Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Phew

Phew...

We landed. I think a week is good to have found the first spare split second to be able to collect my thoughts here.

It goes without saying that most of the last two weeks is a blur, with but a few instances of a blaring, eye-popping clarity.

One of the moments of eye-popping brilliancy was when Udie and I ascended the stairs to Uncle Dan’s new townhouse in Everett on Thanksgiving Day. I had flown into SeaTac and waited for Dave at the airport, sipping a hot cup of coffee. It had stopped snowing, but there was still slush on the ground. The two of us drove up together and came up the stairs. I hadn’t seen my family for two weeks. I could hear Pete squeaking at the top of the stairs and the muffled thumping of Sam jumping up and down on the floor above. Everyone was there and we all embraced. I swung Sam around and then family-hugged Pete and Elise. A Fat Tire followed shortly thereafter to top off Thanksgiving.

It is hard to believe it was only 9 days ago that we landed in Brazil. It feels like a lifetime. It took singular focus and dedication to get us to where we are today and it is only halfway to where we want to be. I will pick up our adventures upon our return to D.C. from Washington, where Elise and I and the boys spent a very cold and very snowy week. I shoveled the drive while Sam played in the snow. We pushed Petey in a sled and ate lunch at 9:30, craving Zips dashboard dunkers. The trip further legitimized the fact that—and I think I can speak for Elise here, too—for both Elise and I, our hearts lie in Seattle. (She wholly converted me, though it wasn’t a stretch, given my affinity for Colorado.) When this crazy roller coaster ride comes to end, you will find us there, I believe.

I recall from travelling with Sam when he was one, that this age, in particular, is hard on tiny travelers. Pete knows his surroundings are unfamiliar but he doesn’t comprehend why, and though Sam comprehends why is surroundings are unfamiliar now, it doesn’t make the transition any easier when you don’t understand what anyone is saying around you or there are no Starbucks or sprinks donuts anywhere to be found (Starbucks: Help! Ship us sprinks donuts or open a store in Brasilia stat!) and all the toys you now have in your possession are those your father was able to stuff into one of our many suitcases without overburdening it.

Despite a foot of new snow on the ground, we made it to GEG. The accumulated stress of packing, moving, travelling finally got to me—no small feat—and I cracked, taking it out on the guy at the Delta counter who told me it would cost the equivalent of a round-trip cross-continental fare in order to get my two overweight bags on the plane. We missed our connection in Salt Lake, then were diverted from BWI to Reagan, actually a very good thing…except our suitcases were going to BWI (not to worry, the suitcase fairy delivered them to our hotel in Crystal City in the middle of the night). We would be in Washington for less than 24 hours. After a long day of flying across the country, we crashed in a California Pizza Kitchen for beer and wine and…oh yeah…food for all. It took monumental effort to motivate out of that restaurant. Sam teetered off the booth and hit his head on the corner of the table. That did it.

The next day we sprinted to an Apple store for last minute repairs to Elise’s laptop, Barnes and Noble for Portuguese phrase books, Whole Foods for baby food…*sigh*…at the end, Elise and I stuffed 9 suitcases, two car seats (we had to rent two at DCA to make up for the two that went to BWI), a pack-and-play and our stroller into the back of a rented Toyota Sienna (our car was already on its way to Brazil by way or Miami). Elise took photos. We drove the short trip to the airport with a car seat in Pete’s lap. We pulled into the Budget return where we picked up a rental employee willing to drop us off at the curb. Elise sat in my lap on the passenger side.

The problem with singular focus and dedication is that it sometimes prohibits one from seeing the forest for the trees. To me, it never felt like we were embarking on a grand journey. That we were moving to a foreign land or that today it was winter but tomorrow it would be summer. We could only think about making sure everyone was dry and fed. That our papers were in order, that we weren’t forgetting anything. That you have picked up and carried and reloaded and weighed each one of nine suitcases all weighing at least 60 pounds but no more than 70. These moments only come 9 days after you land, when you have a minute, a second, even, to exhale and say we’re really here. We did it. Even on the long plane ride through the middle of the night, the family illuminated by the sole light emanating from Sam’s seat-back monitor playing Toy Story 3 at two in the morning, the entire journey was surreal. Even as we watched on that Sam monitor our tiny electronic figure of an airplane creep across the Caribbean, over tiny islands without names, into South America and over the Amazon, clocking our velocity, altitude and forward wind speed.

8:50 a.m. Friday, December 3rd. We landed in Brasilia.

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