Oh my. Decisions to make. And soon.
In the next couple of days I will get an email from the US Embassy. It will probably be my Pink Appointment, giving me a date to show up at the Embassy with Liana to apply for her visa. The date will probably be about a week away. It is possible that the email will be a dreaded I-72, which means more delays. But it will probably be Pink.
Ok. Count the dates on your fingers. At this point it is pretty probable that my Pink appointment will be before the Christmas break. And then Liana’s visa will be issued before the break. But really really close.
So what do I do? Do I scramble to travel to NYC with the holiday travelers? And then, do I arrive in frigid NY days before Christmas… with a million things to do? I bought her a winter coat with a hat before I left, but she needs a coat with a hood because she refused to wear hats. No mittens or scarf or boots. I don’t even really have any warm clothes for her.
And there are lots of errands to run. I need to get one of those gate things to put on my bed, where she will sleep for a while. I need gates for doors too. I need to get one of those exosaucer things to put her in before she will even let me unpack. She NEEDS stacking cups. And a kids’ make-believe cell phone. She is always trying to steal people’s cell phones. And I need a food processor. And lots and lots of groceries. And I need a thing to bathe her in…. maybe one of the blow-up duckies or something… but I can’t bathe her until I get something. And I need soft towels for her. And I have to get her one of those pushy toys that kids who are just learning to walk have. I have lots of errands to run…lots of shopping to do in different places. Would have to get the warm clothes for her first. And I am thinking of doing all of this in the madness of Christmas shoppers?
Aunt Joanie and Celia have invited me to go to Virginia for Christmas, but there is no way that is happening. We are just going to arrive home, repack, and hit the airport again? That makes no sense.
I could spend the holidays here. It is warm, and nice. We could arrive home between Christmas and New Years, and do all of our shopping in relative calm. It might be nice to spend the Solstice here… there must be ruins close by that do fun things at the Solstices.. with the light shining through and hitting some special piece of art for the Solstice. The Mayans were into that sort of thing.
But there is a part of me that wants to just be home. And another part of me that cannot believe that after more than a year in this process, that she is coming home in the dead of winter.
Liana LOVES to go out. I love going out and running neighborhood errands, and she is going to love Jackson Heights. But during the cold of winter I become a hermit. And she has never known the cold. One more week, or two, of running neighborhood errands in the warmth of the sun of Antigua.
And then there is Lago Atitlan. Is it possible that I am only a couple of hours away from the most beautiful lake on planet earth, a place that I have loved and visited over and over again for two decades…is it possible that we are so close, and that I am not going there? I could go to the lake for the Solstice and Christmas. It would be hard to get around. Harder than the cobblestone streets of Antigua…. Cobblestone or dirt streets, straight up the side of three volcanoes. Nothing is flat. And getting in and out of little boats to get from village to village. It would be hard with Liana. But I am so close. It seems a shame not to go.
In the next couple of days I will get an email from the US Embassy. It will probably be my Pink Appointment, giving me a date to show up at the Embassy with Liana to apply for her visa. The date will probably be about a week away. It is possible that the email will be a dreaded I-72, which means more delays. But it will probably be Pink.
Ok. Count the dates on your fingers. At this point it is pretty probable that my Pink appointment will be before the Christmas break. And then Liana’s visa will be issued before the break. But really really close.
So what do I do? Do I scramble to travel to NYC with the holiday travelers? And then, do I arrive in frigid NY days before Christmas… with a million things to do? I bought her a winter coat with a hat before I left, but she needs a coat with a hood because she refused to wear hats. No mittens or scarf or boots. I don’t even really have any warm clothes for her.
And there are lots of errands to run. I need to get one of those gate things to put on my bed, where she will sleep for a while. I need gates for doors too. I need to get one of those exosaucer things to put her in before she will even let me unpack. She NEEDS stacking cups. And a kids’ make-believe cell phone. She is always trying to steal people’s cell phones. And I need a food processor. And lots and lots of groceries. And I need a thing to bathe her in…. maybe one of the blow-up duckies or something… but I can’t bathe her until I get something. And I need soft towels for her. And I have to get her one of those pushy toys that kids who are just learning to walk have. I have lots of errands to run…lots of shopping to do in different places. Would have to get the warm clothes for her first. And I am thinking of doing all of this in the madness of Christmas shoppers?
Aunt Joanie and Celia have invited me to go to Virginia for Christmas, but there is no way that is happening. We are just going to arrive home, repack, and hit the airport again? That makes no sense.
I could spend the holidays here. It is warm, and nice. We could arrive home between Christmas and New Years, and do all of our shopping in relative calm. It might be nice to spend the Solstice here… there must be ruins close by that do fun things at the Solstices.. with the light shining through and hitting some special piece of art for the Solstice. The Mayans were into that sort of thing.
But there is a part of me that wants to just be home. And another part of me that cannot believe that after more than a year in this process, that she is coming home in the dead of winter.
Liana LOVES to go out. I love going out and running neighborhood errands, and she is going to love Jackson Heights. But during the cold of winter I become a hermit. And she has never known the cold. One more week, or two, of running neighborhood errands in the warmth of the sun of Antigua.
And then there is Lago Atitlan. Is it possible that I am only a couple of hours away from the most beautiful lake on planet earth, a place that I have loved and visited over and over again for two decades…is it possible that we are so close, and that I am not going there? I could go to the lake for the Solstice and Christmas. It would be hard to get around. Harder than the cobblestone streets of Antigua…. Cobblestone or dirt streets, straight up the side of three volcanoes. Nothing is flat. And getting in and out of little boats to get from village to village. It would be hard with Liana. But I am so close. It seems a shame not to go.
So where do we go? What do we do?
