Tag: travel

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A Dog and a Magic Show

Summer’s phone started ringing pretty early this morning, so we didn’t sleep in very late. My legs felt swollen all night even after I woke up and put a pillow under them to lift them up slightly. It was a really slow start to the day, but we eventually got ready and everything packed to go to Eureka Springs. Eli came over because Eaddie was staying behind for their anniversary. I had to run to my parents’ house for a shirt that Dad forgot, and the dog food he still had since we were out of the good stuff that Muad’Dib liked.

I liked the back seat protector I got for my car, so we set it up and loaded Muad’Dib up, and we headed up to Arby’s for some lunch before we left. We tied him to a light post outside where we could see him, then made the trip to Ozark to charge and get snacks, and give him another break.

That stop went well, and he handled the ride perfectly up to that point, but we were about to hit the curves and I was a little bit nervous after he threw up in Eaddie’s car the other day. He took it like a champ though, and calmed down enough to play with his little stuffed raccoon that we brought for him. We stopped just before we got to Eureka for another quick potty break, and he jumped right back into the car without any trouble.

My parents were getting a group together for dinner, so we arrived at La Familia Tex-Mex just before everyone started ordering. I tied Muad’Dib up on the deck outside and gave him a little bowl of food so he wouldn’t look so abandoned. I checked on him a couple times, and then Summer and Dad went out after they ate. She ended up spending more time with him while I finished up, and then we finally made it to the hotel.

We got checked in, and then I took Muad’Dib around the parking lot for a run to burn off some of that pent-up energy he had from the drive. He did pretty well, but was expectedly excited to be in a new place. I did learn that he really needs a rigid leash instead of an elastic one, because he responds perfectly to the feedback I can give him on a rigid line. The elastic completely ruins that feedback loop for us, but makes it more awkward than just going outright off-leash. We eventually made it down to the convention center for the evening magic show, and it took him a while to calm down, but he did eventually lay down in the floor at my feet.

The show was really good, and I was surprised at the amount of people in the crowd. When we got back to our building, I ran him around the covered walkway since it had rained slightly while we were at the show. He still had a bunch of energy and pounced on Summer in the bed for a while, but eventually laid down in the floor by me while I worked on my computer. I was up a lot later than I intended, but there’s nothing new about that. We’re only here for one day, so we’ll have to figure out charging tomorrow sometime, while also having somebody that isn’t allowed everywhere we might want to go. He’s still been great, but that’s why I chose this familiar trip to learn how to travel with a dog.

No accidents yet!

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Handoff the White

We should have gotten a much earlier start today, but we were all tired from the long week of excitement. Summer went down to meet Eaddie for coffee while I got things ready, and then we loaded up both of the kids to go home. We made it back to Terre Haute for a charge and ate at the adjacent Culver’s. They had just opened with a stunning crew of at least eight or nine people. Somehow they didn’t seem to have things right, but the food tasted fine.

I plotted a trip through Springfield, Missouri so we could eat at Lambert’s Cafe, but the kids started asking if we could meet Eli’s parents along the way to hand him off to them. They were pretty far ahead, so I pulled over in Effingham until they figured things out, and we managed to reroute to our same stop from the trip up in Salem to charge. By then, going through Springfield would add an hour to our trip, so we decided to go home the same way we came up instead, and skip the food.

When we got near Sikeston for our next charge, I saw a sign for Lambert’s, and realized their second location was actually just right up the road from the Supercharger, so we had our restroom break, charged, then went to eat. It was mid-afternoon, but they were still packed with a short wait to be seated. It was cold outside, having seen slightly freezing rain back at Culver’s from the wind, but we basked in the sun until they called our number.

The food was mostly pretty good, but I had possibly the worst steak I’d ever eaten. It tasted like boiled meat. Eaddie described it as tasting “wet.” I mentioned it to our server when he came by, and he brought me a cup of the seasoning they were supposed to use on it, and that helped. I mostly filled up on the pass-around sides though. Eaddie and I chowed down on their fried okra, which was perfect.

From there, we made it all the way down to Jonesoro, but it felt like we took more back roads than on the way up. It took us forever to get to the Kum & Go where we had charged before, and when we left, we ended up having to charge again in Conway, possibly due to weather or elevation. It was a super dull ride the rest of the way home in the pitch black, and it was too late to get Muad’Dib, so we left him with Dad for one more night, and we’ll get him tomorrow when we’ll actually be able to spend some time with him.

The universe has assured us throwed rolls.

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Cosplaying as NPCs

Summer and I got up a little earlier this morning and headed straight down to Comic Con. We got to see most of Andy Serkis’s panel, then went to watch a bit of The Threepios Star Wars parody band for a bit. We ended up leaving that and I learned that William Shatner had a panel as well, so we stopped by to see that. He seemed old and senile with his story telling, so we actually left after just a few minutes of that. We failed to find anyone at the Ghostbusters cosplay meetup, but I did finally convince Summer to start taking some pictures with the cosplayers that she really liked. We stopped by to see our vendor friends and eventually made it back to the big ballroom to see Katee Sackhoff’s panel.

By then we were pretty hungry, so we headed over to the mall for some lunch. It was just as sad with everything open as it was when we arrived at closing time. At least half of the stores were abandoned, but there was a food court in full swing. We had a couple cheesesteaks before making it back to the con.

We found a part of the vendor floor that we hadn’t visited before, and got to see a pretty incredible NeverEnding Story photo opportunity that included pulling Artax out of the Swamp of Sadness, a backdrop of Morla, G’mork in a dark hole of rubble, a Pyornkrachzark statue, and of course a rideable Falkor. They looked like big, strong hands to me.

We saw several celebrities from a distance. Summer wanted a sneaky picture of Tony Danza and Lou Diamond Phillips, but I told her we might as well just find better pictures online. We sat in on Sean Gunn’s panel, where he talked a surprising amount about his time on Gilmore Girls, to which I had no idea he had any connection at all. Fan questions were mostly either about that, or his brother James’s plans for DC.

After Sean, we moved super close to the stage and got to see Rainn Wilson. He tried calling Oscar, who declined the call because he was watching a movie. Then he called Creed, who actually answered. It was a great, funny panel. Following that, we should have stayed for the cosplay contest, because as soon as we left, we saw the line for re-entry wrapped all the way down and around the hallway.

We ended up going back to the vendor hall where several of them had already left, or were in the process of packing. Our friends were still there, so we said our goodbyes and walked out the other far side that we still hadn’t visited. We got to see a replica of the old Batmobile from Adam West’s days. We managed to squeeze in for a few minutes of the cosplay contest, then grabbed a couple soft pretzels on the way out. On our way back to the hotel I heard one more panel going. It was a magician by the name of Paul Draper, so we stopped to watch the rest of his show before making it back to the room for the night.

That’s a wrap!

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Conventions

I thought we would go to Comic Con this morning, but Summer wanted to spend the day watching the bands play at the Indiana Historical Society. I got wrapped up in my phone trying to figure out how to record the livestream, so I missed out on walking through the museum, but then we sat through several different bands. Some of them were super good, but others you could tell were getting tired, including ours who played near the end of the day. We took a break for lunch in the cafe downstairs, watched the kids play, then split up again to walk back to the hotel.

By that time it had gotten pretty late. We didn’t realize the vendor floor at Comic Con was closing so soon, but we found Elaine and then walked around for a little bit. I paid $20 for Summer to sit for a photo in a flying, time traveling DeLorean. Then she tried to sneak pictures of Ernie Hudson. We also saw a couple of the Reno 911 guys, Katee Sackhoff, and William Shatner from afar. Katee had the biggest line by far, and I think tonight would have been our best chance to actually visit with any of them, because it was pretty quiet at that time. They’re expecting a real flood of people to show up tomorrow.

As they closed things down, we stopped to see if Elaine wanted to go to dinner with us around the block at Dick’s Last Resort. She had been socializing with DC, Mario, and Erik from the Carrillo Art Studios caricature booth next to her, so we invited them as well. It took them a moment to get packed up, but the three of us walked down and met the three of them at the restaurant.

We got seated reasonably quickly, but service was incredibly slow. It took almost two hours to get our food, but luckily it tasted pretty good, and our server was definitely on the nice side of “rude” to us. It was still a fun experience, at least for me. The other three were anxious to get back to their lodging, and then I offered to run back to get my car so we could drive Elaine up the road to her bed and breakfast.

It was a straight shot to the garage, then an easy drive to the bed and breakfast. As soon as we got back to the hotel, Summer crashed and I wrapped up as quickly as my ADD-riddled brain could handle.

They feed on the attention!

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We’ve Been Conned

We slept in pretty late today as a reward for the long day of travel before. Summer finally made me get up so we could find our way to the opening ceremony. Eaddie got lost trying to find her way back to get us, but luckily we ran into Phoebe in the elevator, who got us to the right place. The ceremony wasn’t really “for” us, but Summer wanted to experience it. It was a huge mob of people, so it was neat to at least see all of them in one place.

After the ceremony, we tried to find our way back to the room, but immediately discovered how easy it was to get lost. I changed so I wouldn’t be overdressed, and we eventually took the car across town for a charge and some late lunch. The place turned out to be a co-working space, and there was a huge room with a bunch of food vendors, and even a barber. We ate at a burger place called The Bull Grill, which was super good. I particularly appreciated that in spite of being very tall burgers, they stayed together perfectly to the very last bite.

We headed back to the room again after that, until we got a text from Eaddie that they were going to the mall down the road. We thought that was our indication to meet them since they had discussed going together, but after a super long walk through a maze of escalators and skywalks, we arrived at the mall just in time to hear the closing announcement.

The kids wound up walking further up the road to eat at a nitrogen ice cream shop, but Summer and I weren’t really interested. We crossed the road and used my old gift card at Steak ‘n Shake instead. I still had money left after they closed our location at home, so Summer got a cherry Diet Coke and I redeemed a free birthday shake.

We decided to take the sidewalk back to the hotel since the weather was so nice, and as we walked past the giant convention center, we encountered a poor girl struggling to roll three giant suitcases down the broken and cracked sidewalk ahead of us. She even had a cane on top of one of them, so we decided to cautiously approach and offer assistance. We eventually learned that her name was Elaine, and she was there to set up a vendor booth for Growing Geeks Clothing at the Comic Con happening this weekend. A security guard refused to let her in and told her she had to go to the opposite side of the building to the registration desk. Fortunately we encountered another guy rolling stuff in a side door he had gotten through, so we helped Elaine get everything inside.

She was so thankful that she wanted to give us her extra exhibitor pass, but I wasn’t sure we would have time. Summer eventually caught up and jumped at the chance to go to the convention, so we ended up getting her to the registration desk, helped her locate and arrange her booth, and even hung a bunch of clothes on hangers for her. It was fun to make a friend, and by the end of it as we were walking out, we decided to go ahead and buy an extra exhibitor pass that she was allowed at the discounted rate of $50. When we got to the registration desk, the girl just handed me a pass for free after having her own long day, so Summer and I would both get to go together.

Not really believing our luck, we made our way back to the room for the night. I called my parents to share the excitement, and then Summer found Spider-Man: No Way Home on the TV, so I got sucked into the rest of that as she fell asleep. I was up too late in a mixture of ADD fog and ruminating about the dogs, but I eventually got there.

Buncha nerds.

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Indian Police

I woke up in a bit of a daze this morning, low on sleep after nightmares about Muad’Dib getting out of the back yard. I jumped right into getting cleaned up for our trip, the girls and I all went out to say goodbye to one super excited puppy, and we made our way to the Courtyard just over the interstate to meet everyone that was driving up in the convoy.

Eli rode with us, and the trip went really smoothly. We stopped to charge and snack in the Jonesboro Kum & Go. When we got to Miner, MO, the others stopped at McDonald’s for lunch. The charger was too far away for us to walk though, so we left the kids and Summer and I took our food to eat in the car while it charged. We got the kids back and made it to Salem, MO where a super excited Cybertruck owner walked out of the adjacent Subway and made a beeline straight for me. He shook my hand and we chatted for a while before he left to head the opposite direction. We went into the restaurant for a quick break and some cookies, then got to Terre Haute to leave Eli with his family.

The girls and I charged just up the road, then made it to Indianapolis where we went straight to Fogo de Chão for a nice dinner just blocks away from the hotel and convention center. The girls were hesitant until we got there, and then their eyes lit up as spears of fire-roasted meats danced by our table. The food was super good and it was a fun experience, but we filled up super fast and it wasn’t a great value in spite of the variety. I probably wouldn’t go again, only because of the price.

We walked back to the car and finally found our hotel, parked in the underground garage, and checked into our room. Eaddie’s roommates got back from dinner and I walked her upstairs to meet up with them, then headed back for bed after a long day of travel.

Brazilian Beasts

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The Long and Unnecessary

I got up to pack this morning and started to take a shower, but then I thought I heard Julie scream “LET ME OUT” from somewhere across the house. The next thing I knew, Mom was up the stairs looking for her. It didn’t take us long to realize she was just screaming about hot and cold water shifting due to a flushed toilet. I continued packing until it was my turn to shower, and then I came downstairs to help clean up the food we had in the fridge. Julie made omelettes, and I ate mine with some leftover hot pepper oil and the last of the injera.

We got everyone loaded up and out of the house just in time for our late checkout, and someone we presumed to be a housekeeper pulled up just as we pulled out of the driveway. We went to get some food for Bác Tuấn and let the adults go in while Julie and I unloaded the goodie bags we made the night before.

I left her to chat, and when I got back to them, Uncle Tuấn had started feeding himself really well. I thought he was going kind of fast though, and after a little while we realized he was just packing his mouth with food but not swallowing. Bác Trân had him spit out a HUGE wad of food that nearly filled an entire plastic cup, he rinsed his mouth out with some water, and we gave it a rest for a bit. Otherwise he was in good spirits though, and was very lucid.

Dad and Julie spent nearly the entire time talking to the staff to get the real story of what happened to bring us across state lines, and we basically learned that we were there due to poor communication across the board. Lan was visiting fairly regularly and making an effort to care for him, but was not doing a great job of rehabilitating him. Nobody held this against her because she was simply not an occupational therapist, or a doctor, or a professional caregiver. Instead, she was simply acting as a traditional Vietnamese wife trying to do her duty to care for her ill husband. Unfortunately, what we did witness was her loading him up on low value, non-nutritional treats because that’s what he would eat without any fuss. She didn’t want to hear any feedback from us though.

Bác Tuấn was very capable of feeding himself, but did have trouble swallowing. The biggest problem was that he didn’t like the cafeteria food and had been steadily losing weight. From our family conversations/fights, it seemed like Lan, though well-meaning, was doing more to interfere with the care that was being given by the facility. She felt like they were stealing his clothes, and she said she told him not to take all of his medicines. On the other hand, his level of care did allow him to refuse their food and starve himself out. At least Lan was bringing him “things” that he would eat.

We were happy to see that he wasn’t on the brink of death, but the family drama that ensued all week was incredibly frustrating. They had the best intentions, but every single one of the Asians wanted to interfere with the staff who were operating like a fine-tuned machine. Diaper changing times and inspections were done regularly, but not at the pace the family wanted, so they would interrupt staff while they were trying to work elsewhere. I had to chase Bác Trân down constantly and wrangle him away from getting in the way. Not a single one of them wanted to trust the system, but on the other hand, nobody wanted to accept the fact that they would have to pay substantially more for more involved care that Bác Tuấn may not really need in the first place. Instead, the perceived meddling in the situation immediately put Lan on the defensive and made everyone combative. On the other hand, Lan can’t play the poor-English miscommunication card and then turn around and make her own decisions on the best care for him.

We didn’t have very long before Bác Trân’s flight, so Mom called Lan and had her meet us in the parking lot as we were leaving. For some reason, they told her about the gift bags we made for the staff, and she didn’t like that at all. She immediately wanted to interject on our simple act of kindness, and wanted to redistribute them as she felt appropriate, which simply wasn’t the point. Furthermore, it was our act of kindness to perform, with or without her. We had already spoken with those in charge, and were assured the gift bags would reach all of the souls who directly care for our loved one at all hours of every day.

Eventually we were able to shove off and made it to the airport. Bác Trân was able to navigate himself from the drop point, and we killed some time at a restaurant called Paris Bánh Mì. The others had more traditional sandwiches, but I had one on a croissant. I would not recommend that because of how greasy and soggy it got. The sugarcane drinks were good, but may have been from a mix and not actually from fresh sugar cane. Overall I thought it was a super cute place though, and I thought the food was pretty good. They even had Korean corn dogs, so Julie and I split a half sausage/half cheese dipped in Hot Cheetos. She didn’t like it, but I did.

After we ate, we stopped at what was easily the cleanest Oriental grocery store I’ve ever seen. It didn’t smell funky, but had all of the usual goods. Mom said she wanted snacks, but didn’t buy anything, so we headed on back to the airport and waited a few hours for our flight.

While we were waiting, another flight was waiting for a whole new crew. The lady at the desk misspoke and said they were still waiting on a captain, which got a chuckle from everyone in the area. Bác Trân’s flight was delayed and then later cancelled, so he ended up staying the night in the airport hotel. Our flight came in quite a bit later, but we eventually got loaded up and flew home. It was a long flight and everyone was pretty tired, but Julie got us home without incident. I had her stop at the old house so I could turn off the light that the restoration folks left on all week. Then we dropped her off and they took me home.

The dogs knew something was up, so I went out to see them first. They were super excited, but behaved well and just laid down and nuzzled my feet while I scratched their bellies. Summer was asleep, but I let her know I was home and eventually made it to bed after an exhausting week.

Ring around the rosie…

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Western Hierarchy

We didn’t do breakfast today, so I quickly toasted some bread for a couple more dried pork foldovers. We got out of the house early to pick up some phở from the same restaurant we’d been going to, and took it to Uncle Tuấn. He still had something in his mouth when we got there, and was super groggy and disoriented. We got him cleaned up, and then Julie did much of the feeding. Lan eventually showed up and finished the job as he became more aware of his surroundings. She kept cramming him full of more and more, even after he finished an entire serving of phở, and Julie was worried he was going to be made sick. That was the start of it all.

Julie wanted to go to Open Rice for a dim sum lunch, and Lan and her sister followed along slowly after us. Our server was great, and worked around our family feud incredibly well. Julie ended up picking a fight with Lan over turning in the dim sum menu, which turned into a fight over unearned Asian family hierarchal respect. It got loud super quickly, and we just continued to pass apologetic glances back and forth with our server.

The food was good, and Dad won the race to pay the check, which got Bác Trân a slip of receipt paper that said “Happy Lunar New Year” on it. She really was the best server I think we’ve ever seen. Lan’s sister brought a plastic sack full of nylon webbing that was “like parachute rope” for Julie to take, but of course she didn’t want any of that. They disappeared and I decided to walk the block to Best Buy to charge my watch a bit more, because I figured they’d be right behind me.

Nearly an hour later, my watch was full and they finally made it to the car so we could leave. We went back to the house to rest for a bit, and Julie and I sat out back with some beers in the nice weather. Mom came to get us when it was time to get dinner, and they tried to take him some leftovers from lunch while Julie and I crossed town to find a Costco to make goodie bags for the staff of 35 we were told cared for Bác Tuấn.

We got a bunch of stuff, then stopped at Michael’s for some craft paper for notes, and made it back to the nursing facility just before closing. He ate something Lan had brought, and we eventually all loaded up to leave. Julie had everyone in an assembly line to make goodie bags, and then wrote over 40 “Thank You” notes to not only the 35 caregivers we were told, but also some extras with the extra goodies we had.

With that, it was finally time to settle in for our last night in the Airbnb. We’ll have to check out pretty early tomorrow, but only after packing up and helping to clean up some of our mess in exchange for getting an early check-in and late checkout.

Diacritical Hit!

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Family Reuniration

I didn’t sleep great on the hard, flat, box spring-like mattress last night, but it could have been worse. I was pretty tired, but not as tired as I would find myself after another full day with the family. Dad got up and started making some breakfast. I made it downstairs and made myself a couple eggs to eat with the rest of the Ethiopian leftovers, and it was absolutely spectacular. I may have some eggs with the last of the injera tomorrow. Bác Trân brought a load of shredded pork with him for some reason, and kept setting out bowls of it in the kitchen, so I kept eating little bits of it any time I would pass by. Mom always made it with chicken when we were younger, but it was all pretty similar.

Julie ended up taking the adults to get some food for Uncle Tuan while I got ready to go. I hate shower curtains because they always blow in toward the shower. This one was twice as bad because my shower had a window with a curtain that stretched the span of that entire wall. So there I was, taking a shower between two full-sized shower curtains, having a terrible time. It could have been worse too.

I noticed a vehicle parked out front before Julie got back, but he got out when she pulled up. He was here about a couple maintenance issues she reported, and then he was gone. We headed on back to Park Village to visit with the family, and Uncle Tuan seemed to be doing much better than the night before. He seemed to be all smiles, had eaten all of his soup they brought him, and Julie even had him talked into rolling outside for a bit of sunshine.

I wasn’t ready to blame it all on her, but when Lan showed up, things seemed to shift. The Vietnamese started flowing, so nobody else could keep up. Their voices escalated as they always do, and we could see Uncle Tuan’s smile shift to mild anguish and eventually some tears. It was all we could do to force all of the adults out of the room to have their discussion elsewhere, but from that point on, Uncle Tuan was back to being disinterested. I don’t know how much of him was ever there, but the family needed to make a better effort of keeping things positive around him.

Dad found us a room across the property and I said my peace. Then Julie and Lan came down and Dad and I ended up going back to sit with Uncle Tuan. We watched Teen Titans, but didn’t make any other progress after that. Eventually the rest of the family came back around and they wanted to go eat, so we drove up the road to Phở Hoà for a late lunch with Lan’s family.

The food was pretty good, and then we had them over to the Airbnb for a tour. I caught up with Summer while she walked the dogs, and the elders took a nap. When they were ready to go back, Julie and I dropped them off while she went to a wax appointment in the city. It happened to be right next to the Best Buy, so I went there to stand by their Pixel Watch display and borrowed their charger to get my watch back up to 97%.

Julie actually finished before me, but I found her at the car and we headed back to the home to visit. Lan had brought him some more food from home that he ate, which seemed to have spirits up again, but then he was getting a little hazy from his evening medication so we left for the night.

Lan really wanted to show off the house she just bought, so we drove way across the city to see that. She was there with one or two sisters, but I couldn’t be sure without speaking the language. She had some nice things, but overall it felt more like a college roommate situation than anything else. We stood there for a while before we finally made it out.

Julie and I spotted a Jack in the Box nearby, and I was a little bit surprised to see that it piqued her interest as well. We stopped on the way out to try and get some food, but they were only open for drive-through. Julie wanted to order at one closer to the Airbnb so the food wouldn’t get so cold, even though it meant driving past our exit and then turning back. Neither restaurant had good reviews, and they definitely messed up our order, but it was interesting having a late-night munchies type meal with the elders.

After that, everyone fell out pretty quickly. It was a long, difficult day, and I honestly couldn’t predict whether the next two days will be even more difficult, or if they’ll turn around. Eventually a decision will have to be made, and I just don’t know how well it will go for someone who thinks it’s 1990-something.

Oh, how I’ve missed these little talks.

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Half Awake

I got to sleep in a little bit from my normal work schedule, but still had to hit the ground running. I had all but a couple of things packed and ready to go and thought I might have enough time to take the dogs for a quick run, but after staying up so late to pack, I just didn’t make it out. Dad felt like we were super late, so he sped over to get me and then had to go back and get Mom, but they could have just finished loading themselves up first.

After a harrowing trip across town, Julie took over and got us to the airport. We got parked, through security, and onto the plane without any trouble or much wait. Things seemed pretty quiet in the airport. We had a straight shot to Charlotte, but then that airport was under major construction. It was a mess getting out of there, but we finally got our rental van and made it to the Airbnb.

It was an old house, next to some brand new construction, all behind a church. It seemed like an odd place, and just a couple blocks away there was a coliseum where Jo Koy would actually be performing on the Saturday after our departure. The house was pretty rough, and it basically looked like someone moved out and filled it with a bunch of cheap furniture to rent out. I suppose it suited our needs at a better price than multiple hotel rooms, but I think I would have preferred something with better housekeeping.

We didn’t get to spend much time settling in because we had to get back to the airport to get Bác Trân. If anyone thought it was a circus before, then I don’t know what it turned into at that point. It was a wonder he didn’t get kidnapped, but with some help from a kind stranger we found him and loaded him up. Julie wanted to look for food, but we went back to the Airbnb first to get him settled. I finally got a call from the Genesis Cancer and Blood Institute to schedule my visit, and of course that’s another two weeks out. Then we ended up going to an Ethiopian restaurant just up the road called Abugida.

We struggled to get some help with the menu at first, but after talking to who I presume was the owner, we ended up on a big platter for all of us to share. It all came with one spoon for serving, and the rest was eaten with our hands. I think it went much better than any of us expected, and the food was great. Mom ended up using the spoon to load her injera, but everyone got fed.

After we ate, we went further into the city and found a Trader Joe’s, which I think was too organic for everyone but Julie. Mom wanted some sweeter coffee creamer, and they didn’t have any eggs, so Dad and I walked to Target a couple of blocks back. Julie drove Mom and Bác Trân to meet us, and we got the rest of what we needed. Importantly, I got some Simply Spiked and mango Blue Moon for Julie and me.

Most of us were up too late once we got back to the house. I eventually had a video call with Summer to catch up. Julie and I sat in the dining area on our laptops for a while, and eventually everyone but Mom and Bác Trân went to bed. They stayed up in front of the TV until the wee hours of the night, talking too loudly and watching gameshows.

Half Asleep