the most wonderful time...

i had many great plans for blogs, even one including a series of photos, which i took, but never got around to posting. instead of reaching into the past, to reconstruct a moment long past, i'll write this one:


following a hurried but pleasant pre-christmas time of baking, errands and visits with dear friends, we packed ourselves off to denver for christmas at carl's parents' house. cosmo's high tops had to come off at security (don't they know how hard those things are to put back on?), but we made it through without a glitch. cosmo enjoyed running around in the airport, and slept through the entire flight. we arrived a couple of days after their first big blizzard. everything was up and running, but many travelers were still stuck in denver, and we saw some camped out near baggage claim, along with a several hour security line. we were happy to get out of there...unfortunately, on our way out, we realized i'd left my purse on the plane, under the seat. yes, i had my phone and my only id in the bag, and a bunch of other stuff that's hard to replace, but there was no getting it back. we tried over the next few days, but with all the chaos, it was hopeless.

we had a lovely christmas in denver. cosmo played in snow for the first time. of course he kept wanting to eat the snow off his mittens, but he also enjoyed sliding down a make shift slide, and helping to roll the base for our snowman.
he slipped and scratched his nose on the sidewalk, but not too bad. wasn't the first time, won't be the last...he climbed a lot of stairs, and learned to admire the christmas tree without tearing it apart.

we had to be a bit hyper-vigilant with cosmo at carl's parent's, to keep cosmo from either hurting himself, or damaging their property...honestly, it was exhausting, and we were so happy to come home. i had to go through extra screening on the trip back, since i didn't have identification. it was futuristic! i stood in a very short line consisting almost exclusively of women. i had sent my carry-on with carl and cosmo, so i had nothing on me but my clothes. i was asked to step into chamber where i heard a digitized woman's voice say "enter. air puffs are on" followed by a pause followed by intense blasts of air directed at various part of my body. then i stood there and waited for 30 seconds, until the voice returned to tell me i could now exit. a glass door in front of me opened, and out i went. that was it. some friendly guy asked me if i had anything besides my shoes, i told him "no" and that i had lost my purse. this seemed reasonable enough to him i guess, because i was not further screened. i made it through the line before carl did.

on the plane, a kind gay couple allowed the three of us to sit together, even though it meant they couldn't. cosmo wasn't so sleepy this time, but he was also terribly well behaved. upon arriving in houston at the ungodly hour of 9pm (already past cosmo's bedtime) we waited for over an hour to get on a shuttle back to the lot where we'd left our car. the driver was unfamiliar with the expansive parking lot, and a passenger had to take over the role of navigator. it was a case of the blind leading the blind, but we miraculously made it back to our car, out of the lot and safely home.

i couldn't wait to get online, since i'd been without my phone, and away from the computer, i felt a little cut off. sadly, the computer wouldn't start up. black screen. the next day, when i went to get my phone replaced, all their systems were down, they couldn't do anything for anyone. i almost cried walking home from sprint. then i felt so foolish for being so dependent on these technologies...i had to remind myself that i'd be fine. i'd have plenty to eat, and a warm dry place to sleep...it was merely an inconvenience. still, at every turn there seemed to be a further complication due to the fact that i didn't have my phone and couldn't get online...
i finally did get my phone replaced. sprint got their system back up, and i went back just in time. the next day, cosmo and i were back at IAH for a flight to dallas. we were going to see cosmo's father's side of the family--including cosmo's father himself. i'd had a lot of ambivalence about going, but had decided we would, and i was looking forward to it, in a way. there had been reports of bad weather in the dallas area, but i wasn't too worried. we catch another little bitty plane from there, to wichita falls, and i wasn't looking forward to that part. the slightest breeze throws those things into a terrifying tizzy, but i still thought it would be better than a three hour car ride. our flight was delayed. we waited a good part of the day at the gate, until they finally boarded us. once we got settled, they announced that the dallas/fort-worth airport was closed due to storms, and we'd have another update in an hour. that hour turned into an hour and a half. they started letting people off the plane. some stayed, we didn't. instead, we got in line to see if we could reschedule for the next day. before they got to us in line, the flight was canceled. we rescheduled, made some calls, and headed for baggage claim. it was good to see carl when he arrived, though i hated that he had to drive to IAH again, during rush hour. when we got home, i tried out our new pasta maker, and we had a rather late dinner of fettuccine.

that night, i woke up in the middle of the night vomiting. in the morning, i felt like hell all over. we didn't go to wichita falls.

luckily, it only lasted a day, and we got to celebrate new year's eve with friends.

the next day, cosmo got it. he's been sick of and on for days now.

we went to the galleria to get my computer looked at. seems the logic board is messed up, but if you take out the airport card, it works fine. ok. no wireless. that's cool, at least it works now!

i traveled out to missouri city to get my driver's license replaced. i pulled up, started to walk up to the building, saw the line out the door and wrapped half way across the building and, like the other white people described in one of chuck's blog entries, i turned around and got back in my car.

i'll try again monday. early.