April 2, 2008

Home again, home again...

I've been back from my trip to Miami for a couple of weeks, but I'm only just getting around to writing about the trip. I'd gone up for the Gold Coast Railroad Museum's (my former employer) annual Day Out With Thomas event and I had planned to do a lot of shopping and visit with a couple of friends while I was there. I did have three whole weeks. Unfortunately, the Thomas the Tank Engine event induces an amnesia similar to the one women get after they give birth and I completely forgot how the event and it's preparations would suck up every spare waking moment of my three weeks. I did see one friend outside the museum and I did get to do a little bit of shopping but, other than that, it was all Thomas, all the time. Fortunately, I really do enjoy the company of the people at the museum. One big, vaguely dysfunctional but, usually, happy family.
As for my real family, at home in Costa Rica, well...they survived. By the time I came back, India wanted to fire the nanny herself, Tom was totally overwhelmed, the cat was sick and the dog, protesting the lack of treats, had turned to the litter box for her afternoon snacks. According to India, Daddy had been feeding her a fairly steady diet of french fries, tilapia and Cinnabon and the 'nanny', hired in the last few hours before I left for Miami, was "boring" and "too old to play". Tom called often with questions like, "Where is the pasta?", "What should I cook this in?", "How do you make the gnocchi?" and, my favorite, "India says the pesto sauce doesn't taste fresh, now what?" Also while I was gone, and adding horribly to Tom's whole single parent experience, was the water being turned off for non-payment. I guess since we'd gotten used to only seeing a water bill every 90 days in Miami, we didn't notice when our first water bill didn't arrive after our first month in the house. Seems that here in San Jose, the water bill is paid monthly. If you don't pay it when it's due, they shut it off about 48 hours later. The "nanny" didn't bother to mention to my husband that the water had been shut off until he came home, 8 hours after the fact. This would be a not-good thing for most people but, for Tom, who's a little neurotic about multiple showers per day, this was a four-alarm emergency, worthy of a near hysterical phone call to me - 3000 miles away. I was busy and tried to keep the amused giggling to a minimum as he did really seem to be wigging out. He went and paid the bill the next day and the water was turned on a few hours later. The bill that was past due? 3200 colones. A bit more than $6. Over the next couple of weeks, Tom seemed to get a teeny bit of a hold on running the house alone, but the night I arrived, he looked like a shipwreck survivor and begged me never to go anywhere again. He's got about 11 months to get ready for the next Day Out With Thomas. I'm not sure it's nearly enough.