Wednesday, June 29

Happy quarter-birthday, Grace!

Today we did much of nothing. For a change of pace, we decided to trek to the other end of downtown, to the RRE, for breakfast at the Tide Table. We happened to meet the other family who'd had lunch with us yesterday. Running into them, while delightful, wasn't our plan. We had planned to query the daytime staff to see if they had found and squirreled away the other adopting mother's camera on Saturday when they were there for lunch.

There was a waitress who had been working on Saturday, and she recognized Claire and knew where the gals had been, but hadn't been the one waiting on them. She also didn't remember anything about a camera, but again noted she wasn't the one waiting on them. The one who had waited on them wasn't starting her shift until 2PM. We made a tentative plan for a late lunch at the Tide Table..

We sat at the table next to the other family. They were just wrapping up breakfast, and we didn't want to compel them to stay just to entertain us. We explained about the camera, and they were sympathetic to the other mother's loss. Thankfully, everyone says, she had a pair of cameras she was taking photos with, so she wasn't going to be totally without. Of course, she often carried only the small camera, so there are going to be a lot of gaps.

We, on the other hand, are carrying a pair of small cameras, and occasionally my cell phone, and the cell phone that works on the island. We seldom take photos, though. As I have re-edited my running documentation, thinking to throw a photo or two on each page, hopefully in context with the content of the page, I've realized how few photos we've taken. I'm lamenting the loss of her camera a little bit, too, as I think we were relying on her relative shutterbug habit.

We traded a few stories with the other couple. We shared the bit about how Claire angered the embassy by sharing the dude's wife's personal number with the other family when their visa was so imminently arriving, but they couldn't get in touch with him to arrange a late pick-up. Like everyone we've shared the story with, they agreed with us; it was probably a misstep, but a forgivable one given the circumstances, and that the wife did seem to not understand the difficulties with the whole ordeal.

They shared a funny bit about their birth-family. Evidently there's some disappointment that their son didn't know any Marshallese. Of course, they speak English at home, and know just a few words or phrases, like all of us short time visitors end up with. What was funniest, though, was when one of the family members asked, in all sincerity, if the boy understood them. Yes, as if he was born understanding Marshallese.

After a while, they were done, and their boy was amped up, so they took their leave and went continue their day. They did stay until we were done with breakfast, but we were lingering having coffee, postponing the trip back to the hotel room. Then I decided I wanted to go back, for some creature-comfort time.

On the way out we took a half-hearted swing into the Ace hardware store at the end of the building. I'd suggested that we might find a better box to package the handicrafts in. The one we have is a little beat up, but Claire wasn't into looking for another box, and said that we might have more room in the suitcases than she had originally thought. Between the baby supplies we'd used (one bag was practically filled with only diapers), gifts we'd brought, and stuff we'd brought but would probably leave behind for future families to use, there might be a fully empty suitcase.

We returned to the room, set Grace down for her late morning, pre-lunch nap, and took turns with the Mac. We flipped through reruns on the television, hiding from the midday heat, until housecleaning knocked on the door. The time had run away until 1:30, so we decided to get out of her way and relax in the restaurant instead.

As Grace and I headed right for the restaurant, Claire also took a quick run to the buildings at the end of the hotel to drop off the supplies. The Ministry of Education is literally the next set of buildings clockwise on the island from the hotel, and therein are the offices of the World Teach group where the other adopting mother wanted the supplies she'd brought to be donated. This was in part influenced by meeting Lauren, who worked with the World Teach, and suggested they would have a better chance of making it to students in need that way, probably on an outer island, no less.

Claire met up with us in just about the time it would take to trek to the end of the hotel and back. Well, and across the parking lot and to the next building and back, too. She'd found the office by asking a guy, who asked someone else, and pointed out the right door. They took Claire's information so they could contact her to get the other mother's information to send her a proper “thank you.” And probably to add her (and now Claire) to a list of people to hit up for other donations in the future.

Claire chose not to take part in the sushi buffet. It wasn't clear to me if she just wasn't interested, or if they weren't doing it any more, as it was getting close to the end of the time anyway. As excited as she was to learn about the weekly buffet, I think it lost some appeal when the whole kerfuffle happened with the embassy, and more concisely with the embassy dude's wife.

We ordered food, Claire relayed the story about her trip to the MOE, and we did the normal lunch thing. Uncle Sam joined us, sitting at the next table. We chatted a bit, and he re-invited us to his wedding on Friday, if we're still here, and if we're at all interested. I think he really wants some attendance, so we'll probably do that, if we're still here.

We returned to the room, again. We cycled through the normal things. Grace slept some, she wanted attention some, she needed diapers and feeding some. We flipped through television a bit. We checked e-mail and made blog and Facebook updates.

One thing about the Internet cards we noticed. While the rates are the same, when you buy the smaller cards, like the $10, or 100 minute cards Claire had to get the last time she bought them, they seem to go a lot faster. Personally, I think she's gotten a little more relaxed and has returned to “quickly” responding to e-mail while the clock ticks down. I admit, I've burned through a couple of the 200-minute cards myself, but that was interacting with the guys at work (which I haven't really done in a while—all is well, and they have neither given me any feedback on what I have done, nor have they asked for anything else).

Except when I know I'm going to send one-liners, I still open the e-mails to which I'm going to respond in separate tabs, author all of the responses off-line, and connect and send them in a flurry. Even posting blog posts only takes a minute. Yeah, sometimes I peruse the FB posts, I guess seeking a little taste of home, but that's generally also a quick scan, as most people (myself included) blather about nonsense that doesn't require much in the way of response.

To be sure, I'm not in any way admonishing her use of Internet time. Just noticing it as a change to the way things work, now that were more used to the way things work here. We've also grown accustomed to the timing in the restaurant, thus Claire's comfort with running an errand while I went directly to grab a table. We've also both made runs back to the room between ordering and receiving our orders knowing that the timing allows it. We're no longer as surprised at the kids running around and into the street. Stuff like that.

It was about 7PM when Grace finally settled in for what we hoped would be a longer sleep. She hasn't been doing the longer midday sleep lately. Mostly because we've been taking her out midday instead of hiding in the room. Since it was so late, Grace was sleeping, and Claire wasn't really hungry, we ate dinner in the room. Claire had a sliced apple, and I had a PB&J. We also plugged in the last DVD for the second season of The Big Bang Theory. We watched half of the episodes on it, when Claire declared she was sleepy enough to turn in.

I made one last check for embassy related e-mail. She had earlier asked the DHS people from whom she'd learned about our request's processing if they could also inform us of its shipping status. They had replied, again saying the request was approved, and that we needed to contact the consulate for our visa. Not helpful at all. They also included a PDF, which was a photocopy of the form they evidently use to note that the immigration visa request was approved. Also not helpful.

With this, I came close to burning the last minutes on our last Internet card. I took a 10PM jaunt out to the hotel lobby, and then to the shop across the street for more. The shop only had $5 cards left, so I nabbed four of them.

I returned to find Claire soothing Grace. Evidently, despite my attempt to catch and close the door quietly, Grace stirred when I left. Claire changed her diaper and was trying to coax her back to sleep. I gave her a bit of a bottle, and after three failed attempts to tuck her in, have her sleeping on the sofa behind me now.

The new Internet cards work for less than an hour each; I suspect those will feel like they go way too fast. I'm about to crack one open, to post this to the blog, and then I'm going to turn in.