artykins

Well, I know it must of seemed like I dropped off the face of the planet, but as much as it might displease DJ, I didn't. Oh yes, dear readers. My long period of silence was caused by a British invasion. No, they didn't show up in California with red coats, bayonets and the intention to reclaim a colony. Besides, California was never a colony. At least to the Brits. It once belonged to Mexico, but that's another story, another day and another blog, really.

No! The British invasion began a week ago Monday with the arrival of Matt's parents. Let me give you a slight run-down of what my week was like.

A week ago...

Saturday: Matt's sister, Nadine, and nephew, Zach, were scheduled to fly in, but Nadine had been one of the people that told the airline if she and Zach needed to be bumped, they could be. So they were there at Heathrow on Saturday and sure enough, they agreed to be bumped. They were both given a fabulous package for their trouble and they were put on a flight the following day.

Sunday: Nadine and Zach really do fly in. Matt lost her mobile number on accident so there was no way of knowing whether or not she really made it, but we figured that no news was good news. As it turned out, she and Zach got here alright and made it to their place of temporary dwelling without much fuss. They stayed on Fort Mason property, so they were really close to the Golden Gate Bridge (hereafter referred to as 'the bridge'), North Beach, Chinatown, the Presidio and the Embarcadero. They weren't at a loss for things to do...let's put it that way.

Anyway, Sunday, Matt and I also went to church and spent the afternoon at the pastor's house making friends with Claire. She's one of the little girls at the church and as cute as a button. She really is adorable. She and I formed an alliance to keep a bouncy ball away from Matt. We resorted to all sorts of clever tricks and did very well! After we exhausted ourselves being mean to the boys, we sat and colored and before I knew it, it was time to go back to church for the evening service.

Matt and I piled into the car and drove back. When we arrived we found Claire waiting for us outside the church looking rather shy. She asked me, as we approached, if she could sit with us. Me, having little brothers myself, asked her if it was alright with her dad. She replied that she had just asked him. I then told her that she had better ask Matt if she could sit with us because it was alright with me so long as it was okay with him. Matt teased her about being mean to him, but she just laughed and he gave in.

So Claire sat with us and halfway through the service she climbed up onto my lap and fell soundly asleep. A good day, all in all.

Monday: I went to the airport (SFO) to get Matt's parents. I did this all by myself because he needed to be at work. So, I went, collected his parents, called him to let him know I had the package, took Richard and Fiona on BART back to the East Bay, loaded them and their luggage into a car, drove them to where they were staying, saw to it that they had everything they needed and came home with the promise of returning in an hour to get them for dinner.

I returned as I said I would, took them back to my house where they met my people and chatted for a bit before Matt came home from work. We had dinner then and chatted for a while before Matt and I took his parents back and then I took him home. I have to say, this whole having to come home at night thing sucks. We need to get married so I can just crash on our sofa at the apartment and not worry about having to stay awake to go somewhere.

Tuesday: Everyone came to my house. Nadine and Zach, Richard and Fiona all met up in the city where they were collected by Matt, who brought them all back to this side of the bay. Dinner consisted of prime rib with veggies and a baked potato. There was fruit salad and yoghurt for dessert, which was uber yummy.

Needless to say, I spent the day helping my mother and grandmother with cleaning the house (more than I had before!) and preparing stuff.

Wednesday: Richard and Fiona went the apartment for dinner, which freaked me out. I was wound up tighter than a clock. They spent the day at the bridge where they both went to the top of the north tower with my dad. Personally, I spent the day cleaning the apartment and changing out the sheets, making sure there were enough towels, etc. You'll find out in just a moment why.

Matt met them in the city and came back home with them. I made a stir-fry with tons of veggies and tofu (chicken for Richard because he likes meat). It was actually really yummy and Matt liked it, even if I'm not sure his parents did. Dessert was yoghurt, berries and granola served up in a martini glass. This was uber yummy, I just have to say.

After visiting a short while, Matt and I took Richard and Fiona back to their place and began the long and arduous journey to the city. Why? Well, Martyn and Jay (brother and sister-in-law) were flying in. We got there later than we anticipated and spent a good deal of time just wandering around the terminal looking for them. You see, Martyn and Jay flew from Manchester to Atlanta and from Atlanta to San Francisco, so by the time they got here, they were considered a domestic flight.

This, of course, meant that we had to go to the domestic terminal instead of the internation one, which admittedly would have been much easier to navigate. After tempers were well on their way to flaring, we finally found them, took them back to the apartment, got them settled in and I got home well after midnight where I crashed as soon as I got in.

I broke out in hives that night as well.

If you couldn't tell, Martyn and Jay stayed with Matt at the apartment.

Thursday: Matt had that day off, so he and I, Martyn and Jay all went into the city. We took a picnic, drove over to the bridge, ate and then met up with my dad so that Martyn could go up to the top of the tower. Jay would have gone, but she had a bad shoulder that prevented her from going. Instead, the three of us, sans Martyn, watched them through binoculars from the deck of the bridge.

My dad came home with us, so we all piled into the car and drove back home (my dad was driving, which was good because it was rush hour in the financial district). We stuck around for a while once we got home before the four of us decided to go out to dinner with Uncles Arnie and Benny and Doug. We went to Pasta Pomodoro and for those of you who read Uncle Benny's blog, you'll know what it's all about. If not, I invite you to go to his blog and see what all the fuss is over.

It was another late night that night and I came home exhausted.

Friday: I had to take Richard, Fiona and Martyn to the airport to get a rental car. Martyn was a co-signer to the agreement so that he could legally drive it if he needed to, so he had to go. After everything was signed and taken care of, Richard and Fiona left by themselves and Martyn went back to apartment with me and Matt. After a while there, Martyn and Jay decided they wanted to go into the city by themselves, so Matt and I took them to the BART station.

This afforded us the afternoon to ourselves, which was good, I think. I tried to nap, but couldn't. It was decided at some point during the day that we were all going to come back home for dinner, which was going to be pizza. On the way to the house, we picked up Martyn and Jay, who really couldn't have had more perfect timing.

Dinner was good. I had been jonesin' for pizza for a long time. Uncle Joel, Aunt Becca and Dan and Leisl (my dad's sister, brother-in-law and neice and nephew) were there as well. Aunt Becca had gone up to the tower with my dad, so it was a pretty full house. This, of course, didn't hold a candle to Saturday night...

Saturday: Matt, Martyn, Jay and I decided to go back to the city to bum around at the Exploratorium. We had lots of fun. It's a museum where every single exhibit is hands-on and sciency. Yeah. You can see my attraction to the place now, can't you? Anyway, we spent the greater part of the day there before going into Berkeley for some eats and what we thought would be a couple chairs.

It's a long story, okay? The point of it is that I misunderstood the gentleman on the phone. We're supposed to get them today instead. Meh.

This put us around the time of half past four in the afternoon before we started to head home. We got home close to 5ish, which is when we were supposed to be home. But why? Well, Uncle Joel, Aunt Becca and the kids were coming back. Along with my dad's sister Sharon, her three girls, my dad's parents, Matt's parents, etc. Marco and Nicole (he's marrying us and Nicole is his lovely wife) were there at some point too. I stopped counting after a while.

But why Saturday?

Well, Saturday was the day Matt and I were supposed to get married. I'd have been a Mrs. Someone by now if it hadn't been for the nightmare of Matt's visa.

I'm okay with it now. I'm still by no means happy about what's happened, but I have a strong sense that there is a purpose behind this misery, which I am convinced is temporary. I don't know the reason why, but I don't doubt there is one that God knows of. I'm sincerely hoping that will all be made clear at some point in my life.

All I know is that we need to get married soon. All this pussyfooting around sucks.

There was also something that happened on Saturday that sucked eggs, but since certain members of my family read my blog, I cannot say what it is. But it sucked. Majorly so.

Sunday: Matt and I went to church with his parents, went back to the apartment and cooked up some eats for lunch and spent the afternoon with his family. This prevented me from going to spend time with my own family, which, after Saturday night, I wasn't all too broken up about. There were just too many freakin' people in my house that night and it was nice to be with a manageable-sized group. Not to mention more docile.

Yesterday: I drove out to the apartment, collected Martyn, Jay and their luggage and brought them back to my area of town to meet up with Richard and Fiona. I saw the four of them into their rental car and said my goodbyes to Martyn and Jay. I won't be seeing them again this trip.

The four Turners went to Yosemite and I saw them all off before coming home and eating breakfast. I thought of sleep, but couldn't get settled enough to do so, so I ended up back at the apartment where I cleaned the entire place top to bottom and made it more the place that Matt and I hang out in. I like clean things, okay? When I was pleased with the results, I gathered up all the laundry I could find at the place and brought it home to wash.

And that's how I spent most of my day yesterday. Being domestic. Of course, we had chili beans and a buñelos last night for dinner and I was in heaven on so many levels. We have this meal very sparsely because the buñelos are fried and we don't do much fried food here at my house at all. In fact, I can only think of buñelos and won-ton being the only things we'll fry. And both of those meals don't happen very often at all!

Anyway, the point is, dinner was fantastically yummy, if not on the less healthy side of the spectrum. It was so worth it, though. Man! Chili beans and buñelos for the win!

Right! So, all of that said, this week is going to be fairly quiet and normal. Matt's parents come back next week for a couple more days before they head back home, so we'll get to see them again and perhaps have them over for a meal one last time. All in all, the worst of it is over. I think the hives I broke out in Wednesday night were induced by levels of stress that I've never actually felt before in my life. Not even in college did I stress out this badly. Now that everything has happened, though, they're going away slowly, which pleases me beyond words. I looked like a leper and still kind of do.

The chairs I mentioned earlier in Berkeley are chairs that Matt and I bought over a week ago at a little indepently owned contemorary furniture store. They're armless chairs and if truth be told, they're sexy pieces of craftsmanship. Of course, there was a sexy little red leather sofa there that I lusted after, but Matt thought it was hideous. I was actually surprised with myself. I hate leather sofas, but this one was hot. H-O-T!

But I digress.

The chairs that we went to pick up on Saturday are actually supposed to be in today, so I'm calling the store in a couple hours to see if they are indeed in. If so, Matt and I will go later this afternoon to get them and arrange them in the apartment. If you can't tell, I'm excited.

Let's see...what else do I have to say?

OH!

A HUGE congratulations to Margo and Hobbs on their recent engagement! I'm so happy for you both! Really, I don't have words to tell you how happy I am.

Hobbs - you got yourself a gem of a woman. And you did really well on the ring! It's beautiful!

Margo - we all know he's a great guy, if not a sassy monkey. I wish you all the joy and happiness in the world as you begin to make all your preparations.

To you both - I'm glad to read that you've figured out exactly what you need to do concerning the visas you both seem to be preparing to get. My hope and prayer is that everything happens and goes through without a hitch. I wouldn't wish a snag like ours to happen to anyone.

And with that, dear readers, I think I'll sign off. DJ, don't even pretend to be displeased to see that I'm still around. We all know you're overjoyed.

Lots of love to you all!

Later Days,
Arty