Saturday, September 18, 2010

September 18 - unedited, rough draft...

I've been up since 5, and would like to go back to bed for another 4 to 6 hours, but I've been plagued by some sort of illness that is causing me to toss and turn and night. The effort to find sleep for a few more hours isn't worth it, and since there are few quiet hours to write in my sister's 3-child home, 5 AM writing it is. And actually in New York, this would be my ideal writing time anyway - I think around 10 pm or so - or so I think. I'm too lazy to look up the time difference and do the math. (Then again, I'm also somewhat of a perfectionist, and so I'll tell you now that it is actually a _ hour time difference, and the current time in Manhattan is....

Which means that it is still September 18th in the States, which makes me feel better for writing a post on September 18 as if it were still September 18th.

Today started, for my dad, at 4:30 in the morning. He got up and out of bed to shave, thinking that it was at least 7 AM. When nobody else seemed to be getting up, he finally checked a clock in the kitchen and realized that it was probably in his best interest to get a few more hours of sleep.

Meanwhile, I was on the 2nd floor, tossing and turning with a pounding headache that was a continuation of my miserable fever and cold that struck me down and held me hostage to my bed the entire day before. Honestly, I don't think my head has ever hurt so badly in my entire life, and I questioned if I would be able to join my family for the days festivities. I finally determined that as long as I didn't pass out while I was in the shower, that I would join my family in our adventure to (city name). After all, today is the reason why that my family has gathered in Germany and I knew it meant a lot to my mom to be present.

Just before 9, my family (as in my sister, brother-in-law, plus kiddos, plus my parents and my brother Mike), loaded up the vehicles and headed out of Frankfurt on the autobahn, which I've learned, is not without speed limits. In fact, in a good number of areas on it quickly and somewhat drastically changes limits, and if you're not careful, you'll be caught on camera and mailed a rather pricey speeding ticket. Needless to say, my brother-in-law learned the hard way his first 6 months in Germany, receiving not just one, but rather several autobahn speeding tickets.

My sister and brother-in-law have been living in Frankfurt for almost 2 and 1/2 years now. More often then not when I tell friends that my sister lives in Germany they assume that they are with some mission organization and ask me which one. I then explain that my brother-in-law does International Business - which to be honest, I'm not sure is entirely true, but I feel as though that description is decently accurate and so I've been standing by it. Meanwhile my brother Mike (who is into all sorts of conspiracy theories), tends to believe that our brother-in-law is some sort of spy for the US government. I find this theory rather unlikely - especially since his company is transferring him back to Indiana. Among cornfields doesn't seem the most strategic of locations to place a government spy. Then again, he does have to travel a lot for his job... hmmm...

So my family drove about an hour (directionwise) of Frankfurt to a beautiful town called (?) located in Germany's countryside. And there we reunited with relatives, who I hadn't seen in 12 years

Now I know I'm in Europe, where such a holiday isn't celebrated, but
if I could best describe the day, it felt an awful lot like Thanksgiving.
We ate a ton of food, and simply enjoyed each others company.

Mid-afternoon we field tripped to a nearby winery, and then to a famous monument called (?)
Back at the house there was more eating...
And then a walk to a nearby park where there was an outdoor ping pong table, in which some intense competition took place among the men.

As we loaded up the vehicles and started return to Frankfurt, my mom started to cry. Which caused me tear up. I hadn't considered that this very well be the last time that my mom sees her German relatives.



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