Birthday Missive

A lot has happened in the past three weeks, since last I posted. I flew to DC, and saw Kyna before she headed to an out-of-town conference. She wanted my help in thinking about her work! It was cool. It’s as if I were evaluating something related to health, and needed her understanding to take it apart to its elements. Who knew our occupational lives could intersect like that?

I don’t have a picture of our confab, but suffice it to say, plenty of Ethiopian food was consumed. Instead, enjoy this pic of her at our Mom’s house, laughing, because the cat on the counter is such a weird thing to see in our Mom’s house. Mom has totally co-opted the cat, or should we say, the cat and her sister have totally co-opted Mom. Mom and Bob let them get away with anything, including them sitting with their dirty cat butts on the counter, whereas when we were kids Mom wouldn’t even have let US sit on the counter.

So Kyna left to her conference, and I settled into packing. The next day the movers came. Whatever wasn’t part of the building was promptly covered with copious quantities of bubble wrap, brown paper, or wide straps of tape. And usually all three. The kitty condo looked like a space antenna. Raya stayed hidden in a closet so I’m sure she was suprised to find it gone when she emerged.

The next day Ramon arrived from Islamabad to help with the move. I was pretty much packed by then, except for the small matter of eight suitcases full of stuff and a bike in a box, but I’ll get to that later. Instead we spent a couple of days meeting friends (Tony got to meet Ramon first!) and enjoying DC. On the Capital Crescent Trail:

On Friday night – Ramon’s birthday! – we gathered up Kyna from the airport and met Ali and Shane for a National’s game. Kyna pronounced Ramon a smashing fellow, or something like that, and Ali reiterated that he doesn’t really like sports. Shane wowed everyone with what he knows about obscure topics like the Nation’s Pastime, and where to buy Dippin’ Dots. All around it was quite a trip.

The next day Ramon and I flew with all the stuff to Bogota. We didn’t bring Raya, though. She is staying in my condo, but with Kyna, in DC. I thought she would feel safer there, and surrounded by what she knows and loves, rather than dragging her to Bogota. (This meant calling the shipping company so they could return the kitty condo! Imagine explaining that to someone. That, friends and family, is my life. Seemed perfectly natural to me, to explain to the shipper, a fellow named Sam, that my cat was perhaps a bit mentally unstable for such a journey.)

Ramon and I, on the other hand, were livin’ the high life in Bogota by that time. We went downtown one day and saw the bets placed on the guinea pig races:

 

We also enjoyed a great Ciclovia day. The rest of the week was a whirlwind of dinners, a bit of touristing, introducing Ramon to my friends and coworkers, and a really painful goodbye.

I loved having him here, and I can’t wait to see him again. (C’mon, November!)

Thankfully I had my birthday this week to look forward to. My boss (in the pink shirt in the picture below) and another colleague (the other guy) walked up to Monserrate with me first thing in the morning, to start the day juuuuuust right. It was very much “straight up” – a stairway, basically, that goes up maybe 1000 feet in 45 minutes’ hiking.

Gorgeous views all the way up, and I soaked my eyes with nature. It really was a beautiful start to the day. Then we rode down in the funicular, which I hadn’t done yet.

That night Ramon spoofed me, pretending he didn’t remember my birthday. Something to remember on his birthday next year…