I recently received these two photos via email and had to share…
First the Nelson girls just a few days ago:
I had to share this one of my sister and sweet nieces! I can’t believe it’s cold enough to wear hats there again!
and now a blast from the past with the Paris boys:
Ray and Eric at Ray and Jennifer’s Wedding in 2004!
Eric and I had a great visit back to NC between Sept. 28 and Oct. 11. We were so glad to be able to connect with many of you! Eric also had the chance to finally meet our newest niece, Summer, who is now just over 4 months old.
The two got along well, as you might imagine. The first time Eric changed her diaper, Summer recognized right away who she was dealing with and promptly tried to pee all over her uncle. Luckily Eric was prepared. A few days later, Drew (my brother-in-law) asked Eric and I to try to keep Summer awake for about 30 minutes longer in hopes that she would sleep a little later into the night. Summer was not excited about it and just wanted her bed. As you can see from the photo below, all she wanted was to lie down…so she ended up looking a little broken in Eric’s arms.
I had a good time getting some close-ups of her too. Unfortunately for the sweet girl, I caught her mid-sneeze at one point! This picture cracks me up.
We spent our NC time going back and forth between Raleigh and Chapel Hill. First 3 nights in Chapel Hill with my sister, then 4 nights in Raleigh at Eric’s parents’ place. My parents also joined us in Raleigh for a few nights. We then had a hotel room in downtown Raleigh for 2 nights courtesy of Eric’s work, then back to Chapel Hill for 2 nights, then another 2 nights in Raleigh. Whew!
Since Eric’s brother, Ray, and his wife, Jennifer, brought their kids Rylee and Tyler over to my in-law’s place a few times, we were able to spend a decent amount of time with them too. It was my first time to see any of them since January, so I was thrilled. Tyler took about 2 minutes to warm up to me again, then came and snuggled up in my lap. He spent the rest of the time upside-down on the couches and chairs or crawling under the dining room table. The boy never stops! Rylee is reading like crazy and already told us that she wants books for Christmas.
They love their Uncle Eric!
As many of you know, part of our reason for being in town was because I had to have a minor medical procedure. It ended up not being as invasive as they thought it might have to be, so I ended up feeling pretty good just a few days afterwards. Thanks to everyone who asked about me.
I also had the chance to check in with my friend and wonderful orthopedic surgeon, George Edwards, while I was there (even though I was very disappointed that his wife and kids and I missed our opportunity to hang out due to various colds and coughs and mixed up schedules). In mid-August or so, I jammed two fingers during capoeira practice. It hurt, but I didn’t think much about it, taped them up with masking tape, and kept practicing. Turns out, I had chipped off a piece of the bone in one of my knuckles, breaking my first bone ever! Truth be told, I was a little excited to hear it. Luckily, it has been healing well on its own, so nothing needed to be done for it.
The reason I went to see George…er…Dr. Edwards…was because around the same time that I broke my finger, my wrist started to bother me. About two years ago, I fell trying to keep up with my Mom as she ran to a Taylor Swift concert. I was actually yelling at her to please be careful b/c I didn’t want her to fall and break a hip. Serves me right. I ended up with a painful sprained wrist for about 6 months.
This time it’s the same kind of pain. George says it’s probably a ligament tear, but of course he can’t tell without an MRI. I’m currently resting it…which is stinky because capoeira involves a lot of handstands, cartwheels, and on the floor movements. Our big end-of-the-year event is the last week of November and the first week of December, so I’m not foreseeing getting it back into great handstand shape by then. I’m using this time to work on my kicks and adjust my game to include more standing movements, plus I’m working on my one-handed cartwheels.
We’re now awaiting the visit of Eric’s parents during the first week or so of November! Looking forward to showing them where I’ve been holding their son hostage for the past 10 months.
One more thing:
A friend of mine showed me this. For those of you who don’t know Spanish, the sign says: The psychologist told me: “You need support!”
But the play on words is that “apollo” means support…but “pollo” means chicken…so it’s also kinda like you need a chicken…get it? Bueno, I thought it was pretty funny.
After our little outing to the soccer game and to the discoteca/bar afterwards, I chatted with some folks at capoeira practice about the game. I mentioned that we went out nearby afterwards, and since the stadium is not in the most savory area in town, they wanted to know where we had gone. When I told them the place was called La Birra, they were all shocked! Apparently the place is infamous…for what exactly, I’m not sure, but they were surprised that we (read: Matty) had made such a splash at this place. I was proud.
Matty and Eric were happy to spend most of Saturday watching college football, courtesy of some kind of Roku magic. That night, we decided to finally check out Trump Tower. I know, I know, a rather political decision in this day and age, but really, it’s a big famous building here and we hadn’t seen it, so it was time to check it out. Unfortunately for Matty, who again is from Texas, the nice restaurant in the building is called Tejas. Oops, sorry Matty. Luckily for him though, it’s not a Tex-Mex place. It actually doesn’t even have a stereotypical Texas theme. Not a single horseshoe in sight. NO idea why they named it that. Decent food. Not fabulous, but decent.
Next, we met up with our friend Moisés at a bar in the same building. You may remember Moi as the first guy to invite me into the roda at my first capoeira practice. Sadly, for many reasons that I don’t fully understand, he left our group about 6 weeks ago, and I don’t think there’s much luck that we’ll convince him to come back. Very sad.
Anyway, I think we were the only patrons at Tejas even though it was a Saturday, so we moved on pretty quickly. We met up with Moi’s friends at a pretty happenin’ (obvs I’m down with today’s lingo) place called Altabar. Super trendy. Moi’s friends had ordered bottle service and were very nice to share with us, but none of the three of us were really up for dancing and even Moi didn’t seem super enthused about the placed, so Matt and Eric and I excused ourselves after an hour or so.
Moí! My long lost friend. Some drama within the capoeira group caused him to leave us, so Eric, Matt, and I invited him out with us for a drink to celebrate his bday at Trump Tower.
Matty wanted to hit up one of the beaches nearby, so after some searching on airbnb.com we found a place on a beach called María Chiquita for a good price. It had a huge pool, a beautiful beach, and a restaurant on the hotel grounds…an added benefit since there weren’t any real restaurants for at least 30 minutes from the hotel. We were excited. The owners live in the City, and when we met them to get the key, they offered to let us get there early and stay late, essentially giving us a whole extra day on the beach. Plus, I recognized their Brazilian accent and got to use the very few Portuguese words that I knew that weren’t the names of capoeira moves.
So…we drove the 90 minutes to the beach, basically going from the Pacific to the Atlantic at Colón, then taking a right turn and heading up the coast about another 30 min. We drove down a dirt road through a small town for maybe 7 minutes, then came to a gate in the middle of nowhere. From there we could see the three towers of the hotel building. It was a little surprising when the guards at the gate didn’t need to check a list for our name or anything, but whatever…we were there.
As we drove up – in the rain, I forgot to mention…great way to start a 36 hour beach trip – we noticed that the place was a little desolate. Okay, a lot desolate. A huge place with 3 towers, 10 stories each, and there were only 4 cars parked there?! Hmm. Definitely creepy.
Turns out we were the ONLY guests in the entire place. The ONLY ones. JUST us. It was the weirdest thing ever to walk around this giant building and not hear or see anyone. We kept saying it felt like we were in The Shining. I half expected to see a creepy pair of twins in the hallway.
So besides that weirdness, it was raining. All day. Not normal Panamá 30-minutes-of-downpour-then-it’s-over kinda rain, but a steady NC dreary all day don’t-go-to-the-beach-today rain. Ugh. So there we were, stuck in our creepy hotel in the middle of nowhere, all laying on the bed watching a movie and napping and praying the rain would let up for a minute.
We eventually decided to just go down to the pool and make the most of it. I chatted with the lonely bartender outside who was only there for us while the boys scouted out the beach, then they went for a swim. Too cold for me. Nice pool though! We had fun with the glass side, as you can see from the pictures.
Long story short, we ended up not staying the night due to weather, lack of open restaurants nearby and lack of enthusiasm for the creepy feel of huge empty buildings. Thanks for showing Matty the best of what you have to offer, Panamá.
