::alio!::

alone again - naturally

Wow. Welcome back.

I haven't been this exhausted since my dad and I spent two weeks hiking up and down mountains in Japan and then another two weeks recovering from the 14 hour jet lag.

Christmas was . . . hectic, I suppose, is the best word. It was tremendous fun, but I wouldn't call it relaxing in the least.

The flight to Ottawa was surprisingly uneventful. Almost no turbulence, no delays, nothing. They did, however, lose one of our suitcases, the one containing most of the presents, my socks, and Andy's underwear (note to self: pack underwear in several suitcases and in carry-on). They said they would deliver the same when they received it and we got notice the next day that they were going to deliver it between 6 and 10 that night. At 10, having heard no word, we went to Stefan's. At midnight, the most retarded person I have ever spoken to in my life called, trying to find the house so he could deliver the suitcase (two hours late). He could not for the life of himself understand the simple directions I was giving him - he didn't even know where he was or what direction he was facing or where he'd come from. Turns out he was actually parked directly in front of my house. Where he then delivered the WRONG suitcase. We lost a little red one. We were given a large orange one. Go figure.

The next day we returned the suitcase in person to the airport, not trusting any more deliveries, and it turns out our suitcase was just sitting there on a shelf in a back room, and Andy just happened to see it when he was bringing back the one that didn't belong to us.

So that was interesting.

We did manage to accomplish quite a bit in the first few days, despite our lack of underwear and socks. I had my first dress fitting for my lovely dress, which was even prettier than I remember it being. I first tried on a ten, and so we ordered a twelve to accommodate my boobs and butt, and now it's too big, which is gratifying. God bless St. John's hills! The dressmaker is just going to pin it for now, not do any cutting, so that when I come back two weeks before the wedding she won't have to make any serious changes if I've seriously changed (which of course I intend to do). Fortunately there's almost nothing to the dress, so she's only altered the hem, the band at the ribs, and the clasp at the neck. Gotta love destination dresses!

We also made a visit to the corgi breeder and met with several very happy corgis. Andy fell in love with one of the little girls who was pregnant, and so if she has another litter after this one, we want one of hers. If not, we will be expecting a baby corgi for next Christmas. We're both tremendously excited. Especially Andy, now that it's really happening, it's become very real to him. He's watching The Dog Whisperer every day, and we've purchased Cesar's Way. I also got him a book on Pems for Christmas. Our parents and siblings have become resigned to the fact, now that we're officially on the waiting list.

What else did we do . . .?

Ran around like crazy. Tried unsuccessfully twice to fix my grandmother's TV. You know it was serious when Andy couldn't do it. Visited with all the grandmothers. Went to IKEA. Bought video games. Partied like it was 1999. Got food poisoning from bad shawarma at Shawarma King on Bank Street. Vomited in Travis' front garden. Celebrated Newfie New Year an hour and a half before Ottawa New Year. Ran around some more. Slept a little.

FROZE TO FUCKING DEATH OH MY GOD OTTAWA IS SO COLD IN COMPARISON TO ST. JOHN'S.

We made it out of St. John's just before a huge storm that closed the majority of the Atlantic provincial airports. Made it back into St. John's just before another huge storm that knocked down our wooden lattice on the front porch. All our flights were late leaving and landing but we didn't miss any. No one lost our suitcases. Nothing broke.

It's weird to be home again. Weird because Ottawa is also home. But being in Ottawa was weird, too, because we were staying with my parents but all traces of me were gone. We stayed in my brother's old room, not even my old room. We missed our cozy apartment. But now that we're back it's like we don't live here either. Everything is familiar and strange at the same time. It's a bit of an adjustment. Once we have everything packed away and we buy some food for our fridge I'm sure it will be home again. Right now it's just kind of a disaster zone - clean laundry in baskets, dirty laundry in baskets, wrappings everywhere, empty suitcases in the bedroom and hall, detritus of meals we were too exhausted to clean up upon our return . . . We spent yesterday in our pyjamas in front of the TV, so not much got done.

We were just so happy to actually be ALONE again. We had maybe one hour completely to ourselves, on New Year's Day. Aside from that we were in visit/family/hang out mode for every other second. When you're used to just you and your spouse it's quite a shock.

Now I'm back at work digging through a pile of books and correspondence and invoices on my desk. Only 300 emails in my inbox, which was less than I was expecting. I should have everything squared away and back to normal by the end of today.