feeding her formula from a cup with a medicine syringe while we all watched Paula Deen on the Food Network. It wasn't a pretty sight. Stephanos took one look at me and the kids and went to the manager to demand some attention. The manager told us we could get another pack-n-play from one of their sister hotels (but we would have to pick it up and drop it back off again), and that we could move to another room the next day.
--3--
After all that got sorted, I was much calmer and the trip improved a ton from there. We spent Friday morning at liturgy at a church we like very much and spent some time talking with the priest and his son about the school that they run there. We spent the afternoon tooling around Boston Common before heading back to the hotel as Stephanos had to attend the wedding rehearsal dinner that evening (it was too late to bring the kids, so I stayed at the hotel with them).
--4--
The day of the wedding dawned rainy and unpleasant, but it soon perked up and turned out to be a gorgeous day. I missed most of the ceremony because Birdie was being an absolute pain (she got roseola AGAIN right before we left, so was just a barrel of laughs the whole trip), but the reception was fun. There was Greek dancing and a few plates got smashed. Good times.
--5--
The boys were adorable in matching suits, and I even convinced Stephanos to wear a purple tie to match me and Birdie.
--6--
On a completely unrelated note, I started writing again this week! I've had this story idea rolling around in my head for a while now, and decided it was time to pull out the old Book in a Month text again and get things rolling. After working through some of the preliminary exercises and writing a scene or two, I'm not certain I want to live with this story for a long time, and I'm considering doing some writing exercises while I consider my next move. I have this idea of writing a novel that is spare but powerful like Steve McQueen's films.* He has a way of intimately examining the human condition, and what human beings are capable of doing to themselves and others that is so powerful, but he makes the audience work for it, and I like that. I don't want to be spoon-fed everything in a film or a book. Needless to say, such a project isn't just going to fall out of the sky, so I'm doing a lot of reflection and character sketches, trying to figure out what what direction to take. I'm particularly interested in the burden of memory and the possibility for redemption as a result of Jenna Blum's excellent novel, so I need to do some more thinking in that direction.
*I'm not recommending anyone to see these films--they are not for the faint of heart, and I had to look away for a fair share of at least one of them because of the explicit content. I had a mighty struggle about whether to see them in the first place, given the gritty nature of the subjects, as I try to be careful about what I see and read. Having seen them, I can't stop thinking about the themes and the powerful performances, as well as the many questions about the quality of human existence and the possibility of redemption, but they are not for everyone.
--7--
All righty, that's it! Go see Jen for more Quick Takes!
Hi Juliana! Just popped into your blog (in between student appointments) to see how you're doing. So great about your trip to Salzburg and Stephanos's brother's wedding! Can't believe "Birdie" is one!! Love, Lori.
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