Faffing About the Motherland: Days 5 and 6
A double header today.
So yesterday was really all about faffing around, as we really didn't do much of anything. My mom and dad went to visit some friends from college, and I vegetated at my grandparent's house with my cousin, and continued slogging through The Stand. (I don't mean to use slogging as a disparaging term. It's a decent book, but I've got the uncut edition and that's a doorstopper.)
Anyway, as I was reading, I noticed I was getting a headache and slightly feverish. (LOL WUT Captain Trips, AMIRITE?) And then I noticed that my joints were aching. Well fuck me, it's another bout of food poisoning. Luckily my mom was home and I could decribe what was going on in English.
I decided that a power nap was in order. It helped to break the fever. I woke up in time for my aunt to arrive home from work, and she asked what was going on. And then it was time to expand my vocabulary. What fun! I could describe most of the symptoms, but stumbled when I talked about pain in my joints, and had no idea how to say "food poisoning" at all. (My aunt and her daughter have a working grasp of English, but sometimes none of us knows what one is talking about without explanations.)
Anyway, I was feeling better and the night was turned over to waiting for my sister to arrive from the airport. It took her about an hour and a half after she touched down to get over here, mainly, apparently, because some douchecanoe in front of her was making a scene by not wanting to check his backs. Awesome. Well, we talked about the flight, made sure that she brought the items that she was asked to bring. (I had to write most of those reminder e-mails. I'm amazed that she didn't kill me on sight when she got to my grandparents' house.)
Another couple of hours were given over to a House marathon. (My sister, father, aunt, and cousin all watch it. I'm the type to watch if it's on, but I don't really look for it.) We all managed to get to bed by three-ish, and passed out for a good part of the morning. My sister was too keyed up and only took a longish nap.
Today was spent in running errands for tonight and souvenir hunting. Preparations included going to the market to get a fat pig to get the ingredients necessary for my mom's Good Luck Medley (rice, cloves, pigeon peas, cinnamon, lentils, wheat), getting enough grapes for everyone to have twelve to eat at midnight, stocking up on fireworks and sparklers, and making sure that we had something yellow to wear for good luck. (New York has a feature on several New Year's traditions that I wouldn't mind trying for next year. Mmm... kimchee.)
Souvenir hunting was a continuation of my mom's quest for shepherds and angels, and then was expanded to other ceramics. My sister wanted to look for a chess set (Inca vs. Conquistador) for her boyfriend, and some mirrors for coworkers. I was in for jewelery and handbags. All in all, we got most of what we wanted, and also got to haggle a bit. I was very "Damn, I wish artimusdin was here so that she could see if the guy was shitting us on these being real stones." Hell, I paid, like, three bucks for a necklace/earring set, and it looks nice enough.
I'm vegetating again, waiting for the guests to arrive while my aunt works on the turkey. The lazy days were good for us.
And now to rummage and get some yellow on.
See you in 2011.
So yesterday was really all about faffing around, as we really didn't do much of anything. My mom and dad went to visit some friends from college, and I vegetated at my grandparent's house with my cousin, and continued slogging through The Stand. (I don't mean to use slogging as a disparaging term. It's a decent book, but I've got the uncut edition and that's a doorstopper.)
Anyway, as I was reading, I noticed I was getting a headache and slightly feverish. (LOL WUT Captain Trips, AMIRITE?) And then I noticed that my joints were aching. Well fuck me, it's another bout of food poisoning. Luckily my mom was home and I could decribe what was going on in English.
I decided that a power nap was in order. It helped to break the fever. I woke up in time for my aunt to arrive home from work, and she asked what was going on. And then it was time to expand my vocabulary. What fun! I could describe most of the symptoms, but stumbled when I talked about pain in my joints, and had no idea how to say "food poisoning" at all. (My aunt and her daughter have a working grasp of English, but sometimes none of us knows what one is talking about without explanations.)
Anyway, I was feeling better and the night was turned over to waiting for my sister to arrive from the airport. It took her about an hour and a half after she touched down to get over here, mainly, apparently, because some douchecanoe in front of her was making a scene by not wanting to check his backs. Awesome. Well, we talked about the flight, made sure that she brought the items that she was asked to bring. (I had to write most of those reminder e-mails. I'm amazed that she didn't kill me on sight when she got to my grandparents' house.)
Another couple of hours were given over to a House marathon. (My sister, father, aunt, and cousin all watch it. I'm the type to watch if it's on, but I don't really look for it.) We all managed to get to bed by three-ish, and passed out for a good part of the morning. My sister was too keyed up and only took a longish nap.
Today was spent in running errands for tonight and souvenir hunting. Preparations included going to the market to get a fat pig to get the ingredients necessary for my mom's Good Luck Medley (rice, cloves, pigeon peas, cinnamon, lentils, wheat), getting enough grapes for everyone to have twelve to eat at midnight, stocking up on fireworks and sparklers, and making sure that we had something yellow to wear for good luck. (New York has a feature on several New Year's traditions that I wouldn't mind trying for next year. Mmm... kimchee.)
Souvenir hunting was a continuation of my mom's quest for shepherds and angels, and then was expanded to other ceramics. My sister wanted to look for a chess set (Inca vs. Conquistador) for her boyfriend, and some mirrors for coworkers. I was in for jewelery and handbags. All in all, we got most of what we wanted, and also got to haggle a bit. I was very "Damn, I wish artimusdin was here so that she could see if the guy was shitting us on these being real stones." Hell, I paid, like, three bucks for a necklace/earring set, and it looks nice enough.
I'm vegetating again, waiting for the guests to arrive while my aunt works on the turkey. The lazy days were good for us.
And now to rummage and get some yellow on.
See you in 2011.