It’s been a long time since I’ve written regularly or at all, actually. There are so many reasons to avoid writing about life: it’s difficult to find the minutes between deciphering regression results, washing sheets, and serving as social secretary and chauffeur; it’s, um, awkward to write about people aged 13-15 who have zero interest in serving as my entertainment system, at least publicly; and my life usually feels like a ball of yarn of various delightful and bold colors that has mysteriously gotten tangled up in terrible knots, yakked on by the cat, thrown into the washing machine, tossed through the dryer with jumping jacks, and poked by safety pins. Unclosed safety pins.
It started out so pretty and potentially useful.
Since I can’t go backwards and fill you in on the best and worst parts of the past few months thoroughly, I’ll just present updates from the past few weeks. School is out! That used to be unequivocally great and now it’s unclear whether it falls in the “yay!” or the “boooo” column. We’ll put that one in the middle. Same with Tatum going to a program in Utah in early June, it was both. Clara went to camp in West Virginia for two weeks, loved it according to her letters, and is getting picked up today. Marley finished her first year at UMD and started her illustrious summer career at Uncle Julio’s.
Finn started building a tree house and he met his idol, Coach Nick Woodard, who came to our house to meet Finn!
We’ve had visitors: Mom and Doug, Hugh, Noelle and Mica, the Biggars in Bethesda. Hooray on all fronts. I also got to see my friend Elaine and we are scheming for a yoga/spa week in India and a family safari next summer. I’m excited about our road trips this summer, but those two ideas sound kind of amazing.
With the World Bank fiscal year wrapped yesterday, I finished my work and have a summer break now, and more importantly, Kevin is home for the summer too. Yesterday presented a classic day for us: Rob dropped me off at Dulles Airport at 9.30 am (heading to Sally Lake City) and picked Kevin up at 10.00 am (arriving from Delhi). We were almost in enough proximity to exchange a Delhi sandwich (please tell me you smiled at that) or a box of mangoes.
Kevin was sweating his entire 30-hour trip between Delhi and DC because his housekeeper Mary insisted on giving him a box of mangoes to bring to us, which is sweet but carries a $12,000 fine as undeclared produce, which would be bitter indeed—and would lead to some seriously salty language from Kevin and would leave us all with a sour taste in our mouths.
I also turned 50 in the last few weeks. I could aim to do 50 minutes of exercise a day—ha ha, I mean, a week—or try 50 new restaurants/museums/experiences, or read 50 books this year. But perhaps instead I will aim to plan just two things, a trip with my mom, who has been to remote parts of the Sahel, China and Southern France, and a trip with my dad, whose remote travels are too extensive to mention, if we can get him to come to India next summer in spite of the heat.
Maybe in these journeys, I will untangle some of the threads of my messy ball of yarn or at least add to its colors.
@theterrace 