Alone Again, Naturally

Tis the day after the holidays, and we came back to our house

But it was silent and foreboding, not even the neighborhood louse

Was smoking and lurking and daring to dare

Poor mommy had to cheer up a Lanes without muttering a swear…

Our apartment is deafeningly silent.  It is void of my aunt’s constant chatter and my uncle’s laughter at my four year old, Lanes’, antics.  Our Lanes has been uncharacteristically quiet now that her geriatric sidekicks have left.  She muttered that she was sad she had no one to play with in her room.

I offered my services, but I was diplomatically rejected (and I was a little dejected that  I was not considered ‘fun’).  She gave me a slightly patronizing, quizzical, sad look, which I am sure will be akin to the one she will give me when I drop her off at college and announce that I have decided to go back to school with her. Such are my plans. Unless her father beats me to it.

Knowing that it will be difficult for Lanes to bid adieu to our guests, we accompanied my elderly relatives to the US.  They stayed with my sister for three days before flying off to the motherland. We stayed a week, or more like ten days, with my sister as her daughters were on holiday.  Since Lanes hero worships her ‘big sisters’ we thought it would be a good diversion for her.

I stayed up far too late every night I was there, mostly because I just didn’t want the day to end and I wanted to spend time with my nutty sister, even though she tends to drive me up the banana tree.  As with moms, we seem to only have time to discuss and reflect after the three girls are in bed. One night, she was surfing through the menu of a French restaurant and started reading the reviews in French.

She found it funny to translate them into English with a French accent (even though her terribly long-suffering spouse and I, her unwitting and unwilling audience, can speak the language).  She sounded like Inspector Clouseau on crack. I was half waiting for her to bust into Lanes’ room and announce ‘arrezt ze bebe’.  Seeing how irritated her new accent made me, she made it a point to speak like that for the last three days of our visit. I guess she didn’t want me to miss her too much when we left.

Lanes cried most of the way up to Canada. I had to pry her away from her cousins, who looked equally doleful.  The only thing that cheered her up as we dragged her across the border was the prospect of seeing our really nice friends in Surrey, who we had not seen in ages.  They were really sweet and invited us to dinner and that cheered all of us up, even though we were pooped and were probably not the most entertaining company as a result.

This morning, Lanes was back to preschool.  We were both super sluggish, I have no idea how we even got dressed and ready.  She had somehow meandered into our room and I was dreaming that a baby hippo was sitting on me. When I woke up in the morning, I realized it was because Lanes was sleeping on top of me. No wonder I call her half a camel.

As it is, I am still in a post-holiday daze. I have to force myself to get into the routine of cooking, cleaning, laundry, running after Lanes down the hill after school, dashing to the supermarket, only to forget what I was going there for, dodging neighbors, getting myself into trouble. The usual. I am so brain dead, I barely can string words together for this blog. 

If Lanes and I can get through today, we will be back on schedule. It was very lonely and quiet coming back from school today by myself after having got used to being flanked by my aunt and uncle and their lectures on road safety. Having lunch alone again, will also be a challenge. I shall have to add chocolates to my menu today. Any excuse.

Next week, we are thinking of running off to the east and exploring Canada a little bit. My diligent spouse, P, is a guru when it comes to actually making use of air miles. In between a little tweaking and many phone calls to various airlines, we got some good deals to go to Ottawa!

We are thinking about going to Montreal as well. Maybe I should invite my sister, since she is so enjoying her ‘parlez Français’ phase. Maybe we can leave her there then? But then she is very handy in raising my very low blood pressure levels, so I might have to bring her back. I shall put it to her, but if she answers the phone saying ‘mais oui oui’, the deal is off. 

I must go and fight the urge to take a nap since there is laundry to be rescued and dinner to fixed. Hopefully, as the week progresses and our travel plans take shape, I'll shed this funk I seem to be in. Next week's blog is from Ottawa! Hopefully...