Kid Amnesiac

I took a little break here. Did you all miss me? The reasons being:

1. I got sick again. My sinus infection never really went away, so I saw my doctor on Wednesday and am now four days into a new round of stronger antibiotics. The day I decided I needed to take action was the day my throat hurt so badly I could not eat solid food and that even drinking water hurt.

2. My dad’s older brother, my Uncle Sam, died last Saturday. It all happened very fast, as he didn’t seem that ill until about five days before he died. Maybe even less. Which made it all very shocking at the time, but is a relief in hindsight. I figure we should all be so lucky as to  live a long, great life, travel to over 60 countries, live until 84, and spend all but the last four days in your own home before suddenly dying. The funeral was Tuesday, we made a shiva call on Wednesday, and I’m arranging to visit my cousin Connie again shortly.

3. I hosted a baby shower for my friend Alek yesterday. I’ll have to re-check my list, but I think we ended up with five American women, 10 Sudanese women, and 9 or 10 kids. The babies stayed on the main floor with their moms. the kids, ranging from 2 to 5, went downstairs to play with Matt and Simon. The party was called for 3:30, I arrived with the guest of honor and two of her friends (by way of a last-minute Target errand) at about 3:35, the phone rang constantly for directions until about 4:30, and we got fully started when the last guest arrived at 4:45. I left to drive Alek back home–now with tons of pink loot–at 7:15. And that, my friends, was quite an introduction to African-style entertaining. I’m pooped.

4. And finally, the running. Between all the shower-related cleaning and preparation, being sick, and being with my family, I had training runs to get in. They are getting longer now–we’re up to a full 3 miles and I’m slow–and involve a lot of stretching and a cool down and warm up period. Come to find out, I get comfortable after about 2.5 miles. Next week, when I’m supposed to go 3.5, I’m going to bump it up to 4 or so and see what happens.

More on most of this shortly. And Happy Passover everyone.