Still Nothing

I'm on my third day here and I have done, well, absolutely nothing. It's rainy (and we are hoping for a good thunder and lightning storm... no luck as of yet) and I am still tired. Despite my 10 hour sleep my first night here, I crashed at 2200 last night, and woke up at 2. My brain was wired and I was thinking about pretty much everything, especially sleep, which did not come again. Tonight, I hope. I don't think I have ever desired bedtime to come as much as I do today... and I sure as heck not letting myself go to sleep early and waste all that energy I've put into adjusting.

In truth, I haven't done absolutely nothing. My first morning here, right after my 30 hour trip, we celebrated Kenny's birthday. It's actually on the fifth, but come on, at his age, is he really going to realize the party's a week early? We are off to the Drakensburg Mtns. next weekend, so it made sense to celebrate this Sunday. It was a very nice party. There are a few other families and kids in the complex. The kids made a ruckus and I tried to make conversation. Of course my brain wasn't working very well. So instead I sat and listened. The main topic of conversation was the kids. In truth, that seems to be the main topic of conversation of everyone I hang out with these days. Not that it's a bad thing...just an observation. But it is a topic on which I have little to say. Everyone once in a while I interjected a comment, such as my friend's mother-in-law gave her baby a lamb bone to chew on. That was about all I could add.

Then the topic changed to good restaurants and cars. There are plenty of good restaurants here, food at least is cheap (I had an amazing steak fillet for about $12). The cars on the other hand, are not cheap. One person was raving about her brand new 2008S class BMW (?), I think. I'm not completely sure. Way beyond my league, so I didn't pay much attention. I had to laugh at the women complaining about the new speed bump in my brothers complex. Apparently, her Ferrari is too low to go over the bump w/o scraping the bottom every time. I admit, I didn't feel very sorry for her. Was that wrong of me?

Afterwards we went to Sandton City to visit Nelson Mandela Square. The best part of the square (for me so far, the fountains were turned off so I can't compare everything) was the huge statue of Nelson Mandela. When I say huge, I mean I could have walked between his legs (the little ones did, I felt it would be a little undignified of me if I walked through the legs of Nelson Mandela. It just felt wrong). We ate at the butcher's Shop and Grill (guess where I had that fillet) and went home.

The next day we went to Rosemarket (I think that's wrong, need to check) and then to see "ratatouille." Yes, again. It just came out here, and as much as my brother kept saying Kenny wanted to see the movie, it so was my brother that wanted to go. I didn't mind. It was cute and it helped pass the time till I could allow myself to sleep.

For those that are curious, my brother and I are getting along. He keeps picking at me (unconsciously I believe) but I have come to accept that he will always do that. For example, he keeps telling me what horrible books the Harry Potter series is and continues to ask me why any adult will read them since they are so poorly written.... after I have expressly stated I really like Harry Potter. But I have learned it's okay for me to like this book, even if my brother doesn't and there is no need for the two of us to fight over it. So - I don't respond to him when he does things like that. How important is it really that we agree on a book, when we do agree on much more important issues - like pretty much everything in politics.

Today has been enjoyable, despite my tiredness. Frida fell asleep in my arms. Everytime I set her down to sleep, she would wake. So I spent about two hours watching TV and holding little Frida. And then I gave her back to her mom when the crying starting. Also, little Kenny has been running around calling me "Auntie Cheryl" all day. It's nice to hear.

So, that is my stay so far. Nothing fancy or interesting, but actually enjoyable. And I can tell you, I appreciate not sitting in front of the computer for 8 hours straight.