"We Go Grandma's House"

We were able to visit with nana and gramps in Naples for a lovely lunch. Ariana charmed the staff and received candy and two bracelets for her adorableness. Add this to the gifts given by her admirers at my mother's place and she made out quite well. Frankly, I was more than a little uncomfortable with the idea of her getting gifts for just being cute, but it gave the older gift givers so much pleasure to see her face as she took each thing and said "thank you!" ........or at least smiled................ok, so sometimes she would just take the "thing" and run away, leaving me to sheepishly say "thanks".

Ariana really enjoyed grandma this visit - asking where she was was she wasn't with us; looking in on her and quietly announcing "gramma's sleeping"; putting on her nightgown and using her cane to walk around the apartment, then putting the cane back where she found it, which led my mother to announce "she is brilliant!" and greeting her with a big "morning gramma!"

Now that we are back, we will miss grandma, and nana and gramps too. That's the hard part about living here - we are so far away. While we keep in touch by phone and email, I regret that Ariana cannot spend more time with her family as they all enjoy each other so much.

While it seems that Ariana has been with us forever, it was actually one year ago that we were in China meeting this most incredible little girl. Wednesday was, in a way, just like any other day - filled with errands and phone calls, eating (or in Ariana's case, not eating) and other mundane tasks.

I thought about celebrating, but how do you celebrate such a thing? Every morning when I see her little face; every night when she yells "baba!!!" as he walks in the door; or when I pick her up from school and she smiles a big grin and says "mama"; every time she makes me laugh; every time she jumps up and down with excitement; every time she walks in the door and says "hi dog" as Tess runs up to be pet......

every thing.....
every day.......
every word......
we celebrate

Florida

As some of you know, I am in Florida visiting my mother. The trip was kind of sudden, as her health was suspicious, but all is well, so Ariana and I are now being able to enjoy the sunny weather and the ridiculous amount of attention she is getting.

Old people love children and Ariana has been at her adorable, personable best so far and result has been many complements, a quarter, a banana with her name written on it, a flower and a doll which we have not seen yet, but has been promised by one of the women who lives here. We were supposed to get it last night at dinner, but since we are just beginning to get over the jet lag, we were sleeping when my mother went down to the dining room, not waking until after 9pm. So, not only did we miss the doll, but we were up until about 1am, waking at 6 this morning. Ahhh, the joys of jetlag - the irregular sleep, the bad tempers, the headache that will go away around day 6.

Other than that, all is well in the sunny state.......

Nara and Kyoto, part 2

Ariana running among the ruins in Nara...

"mmmmm, tea.................yummmmmmm........
fellow photographers in Nara Park....

Eating with chopsticks VS eating the chopsticks...
Philosopher's Walk in Kyoto.....

The Ryokan

Traditional Japanese Inns - where you are waited on hand and foot by kimono clad women - don slippers as soon as you walk in the door, robes when you arrive in your room (sans slippers that you leave on the wood entry way prior to stepping foot on the tatami mats) , drink tea and are then treated to a sumptuous meal of many little courses and then watch as those kimono clad women expertly unfold and make up the futons you then sleep on.

This is when it turns nasty. Because for the price of a room at your local Four Seasons, you are sleeping on the floor in order to get a taste of traditional Japanese culture. I don't care that the meal was presented by two lovely ladies. I don't care that the room was quite beautiful in it's simplicity (ok, I could have done without the tv in the corner) and I don't care that we had a lovely view of the perfectly manicured Japanese garden outside our window.

We were still sleeping on the floor and every minute of the night I was reminded of that floor, in all of it's polished beauty. Beautiful Japanese floors are not comfortable. For those who think about what a wonderful experience it would be to sleep in a Ryokan, be warned. No matter how nice, how beautiful, how serene, how private - you will pay not only in cash but in pain as you struggle to get up off the floor in the morning while holding your back in agony, swearing on your next trip to find the hotel with the biggest, softest beds and stay there, no matter what the decor or service is.

Otherwise, our trip to Nara and Kyoto was lovely. Nara is the original capital of Japan, home to several amazing shrines and many deer, one of which butted baba-san in the butt as we strolled along the path.

The weather was beautiful, so we spent two days walking around, visiting shrines, taking pictures of the various shrines, the fall foliage, and the other people taking pictures of the fall foliage.

Fall is a unique experience here - everyone is out taking pictures with everything from cell phones to huge single lens reflex Nikons with huge lenses. The behavior is the same:

There is a tree.

With lots of red leaves.

One person stands to take a picture.

Another person arrives.

Then another.

Others notice a bunch of people standing taking a picture and assume it is a good shot, so then they all go over and jockey for the perfect spot. Here are some of ours:

This one's for you Judy - "socks drying - the next generation"
to be continued................................

"Are you going to have grandchildren soon?"

I pondered the meaning of the meaning of this as I sat in front of my computer, staring at the email that contained this most inflammatory question - one that was posed to me by a lovely Japanese woman I had met at a meeting the day before. She herself was leaving in January to visit with her daughter and new grandchild to be born sometime between now and then.

Having a conversation with a Japanese person is an interesting experience. Their age, ability to speak English, whether or not they actually lived outside of Japan all determines the kind of conversation you will have. For those whose English is not completely fluent and whose experience outside of Japan is limited, so is the conversation - in general, the conversation will be very general - the weather, something about the place you happen to be (nice place, lunch, play, etc.). For example, in the US, a common greeting is usually "how are you?". In Japan, that is something considered too private, so the greeting is usually "nice weather" or something benign like that.

This woman clearly fell into this category, so I chalk up her comment to an extremely awkward attempt to converse and find something we have in common. So, I said nothing, answering only her other points in the email.

I did however, for my own amusement and reference should this question ever come up again, come up with the following responses:

1) "I sincerely hope not. I have a three year old and two step-children; 18 and 20 and none of the three are even close to being ready to be parents."

2) "Me???? Soon-to-be grandmother???? I guess the gray roots are showing more than I thought!!!"

3) "No" (better schedule the Botox/face lift/(pick your plastic surgery procedure).

4) Are you *(&%&*)!!!!ing blind???!!!??!?!?!?.....I'm not OLD ENOUGH TO BE A GRANDMOTHER!!!!!! (my own personal favorite

And by the way, I did make the soonest possible appointment with the hairdresser.

And wore a hat until I could actually get there.

On a brighter note, one of the playgroup mother commented that she thought we were both around the same age - 38.

I feel much better.