I'm Shipping Up to Boston

And just like that we're back from a 10-day trip home.

At first, only big AC was supposed to go, after the yearly Vegas trip (which he actually missed last year, but this year, I didn't mind him going because we are both so homesick and burnt out).  But he and a friend reminded me that with Kid B on the way, there may not be a chance to go home for a very long time (DEAR GOD NO).  So we got tickets, big AC headed to Vegas on a Thursday, and little AC and I headed to LAX that Saturday night (big AC met us at his sister's the next day).

The main goal of this trip was to empty our storage unit, which we'd had since 2003!  It was bittersweet but needed to be done; 95% of maternity/newborn/baby items were in there.  And through the whole process, we saw signs that this move is cursed and something (someone?) doesn't want us here: our flight to SFO was canceled due to weather, and thus we had to fly into OAK and be bussed to SFO; big AC barely made it by 8:30 the first morning to get the quantity of our stuff assessed for an estimate; and, despite the 1-3PM window we were given, for once the movers were on time and showed up at exactly 1PM, when we were still taping up boxes.  This meant that my mom shipped a large USPS flat-rate box, and we FedEx'd one 40-lb box and one flat 29-lb box with artwork--all of which could have gone with the movers if we'd had even 1 hour before they got there.  (Don't ask me what happened. I honestly couldn't explain our time lapse!)

Highlights:

• Taking two nephews (brothers) to dinner at Panda Express and having non-stop (though hardly serious) conversation.
• Seeing my very good friends for dinner our first night in SF, and meeting baby Cody.  
• Hanging out in Hayes Valley, and stumbling on Off the Grid before hitting La Boulange and Timbuk2.
• Eating at Darby Dan's (an AWESOME sandwich shop in SSF) and In-n-Out.  
• Watching little AC play SO MUCH with her cousins.
• Getting a chance to catch up with my sisters-in-law.
• This will sound mean, but watching big AC make 2 of 6 siblings from one family miserable: one by scaring his 2.5-year-old niece to tears by simply pointing at her, and the other by horsing around with his 9-year-old nephew and pretending to stuff him in the cat tower...on his birthday...only for everyone, including his parents, to learn that he's allergic to cats!
• Watching big AC hold and feed his second-newest niece without being asked.
• Hearing 2 of my nephews say "please take me with you! Don't go!" :(

Despite having shipped the last of our stuff , this does not mean we are moved to Boston permanently.  Not by any means.  Especially since the day after we came back, I got an email from Stanford, telling me that the last job for which I applied (and phone-interviewed) had its description changed, in case I wanted to apply again...

Oh, and the last sign that we don't belong here?  Our flight back was scheduled to leave LAX at 11:30PM. It left at 12:30AM, after the crew decided to save time and SHUTTLE everyone across the tarmac to meet the plane after it refueled since it had arrived late!

How I Spent My (Indian) Summer Vacation, part deux

We arrived late in the afternoon at LAX.  Little AC fell asleep before the plane even took off, which was nice.  But due to a miscommunication (*cough BIGAC cough*) our ride didn't know we were landing around 4:30, so we had time to peruse the Int'l terminal.  After being picked up, we got stuck in LA traffic (of course) but managed to have dinner with friends that I hadn't seen in several years before arriving at our final destination, big AC's sister's house.

In SoCal, we toured by public transportation because big AC was too scared to rent a car for fear of another accident.  Luckily, LA has made great strides in that area.

USC-season-ticket-holding friends gave us their tickets for the game against Arizona; little AC decided she wanted to stay with her cousins so big AC and I had a date of sorts.  We arrived early, and had planned to leave early so we could make it in time to our niece's 3rd birthday party, but due to construction and bad schedules it took us TWO HOURS to get across L.A. via bus...all so big AC could have some free food at the party.  (Taco truck.)

The rest of the trip: we went to the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History...

...Chinatown's Phoenix Bakery, Plaza Olvera, and Little Tokyo (the pics must be on my phone!), where we scored more Hello Kitty stuff and my favorite tea, Genmaicha by Yamamamoto, on sale at Nijiya...

...the Los Angeles Zoo, where my little one finally saw elephants (the zoos out here don't have elephants!)...

(this sure made me wanna buy a Rep-Tile!)

...and ate as much yummy food as we could.  I also had a phone interview with Stanford, which went okay. (Despite the woman telling me that she'd let me know either way where I stood within two weeks, I still haven't heard anything, and the position is still posted on the website.  Also, if you are interviewing someone on speakerphone, you might not want to keep zipping and unzipping your agenda or whatever near the mouthpiece AS IT IS MUCH LOUDER IN THE PERSON'S EAR and quite distracting.)

The biggest highlight of the LA trip was seeing how much little AC enjoyed playing with all her cousins (except the 7-year-old that was annoyed by her, which caused A LOT of friction). Hard to believe he was bummed to see us go (he was asleep when we left for the airport) when just a couple of days prior he asked, "Next time you guys visit, can you just leave her with a babysitter?"