June has been a horrible start to summer...is there a weather theme in my posts here??? We've had nonstop rain. Even with it being 65 - 70 degrees, constant rain sucks. I don't feel like I left SF with this weather. I had been saying when I moved here that I could deal with a cold winter if I could get a real summer. I've held up my end of the bargain during winter - not sure what God is thinking in terms of summer.
My trip to Milwaukee was very nice. You really can't go wrong when your aunt makes everything you want to eat at your request. The first morning I woke up and came down, my cousin Usha asked me if I wanted cereal etc for breakfast. I had seen my aunt cooking, so I figured she was making an Indian breakfast. So I responded "no, I'll wait for the regular breakfast". Turns out my aunt wasn't making breakfast (she had gotten an early start on lunch preparations), and cereal was our meal. I felt silly. Usha didn't let me live it down either. (I think she was jealous that I got so much food attention over the weekend!) It was really nice to reconnect with family...I hadn't seen Usha in 10 years and my aunt and uncle in like 15 years. Crazy...but it was like old times...in some ways. Back in the day, when I was a kid and would be in India, Usha treated me like crap. Seriously. I remember one time we didn't have running hot water in the village where my family was doing some celebration, so we had to boil it. And she made sure I was always the last one to get to use the water because I was the youngest girl. And she was the oldest. She wasn't very nice. As I reminded her of this during the trip, she said something to the effect of yeah...you were of the lowly class. Seriously...that was her response ;) Wonder how it felt for her now to be denied her food requests all weekend in favor of "the lowly class". At least I don't snore like her now! Yea yea, I said it. Anyways, it's nice that she and I have a very similar sense of humor now.
Usha works at SC Johnson whose office buildings were all designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I thought of my sister and Wendy a lot as we walked around the buildings. What a marvel. I got some pics you can see below.
Couple of days after I got back, we got our new kitty!!! Roxie is now home with us...and she's still alive. You can imagine that I watched her like a hawk the first few days for signs she was going to die. I realize she is going to die someday, but I am just not prepared for the trauma of Cookie again. Actually I still watch her like a hawk. If she seems to sleep too much, I touch her belly to measure her heartrate and breathing. If she doesn't eat enough, I check her appetite by seeing if she'll eat cat treats. If I can't find her, I run around the house making sure she didn't get out somehow. Hasan says I'm going to be a nut when we have kids someday. Maybe - but at least we'll have gotten some practice on how to raise a creature together. We're doing well working together on training her. We could do a lot better on the nail trimming issue. Poor thing, I think we traumatized her the other evening as we clipped her nails. She's such a sweetie - she loves to kiss by putting her nose near your nose or lips. She has just discovered a couple of windowsills she can get to and can't stop watching the birds. (I'm secretly trying to train her to kill birds as Hasan wants to get one someday.) She's probably doing very cat-like things, but to me she is amazing and very very cute. Today she is 14 weeks old.
What else...Oh Oh Oh!! I got my braces off! What a wonderful week it has been. I've been eating everything bready and crunchy I can find. I've still got to wear Invisalign during the days and retainers at night, but what freedom. Everybody at work keeps telling me what a big and bright smile I have. I can't stop smiling - but I'm kind of a big smiler anyways...when I'm not frowning.
Even with the rain, we're enjoying ourselves. My friend Deadra and her daughter and daughter's friend were just visiting for the past week from Bermuda. They left yesterday which ends this period of traveling and houseguests for us. Time to get back into a routine, with work, exercise, swimming lessons we're taking together, and our new family addition (I mean Roxie, not a baby, people). We spent yesterday transitioning - cleaning up our house, then sitting down for a day of movies (all the old Star Wars), popcorn, Subway sandwiches, ice cream and candy, and lime-flavored drinks. And our cat.
Happy birthday Akka and Tanuja!
