Scary

It has been a whirlwind of a month! First Mom came to visit for about a month and that usually coincides with one of our kid´s birthdays (this time it was Sebas´ turn). So there was a lot of running around in the beginning of April to create the most magical of Star Wars birthday parties! Except if you´re a girl or a boy under the age of 6 and then you pretty much hated the party because Darth Vader and Darth Maul were the scariest things you had ever seen in your life.

Then Mom left right after the birthday party and Dad came with his wife about 2 days later to spend Easter weekend with us. It was a great visit, we did a lot of touristy things that I don´t normally get to do with Mom.  We went to the Ballesta Isles in Paracas to see the wildlife, we went to pisco tours to learn about that whole process, and we went to do the sand buggies in the Ica dessert, something I had never done before which was really cool and highly recommended, except a little scary much like this plane ride I´m on right now.  The kids had a blast and so did Dad and Marisela.  This was followed by the yearly Easter weekend festivities at the beach for which Dad helped me make sangria, we escaped scary close encounters in the “running of the bulls” (much like this plane ride I´m on right now), and then the boys went to the bull fights while the girls stayed outside preparing to be grossed out by the sight of Sebas holding a bloody lance and bull ear given to him by a Spanish bullfighter.

Then right after Easter weekend I got on a plane to Chile for work, it was really cool to visit a country I had never been to before. Chile is beautiful and reminded me of our time in Geneva. Contrary to judgement passed on to me by some Peruvians, the food in Chile is actually pretty great (ok, I didn´t actually try any Chilean fare but what I did try (French, Argentinian, Mediterranean) was) and the wine was also pretty good (I got 4 bottles of wine “to go” from our business acquaintances in Chile and left 3 at Mara´s house (or rather drank them at Mara´s house) and gave the 4^th one to my sister).

Then I did the craziest trip – Chile-Lima, Lima-Dallas, Dallas-Boston to spend the weekend in Boston meeting Mara´s new baby and going to an MIT reunion. I was so tired after the Chile-Lima flight I almost didn´t get on the plane to go to Boston but I am so happy I did.  I loved meeting Mara´s baby, I loved going back to my favorite Boston places (Legals, Toscanini, etc.), I loved seeing familiar faces at the MIT reunion (and was inspired to no end to hear what amazing careers classmates just a couple of years older than I am are having), I was INCREDIBLY surprised by a day visit from my sister! (she made me cry so hard!), and was happy to catch up with my MIT friend Cindy too.  

I might be scared out of my wits now on this plane ride (see storm below), and I might have felt soooo guilty to extend my time without the kids by more nights than necessary, and I might feel super guilty too because of missing work, but you know what´s really scary? The thought that because of all those things I might have missed out of an incredible weekend with friends and family. I feel so lucky to have seen them and hugged them and cried with them and laughed with them and to have met Mara´s baby who´s the cutest thing (reminded all of us so much of my daughter as a baby!).  YOLO seems like a pretty bad cliché at this point, but truly following that attitude will get you to some pretty cool places to see some pretty special people.  People who, in a moment of insanity, I agreed to do a very hilly half-marathon with in October.  Now that´s scary! J