I should have known better than to think I was going to get anything done this week in Florida.
This has been a crazy week so far. Not just our (M and me) running around trying to see everyone, catch up in one hour-or-two visit, impossible, we’ve done so much, changed so much…in two years, after living in freaking Sarajevo of all places, our already Euro-centric ideas becoming more so, it is going to be impossible; we are going to have to move on, accept the fact that our lives have changed, irrevocably, that not only have we left this world of sprawl, but we have entered a different world (with a much smaller understanding population). It will be time to face that fact that I am an expat, have wanted to be one since I was 18 and first stepped foot in Europe, have sort-of acted like one during these ensuing 10 years, and that now it is happening, for better or worse, mostly better.
But even better than the whirlwind visits is the family life. First of all, there is no blame in any of these observations, I hope that is clear. There are 8 people staying in this home right now. M’s paternal grandmother is here, and she is essentially a stress bomb. Fortunately she only speaks Slovak, so I can’t understand what she’s going on about, but boy does she go on about whatever-it-is! And loudly! So, 8 people, one stress bomb, you figure it out. We’re managing pretty good anyway, I would say…but programming, reading? …uh, no, not for this needs-absolute-uninterrupted-blocks-of-time-to-think guy.