Namaskar

Nepal... At one point insane, at another completely calming. Is it the people? Is it the spirit of the land? Lumbini: the birthplace of the Buddha. Pokhara: a lakeside town blessed in the course of the Buddha's travels. Kathmandu: immortalized by the soft vocals of one Yusuf Islam, better known as Meow Stevens. A place where enlightenment has befallen many before us. At the same time, there is trash in the streets and children playing among broken glass. The organized chaos flows around us, while we witness peoples of various backgrounds interacting on different levels. The Nepalis defer to us as "kohire," and the Tibetans defer to them as exiles in their land. In one day, we can be drinking "cha pu cha" (tea with butter and salt- don't ask) and partaking in the wily ways of the Funky Buddha.

Lindsay has departed, but it's fun to see all the places we visited together as I walk around town. There is the Stupa (or shtoopa) at Bodhnath where we walked with reverent Buddhists and met Thangka artists. We also have our restaurant- the Garden Kitchen, which features a killer Banana Milkshake and monks saving three-legged kittens.

Now I am preparing for my journey to Damak in the eastern region of Jhapa, near India. We were able to visit some of the refugees preparing to travel to the USA in a few days. Rarely do we see people after our interviews, so the opportunity to see them actually traveling was very fulfilling.

Yet another adventure in books and there's always more to come!

Holy. Cow.

Didn't see one yet.

My entirely overwhelmed, inundated, boggled senses wouldn't have been able to process seeing one anyway. Less than an hour ago, riding from the Kathmandu airport to our palace...er, hotel, a blessed heifer could have been staring me down right in front of my quarter-sized, rickety white van-cab and I wouldn't have seen it, because I was too busy looking at

my Monopoly money, trying to decide on an appropriate tip, using my mini-calculator and Sharpie-written rupee cheat sheet on the back to figure it out (rupees? really? I've used those in many a merchant shop in the land of Zelda, but never in real life).

the people. Loads and loads of people doing...what? Stuff. Running, standing, selling, yelling, nearly being run down by cars, including my cab, buying, carrying, sitting, gabbing, scowling, laughing. Wearing face masks for the fumes. Going to school. I saw cutie teenagers in all their cutie blue school uniforms and I thought, how nice! they're all on their way home from school! and then I thought, damn, it's 9 in the morning, they're just now GOING to school! And all this bustle and madness and action, before you've even gone to your first class? And how sweaty are all those men in their business attire? I mean, I smell like an exhaust pipe and I wasn't even outdoors. And I plan to shower, not do geometry or go to a meeting.

the motorcycles! Or scooters, half-broken rickshaw-lookin' 3-wheeled thingys, mopeds, crotch rockets, whatever they were, they were all over the place, with every manner of passenger on the back. Riders in helmets, passengers in no helmets, women riding sidesaddle, a dad in his work shirt and tie with his infant son sleeping on his shoulder in rush-hour traffic. And my cab driver bearing down and laying on the horn all the way.

the trash. The filth, the mess, the rubbish, all along the streets, in the gutters, on the sidewalks, in shop entryways. I actually thought, hmmm, if that were MY business, I would totally tidy up the walk and people would frequent my shop because it looks so neat and nice. And in the same moment I thought, no, then people would think I was crazy and wonder why in the world I was touching what is supposed to stay on the ground.

Please do not misunderstand. It sounds like I didn't LIKE my taxi ride through downtown Kathmandu. The OPPOSITE is true. I LOVED it. It was absolutely exhilarating and I was smiling the whole time like some dumb blonde white chick smiles when she's in a taxi looking at you in wonder and is fully confident her driver will not plow into the bus full of little Nepali schoolchildren or that lady crossing the street in her lovely blouse and sari.

So, here I sit in the sixth floor club lounge waiting for Joel, on free internet, having just finished my complimentary champagne (it literally IS 5 o'clock somewhere) and breakfast of yogurt with pomegranate seeds (love how they pop in your mouth) and a roll with yak cheese (!), gaze of the sacred Boudhanath Stupa out the window fixed upon me. The Buddha and the mountains and the prayer flags are asking me, how do you feel there, Miss Fortunate (ha ha), all safe in sound in your fancy Hyatt while the poverty-stricken scratch around in the street just beyond that gated, grassy courtyard? And my answer is, I don't know, I'm not sure, but I don't feel bad. Not gonna lie, Lindsay likes having her bags bellhopped to her room. But...hmmm.

I'm going to the pool!

Kathmandu'n It Right!

In case anyone thought we would we roughin' it in Nepal, here's our hotel.

Well, to be fair, we are only staying at the Hyatt two nights out of two weeks.

We will post pictures from the road! Be ready for yaks, sherpas and yetis. (Still trying to figure out which are humans, which are animals and which are myths.)

Namaste!

No Woman No Cry

For the 4,643rd time in my life, I just spilled milk on the counter. I did not cry, but I can totally see why someone might cry. If you were having a really bad morning and you just wanted some milky, delicious coffee and you spilled milk everywhere, that would be terrible. It goes mysterious places, it's hard to see on a white countertop, it's sticky and it smells bad when it dries. Like water on old carpet. When I have kids I will absolutely cry when they spill milk in the cracks of the couch cushions or on my laptop keyboard. But if they spill it in the RV I might actually smile instead of cry because that means we HAVE to get new carpet.

I know this is NOT how one should blog. You start a blog, you get excited, you make two posts, you don't post for over a week then you post about milk. This is not how it should be done, but this is how it IS done. By me. So. There.

Thank you notes should also not be sent on July 31, exactly 364 days after the wedding, but that is also how we do it. Just under the wire and with excellence.

"Who said being awesome is easy?"
Meliss proclaimed this last night after I woe-is-meed about the thank yous. Amen, BFF. This shall be our new motto. It fits nicely with Tammy's (and Victoria Beckham's) motto, "It's exhausting being fabulous."

Our Newest Addition!

Ha ha, gotcha Mom!

Not a bundle of joy, just a bundle of...a big beige box of...a tenement on wheels? Our first home.

Ta da, here he is! In the grand tradition of Joel and Lindsay naming inanimate objects, especially vehicles, presenting:

Reginald von Campersand Bandersnatch,

aka RV.

Specs: 1989 Coachmen Catalina (makes me nuts -- why MEN? Shouldn't the brand name be Coachman? I don't get it) with a Ford somethin-somethin engine chassis somethin. Pretty sweet interior with salmon carpet that should NOT accidentally get soaked with the icy contents of an 80-quart capacity cooler. Imagine if you never washed your middle school home ec pillow and then someone spilled beer water on it and then you had to line your floor with it and many other dirty, smelly pillows and then you closed it into a little house.

BUT, this guy can haul ass on hills and has THREE BEDS. That is WAY more beds than in our apartment. Pat and Alicia, you and the boys still want to visit, right? Right? No?


Joel's solution to the carpet problem. Now, does this seem like more of a solution, or yet another problem? This container may also have been manufactured in '89.

More RV pics to come. A special thanks to Tammy, Fred, Fred IV, and Liz for their time and expertise in the de-gunkifying and tinkering departments. Soon all will be able to experience the aquarium-themed bathroom facilities and special "chandelier." RV is currently at the spa in Manassas Park but will be home for our weekend jaunt to Vermont and next week's anniversary/family reunion roadtrip to the Finger Lakes.

Rubber side DEFINITELY down!

Learn Something New Every Day

There are moonbows!

Thank you, Rosalynn and Nell, (who plan to check out this regularly-occuring lunar rainbow in Cumberland Falls, KY), for teaching us something new. Has anyone else seen a moonbow?

Damn, I always sound like such a teacher. Raise your hand if you've seen one.

Joel and Barb witnessed this arc, an upside-down rainbow, upon exiting the St. George's Church in Salt, Jordan, the site of a 2009 miracle -- a footprint appearing in the church floor after the locals heard a horse.

If witnessing a rainbow is a reminder everything is going to work out, what might catching a moonbow signify? What about seeing an unusual phenomenon at the site of another? (Symbolism, class. On the SOL.)

Today was a moody one, but in a world of night rainbows, upside-down skies and mysterious footprints, what a waste of time to moon about. (I'm so punny.) This reminder was delivered, just when I needed it, to our Arlington apartment doorstep today after an afternoon thunderstorm. Special delivery by one Mr. ROY G. BIV.