Anyway, since I was going to be in Texas for the shower I figured it would be a good time to see my youngest sister Kate who goes to Baylor University in Waco. I even convinced Margann and my parents to meet me there. Yeah! Family reunion in Waco! When we showed up at Kate's house, the three of them went inside to say hi while I waited outside for 30 minutes or so for Maximum Surprise Effect. These things become very important after being in transit for 16 hours and changing planes twice and then driving 2 hours. The surprise was achieved with great satisfaction by all parties involved - once Kate realized it was actually me and not a housemate who had gotten shorter and paler and dyed her hair. Funny how for a split second that actually seemed reasonable...
My visit was timed so that we could attend two of Kate's soccer games. I haven't seen her play in ages it seems. And when I say I haven't seen her play recently, that means I haven't seen ANY soccer played recently because, frankly, I'm only really excited about it when she is physically on the field. Even if she is on the bench, I probably spend about 75% of the time watching her ("Oh now's she's sitting. Ok, she's standing now. Her arms are folded. Is she pissed? Her biceps look great. Oh wait, is she looking over here!? She is! Hey! Hey Kate! Over here! Hmm I wonder if she saw me."), 23% of the time wishing she were playing and thinking how much better she would be playing than all those other wusses currently on the field, 1% of the time paying attention to the score, and 1% thinking, inevitably, that I need to work out more.
It was probably a good thing that I wasn't paying attention to the actual "game" since I'm not sure there was so much of that going on.
Margann and I wore the appropriate supportive gear.
Kate's 21st birthday was October 3rd so we had a belated celebration in our hotel room.
To be honest, there is not really that much to do in Waco. Over the years, I have been conditioned to expect that being a tourist = fighting the crowds. Not so in Waco! Determined to do something besides eat and shop at Target, we sniffed out the Historic Waco Foundation, which has preserved several historic homes in the area. We decided to visit "Fort House", where we were very eagerly greeted by a few elderly female volunteers. It was only then that it dawned on me that there probably aren't a lot of visitors to the historic homes in Waco. (To be honest, there are probably not a lot of visitors to Waco, period.) Between one volunteer who seemed to run out of breath after every three words and another who continually talked over (and possibly contradicted) her, it was pretty exciting. At one point, several minutes (and rooms) after telling us about the life and travels of a woman whose portrait hung in one of the main living rooms, the breathless lady said "Oh, I forgot to finish the story of [haha yeah like I remember her name??! Are you crazy??]" We adopted our polite listening faces (you know, when you literally have to force your eyes to focus), ready to stand there for a while since she'd left off her story when the girl was still pretty young, only to hear "She got sick and died 6 months later." Good story.
My parents went back to Portland on Monday, leaving Margann and I to stay with Kate until Thursday. I'm a little pissed that I missed out on decorating Kate's room when she first moved in, but her and Margann did a very nice job. I love her room! And her private bathroom, and her walk-in closet, and her adorable house (which is in a gated community and has a pool... wait HOW CAN THIS BE COLLEGE?).
Super cute, right? Margann took that pic above the bed our Italy/France trip earlier this year. I love it.
While Kate was in class, Margann and I got our deep clean on. I could not help but marvel at her counter and under-sink space since I have exactly zero of either one. Put everything in the cupboards and drawers - et voila! Clean! I'm jealous. Not quite as jealous as Kate's housemates when they saw us cleaning and doing her laundry though.
Staying with Kate reminded me of how horrendous it can be to live with housemates. Luckily, Kate lives with only three other girls (and each have their own bedroom) but somehow they still manage to make a serious mess of the place. Obviously, everyone is bound to make messes sometimes, but it doesn't matter too much when they clean up after themselves. Well, somebody (they know who they are, and they WILL know that someone else knows who they are when I figure out how to work this voodoo doll thing) decided to do a helluva a lot of baking on Sunday. Baking is messy. God knows I'm the messiest baker in the world and I can see how cleaning up might be a bit tiresome, but ya do it anyway. Two days later, the baking mess is STILL there, only it has gotten a thousand times more disgusting - all hardened frosting and stagnant water. Blech. Of course, no one knows each other well enough to be like "Dude, clean up the kitchen" so everyone is tip toeing around the mess as if it will magically go away. The mother of said mess seemed quite convinced this would happen when I saw her at the scene of the crime making a sandwich whilst blissfully humming to herself, completely impervious to my negative vibes.
The pictures don't really capture the disgustingness (or the smell). You would not believe the evils that granite countertops can hide. One morning, Kate leaned on her forearm while eating cereal and HER SWEATSHIRT STUCK TO THE COUNTER. Dude. That ain't right. Anyway, you know the end of this story... forced to choose between having a nervous breakdown or swallowing my pride and cleaning up the mess of someone who has done nothing but annoy me, I chose the latter. It took like half an hour, by the way.
Between Kate's classes and soccer practice, Margann and I had a lot of time to do nothing - which is exactly what we did... by the pool, in perfect mid-seventy degree not too humid weather.
On Thursday, Margann and I headed to the airport. She flew back to Portland and I hopped on a 35 minute flight to the Houston airport, where I met Sherri and her mom, Dorothy, who had just flown in from Seattle for the baby shower. Michael and Paulina did not know I was coming, so I hoped it would be a good surprise and not a what-the-heck-is-she-doing-here surprise. They are nice though so I would never know if it was anything but a good one. The baby shower was Friday night and since guys and girls were invited it was more like a fun cocktail party. The food was yummy, the desserts were even better, and there was plenty of good wine to go around. We didn't play any of the usual lame baby-related games, but Paulina opened some of her presents. It was so fun to see all of the adorable baby stuff.
On Saturday, Paulina invited us to go to an ultrasound with her. Did you know they do 3D ultrasounds now???!!! It is amazing!! You can seriously see what the baby looks like. Unreal. It is in real time too so we could see the him frowning and yawning and smiling (and generally trying to prevent us from seeing him properly).
Big cheeks! I can't wait to see pics of this little (big) guy outside the womb come December!
I left Houston on Sunday and Jeff picked me up from the Birmingham airport on Monday morning. I'll be back on a plane in 3 weeks though headed for Seattle and Portland for Thanksgiving. I think some bake mac and cheese and broccoli slaw will be on the menu.
