These eyes that miss the sight of you. That can’t wait to open in the morning and see you there.
Photo blog
July 2, 2009 at 8:14 am (Home, Just for fun, Photos, jpegge.com)
How do you like my little friend, Niles? He lives in my back yard and keeps me company every time I turn on the hose to water my garden.
Clearly, I have a hard time with the writing. So I’m giving myself a break and I think I’ll try switching to Photo Blog mode. Now that my NEW and AWESOME camera has shipped, I’m guessing the quality of my photos is going to improve every time I take it out, so why not document that a bit here?
If you didn’t notice it at first, see the little bit of text on the bottom right of the picture? That is my new business. I have goals, and wishes, and a whole life I need to live, and working 50 hours a week is not helping me get there. Do me a favor and go check it out, and if you like it tell your friends.
Turning 40 in the UK
June 27, 2009 at 7:42 am (Seeing the world, international relationship, life is short, quantum leaps)
Better late than never?
I tried to embed them right into this blog post, but it didn’t work so let me know if the clicky linky thing doesn’t work either.
In the mean time, I’ll be over here remembering every minute of this trip with a smile and looking forward to the next one very soon.
Arraial do Cabo
May 11, 2009 at 11:07 am (Brazil, Seeing the world, quantum leaps)
The original intention was to see Buzios again, but instead the plan was switched to head over to Arraial do Cabo and I’m so glad. I wasn’t sure what to expect, I only knew there would be at least one beach.
And what a beach it was. When we came around the bend and saw this cove with its crystal blue/green water we all smiled. The only trick was finding our way down there. With dividers in the road that didn’t allow a left turn, we had to keep driving and ended up in the middle of the village on the other side of that hill. A tiny, twisty little village full of crowds, shops, docks, dogs, traffic and chaos.
We did manage to find a good dive shop where we picked up a mask and snorkel. After twisting and turning and dodging all imaginable kinds of road traffice we found ourselves on this beach, with the softest sand I think I’ve ever experienced.
We swam, we lounged, we ate shrimp and drank Caipirinhas. We snorkeled, we played football in the water, we found the coolest fish with bright blue spots. We people-watched, we played and we relaxed and enjoyed each other for hours.
When we’d had our fill of sun and sand, we headed over to Buzios to find a late lunch. This is where the GPS tried to kill us.
It seems the most direct route from Arraial do Cabo to Buzios is down through a part of the area that is a little scary. We went from 4 lane boulevard to 2 lane partially paved road, to narrow 2 lane dirt road and then finally a 1 lane, very narrow, very bad dirt alleyway with local residents who looked at us like we were either crazy, or…well, just crazy. We all looked at each other and said, “Hell no”. Back to the main road and the long way around was just fine with us thank you. We’re pretty sure it’s a bad idea to take the kids through short-cuts into areas where you can just disappear without a trace.
That was fun.
Back in Buzios we made our way down to Geriba beach.
We loved this beach last time, even though it was the most crowded, and wanted to show my Mom and the kids. It was just as beautiful this time, and a very good spot to take a much needed break after all the swimming and sun.
Teenage boys most definitely need food for refeuling after a long swim.
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the beach while the Boy swam again, playing in the waves. We made our way back to the car through the nearby neighborhood which was really pretty, and very peaceful. We were all tired, but the good kind of tired you get after a long, enjoyable day.
Back home in the apartment, as we were getting ready for bed, I found this in my hair:
I wonder how long he was there?
Quiet yet full days
April 25, 2009 at 11:59 am (Brazil, Kids, Seeing the world, life is short, quantum leaps)
We left Rio de Janeiro late in the morning on Sunday to start the 3+ hour drive that takes us about 100 miles east to get home. The GPS really proved its worth by getting us out of Rio and over the Niteroi bridge in record time. It’s easy to miss turns, exits and roads since there is no main highway and I don’t think any single road goes in a straight line. Traffic runs fast, with just inches (literally!) between cars, buses, bikes, motorcycles and pedestrians. Fairly large roads dump you on to tiny crooked roads that seem to double back to where you came from, and you really can’t just look at the part of town where you need to be and head towards it.
The only thing better than our British accented GPS telling us where to turn would have been a New York City accented GPS ripping into us every time we took a wrong turn or missed an exit.
Once on the bridge it was smooth sailing all the way out. At least the Brazilian equivalent of smooth, which means we didn’t crash into any other cars, people, animals or road construction workers. The road itself? Not smooth. Not even close.
The scenery quickly changes from the favelas of Niteroi to the fields of the coast road where the vacas and goats graze as you drive by. Mom had her camera going like mad but mostly ended up with shots of the inside of the car and some blurry buildings whizzing by. She was fascinated with the image of the square, unfinished cinderblock houses with their grubby water tanks on the roof, right next to the satellite TV dish.
Our stay in Rio das Ostras (River of Oysters) was going to be much more domestic and relaxed than our one-and-two-halfs days in Rio de Janeiro (River of January). We had 3 days to stroll the town, swim the beach, try the food, shop the shops and speak the language. Since B was at work those first three days, we were on our own with all of it. I was a little nervous about the language thing, since I am getting much better at reading and writing Portuguese, but not very good at understanding it when I hear it. That is my own fault since I haven’t made a big effort to get out to the Brazilian meet-ups in Houston to practice.
So, we suited up and headed out each day. One day it was the beach where we had the most beautiful pre-storm clouds and a really nice swim. Another day it was walking the main street to take a peek at at every day life, and maybe find some souvenirs for my Mom’s friends back home.
Another day hanging out at home watching movies with subtitles and strolling the neighborhood to take pictures. Mostly just soaking up the feel of another country, and enjoying ourselves.
Even things so simple as a meal became an adventure when we really had no idea what kind of food we were ordering sometimes.
We all agree, the food was great!
Not to say we didn’t have a hard time with some of it. Rio das Ostras is much, much safer than Rio de Janeiro, but still too dangerous to let the kids roam around by themselves, even if there hadn’t been the added obstacle of the language for them. Have you ever spent 9 days in close quarters with teenagers who can’t leave your side? Um… It was hard sometimes, on all of us. By the end of the trip The Boy and I were having some serious issues, but we got quite a lot of them sorted out and settled in the airport waiting for our flight home.
I’d still do it again, in a heartbeat. Even with the stress of consentrated family time, I’m still so glad they came. They saw so much, opened their eyes to so much more than they knew, had some amazing experiences that are just not possible here, and now have the memories for a lifetime.
Maybe that’s part of it
April 18, 2009 at 8:28 am (Uncategorized)
“…once you live in multiple places, you cease to truly fit in in any of them. This is so true. Once you leave your comfort zone, you are changed forever and never can quite recapture that blissful feeling of being accepted, of self-identifying wholly with a particular group or place. You don’t even have to travel internationally for this to happen. I imagine that someone who lives across town in a community radically different from their own goes through similar changes.” Ali La Loca
Day two, out and about in Rio de Janeiro
April 15, 2009 at 10:10 am (Brazil, Just for fun, Kids, Seeing the world, life is short)
Nothing like a tropical breakfast buffet, complete with Brazilian coffee to lure you out of bed on a Saturday morning. With a hired driver waiting for us, I finished my tasty fruit and a second cup of coffee before we left the hotel for the day. And what a day it was for all of us. This was our one big tourist day, to see the most famous sights in Rio before heading up the coast for more domestic and rural activities.
Secure the cameras and comfortable walking shoes, here we go.
First we headed up to Christo Redentor. Last time I was here we were on the crazy bus and came in from who knows where. This time we had a car and driver who took us directly to the bottom of the mountain. It was fun for me to see the kids and my Mom with their heads on a swivel, trying to take in the city as we drove through the tunnel, near the favelas, and past the nicer part of town.
The train that took us up the mountain has its tiny station between a city park and an apartment building. I’m glad we took the train this time, which goes slowly up the mountain on a really steep incline. My Mom loved riding through the forest and couldn’t believe the size of the tropical plants. Plants that, at home, struggle to survive as 18″ tall house plants but here are twice as tall as the train itself.
Because of the low clouds, we thought we might not have a view of Rio from the statue, but by the time we made it to the top and took all the obligatory pictures the sun was coming out to play with us. It ended up being a beautiful day to spend on the two highest points in the city. Christo Redentor was an impressive sight again, just like the first time for me. The Boy has wanted to see this statue for as long as he can remember, and I’m so glad I was there with him when he got there. My Mom’s face was the best thing for me. She waited a very long time to take her first international, and intercontinental trip. Being up on that mountain and seeing the statue up close made her bucket list just a little shorter. It made all our bucket lists a little shorter.
As we sat in the shade of an umbrella on the cafe patio just below the statue, we heard a noise coming closer. Corcovado mountain has a long, shear drop on 3 sides, and up from one of those sides came a very fast rising helicopter, with a few very lucky tourists inside. The Boy was hooked instantly and spent the next 4 hours alternately pestering and moping because Dang! A helicopter! That would be SO COOL! Once it made a loop around the statue, the pilot did the most amazing nose dive nearly straight down the south wall of the mountain towards the lagoa! I’m pretty sure he had no old people on that ride. Yikes. I hope they tipped him extra, that took some skill to pull off.
While riding the train back down (backwards!) we sat next to a man from the UK who has our dream job. He travels the world, all expenses paid, as a tour guide. He goes all over, pays for nothing, and makes a small salary to boot. Sign us up! Seriously, when can we start?
My Girl was excited to see a Rio de Janeiro Hard Rock Cafe T-shirt in the gift shop when we got off the train. I helped her buy it, with me breaking in my slightly improved Portuguese, and her using her very strange Brazilian money for the first time, she is now the proud owner of a new favorite shirt, complete with cool memories attached.
Our driver took us straight to the bay, where we boarded a tram to get to the top of Pão de Açúcar. Once the Boy saw how tall it was, and how tiny the cables looked from way down below, he got a little nervous. Once he was inside the tram, and up to the first stop, he was fine. Especially when he realized that Urca Mountain, the half way point, is also home to the helicopter pad for the tourist rides. Cue begging and pleading, and moping when he didn’t get to ride one this time. Poor kid, he’s so deprived. He’ll just have to wait until next time. He did cheer up though, when he caught a glimpse of both monkeys, and rock climbers. The rock climbers looked like ants stuck to the side of the sheer rock and he was suitably impressed. The Girl took it all in stride, and seems to quietly absorb everything going on around her. She held my hand and smiled at me several hundred times that day. It was a good day, I can’t argue with that.
Time for the second tram to the top of a really big rock. We’re going where? On what?
We survived the trip, and quickly celebrated with lunch at the mountain top cafe. The kids came 5500 miles for a cheeseburger. A gross cheeseburger, which may or may not have contained any actual burger. Oh, well, they were happy.
He decided it wasn’t enough food for him, so I sent him off to buy another snack. Fear of ordering his own food with strange money in a strange language by himself was overridden by his need for Doritos.
With bellies full, we set off down the trails we didn’t know about last time, looking for more monkeys. We took our time, and explored the whole maze of trails below the gift shop and were just about to give up when we finally saw them. 3 or 4 little marmosets, chewing the bark off the trees. I don’t know what it is about seeing monkeys in the wild, but so cool!
The rest of the afternoon, after a very welcome nap in the hotel, was spent walking around the beachfront of Copacabana. We quickly realized that if you would like to sit in peace and watch the teeny bikinis and speedos go by, don’t sit at the tables on the beach side of the street. Every 2 minutes we had street performers, pan handlers, and people selling everything you can imagine come up to our table and stay until you just want to pay them to go away. The other side of the street is much more peaceful, but we still had fun. The boy was particularly impressed with the Tambourine Man.
We were back in the hotel just past sunset, before full dark, the Boy practically herding us like an Australian Shepherd. He really didn’t want to be out there past dark, and honestly, I agreed with him.
As always, more photos here.
Taking teens and their Grandma half way around the world
April 10, 2009 at 10:20 am (Brazil, Kids, Seeing the world, international relationship, life is short, quantum leaps)
What a hectic two days. More realistically, what an insanely hectic week or two. Between buying everything I needed to bring, packing for 3 people, plus gifts, arranging rides to and from the airport, checking and double checking paperwork, passports, tickets and lists, worrying about forgetting something, the overwhelming impatience and excitement of seeing him again, and oh yeah, that 50 hour a week job, I got a little worked up.
The day we left, somebody should have slapped me for scheduling such a day.
5am, pick up Mom at the Houston airport, take her home and threaten to eat the kids if they don’t let her sleep. 6:30 go to work and prepare everything for my absence. Every 20 minutes, tap feet and stare at clock, then panic because I have way too much to do and can. not. leave. late. 4pm, shut down and tear out of there at a half run. Don’t make eye contact or answer questions in case someone asks me to do something else.
4:30 start re-organizing suitcases (again) adding in the 265lbs of stuff my mom brought with her in two suitcases that needs to be consolidated into one. 5pm somehow wedge two full-sized teenagers, two full sized women, 3 big suitcases and 4 carry-ons into a pint sized Jeep Wrangler. That right there was funny. We must have looked like a circus clown car when we all poured out of it later. 5:15pm start driving and stop in the middle of the road because I’m convinced we forgot something.
Hmm. Nope, can’t think of anything. Keep driving.
6pm, park and get a shuttle to the airport and start getting really nervous because holycowIcan’tbelieveitsfinallyhere!
6:30 spend a half hour getting all checked in, passports swiped, visas verified, luggage checked, shoes bomb-sniffed, and finally waved through.
7pm dinner, and start hearing endless rounds of “what time is it?” from the Boy. 8:30 board the plane and finally, finally breathe. We’re here, on the plane, on the way, and finally off the ground.
Did I mention that I put the boy 8 rows in front of us? On purpose? He is a really good traveler, but he does. not. stop. talking. or moving. He was happy anyway because he had a window seat with an empty seat next to him.
I slept about half the flight. My girl told me in the morning that as we were flying over a small city in Mexico, she looked out the window and could see the lights of the little town in the distance, and the sky absolutely full of stars above it. Beautiful.
The last 3 hours of the 12 hour flight are the worst. I’m so impatient, and now rested and antsy from sleeping in my seat all night. By the time we finally flew out of Sao Paulo I was chattering and excited and annoying the hell out of my sleepy daughter. She had stayed up most of the night and was now out cold. I kept trying to wake her up to see our approach into Rio and she was having none of it. I think that was as close as she has ever come to actually giving me a dirty look.
Rio is much cleaner this time. It has rained lately and scrubbed the smog out a bit. I could see the now familiar sights while I get my bearings. Maracana, Pao d’Acucar, Copacabana, the Lagoa, the favelas, the bay. Somehow I missed the Christo statue this time. Still, with every sight my smile got bigger. This time it felt like coming home, and all I could think of was “he’s there, right there, right now”.
Immigration, luggage, and customs was smooth. I think my Mom and the kids were nervous about this part, but we had no problem and I was already starting to switch into Portuguese mode. Once we got our bags and were waved through the bag search area I handed my suitcase to the Boy, and my backpack to the girl. I had better use for my arms waiting just around the corner from me.
And there he was.
I ran.
The rest of the afternoon is a blur. Packing ourselves and our luggage into the car, setting up the GPS, driving through the city and the tunnel, around the lagoa, throught the back streets of Copacabana. Playing bumper cars and chicken with the busses, old men in speedos, barefoot dirty kids, the hotel, the beach. All of that was overwhelming for my Mom and the kids, but background noise for me. I was just happy.
We got settled in the hotel and rested for a couple of hours before walking down the beach on the famous sidewalks. My Mom telling us over and over how she was pinching herself because she coudn’t believe she was actually there. The kids starting to realize nobody here, really nobody, is speaking English. On the way back we walked near the waves and let the Boy jump in. He battled the waves for an hour or so, working out all the wiggles and kinks from the flight. It was a cool moment for me to see him there, swimming in the same Atlantic he swam in New Jersey but 6000 miles south.
I was loving it. My kids with me, eyes opening to a new world. My Mom with me, so incredibly excited. My heart right next to me, holding my hand.
Dinner of picanha with farofa, calamari, and pizza with mustard made us all very happy and a little sleepy. When we got back to the hotel just at dusk, we were done. We had safely spent our first day in Brazil. It was a good feeling to get in the room and relax, after spending the day on high emotion and high alert. I knew we were not in the safest part of the world, but with our eyes open and some passable Portuguese we were just fine.
Unfortunately, I got a reminder a few minutes later of just how dangerous it was there, and how close we could be to real trouble. While down in the lobby checking on internet service just after dark, an american guest in his 20’s came in yelling about an emergency, and police, and they couldn’t find their girlfriends. He and a buddy and their two girls had been walking on the beach after dark (a very stupid idea) and were robbed. They told the girls to run, then they were attacked with a knife and their wallets and ID were taken. He had pretty serious cuts all over his right hand, with blood everywhere, and a deep scratch on his back. He and his friend were panicked because the girls had not come back to the hotel yet.
I saw them all the next morning, and everyone was safe and fine other than his bandaged hand. The ID and credit cards can be replaced with a bit of hassle, but they were OK.
You can bet my eyes were wide open after that.
I’m a tease
April 7, 2009 at 9:32 am (Brazil, Seeing the world)
Or so I hear.
I’m getting my photos ready to post, but that will have to wait for a spare evening of which I have none. In the mean time, here’s just a small taste of Brazil, taken on top of Urca Mountain, the half way point on the tram to Sugarloaf Mountain in the bay of Rio de Janeiro.
On showing up
March 9, 2009 at 9:54 am (Kids)
These kids have been through so much, and impressed me every time. They’ve been dragged around from state to state, house to house with their two parents who always seemed to have one big issue or another for the past 6 years. I feel like now is the time to make this about them. To do the work and stay focused on what they need. Maybe its guilt because I feel like I’ve let them down for the last 3 years or so, when I was barely keeping my own head above water for so long, just trying to get through the day and knowing I had to force a change that would tear us apart or make us stronger. Turns out it did both. Maybe its panic because they are teens already. They’re so close to breaking away and starting their own lives, and I feel like I haven’t done my job to prepare them for that. Now, finally, that the divorce is finished and we’re all settled in our houses and there is no crisis that takes my attention away from them and we’ve had time to let the smoke clear, now I need to be here for them.
After going through the worst of that, and knowing how close I came to losing them, I’m so aware of how lucky I am that they still want me to be here for them. That they still love their mom, and aren’t the least bit hesitant to tell me so, each in their different ways.
So I’m here.
