Old Man Morgan

While I recognize that it has been over 2 weeks since I last blogged, the truth is that essentially everybody who reads this blog knows why … and has been in regular contact with me during my lapse. The reason – of course – was because I was in the USA attending Josh’s graduation and seeing a multitude of family: Chris and Paul (sons); Liz and Daniel (daughter-in-law and grandson); Stacy and Courtney (girl friends of Chris and Paul); my mother … and an assortment of other folks.

Overall trip was great although I had to work too much during the “vacation”. I came home absolutely exhausted after generally getting only 4.5 hrs sleep per night. I pretty much collapsed over the weekend. I am going to talk to my manager about “clawing back” some of my vacation time … I think that 2 or 3 days (at least) should not be counted as vacation.

Words cannot express how proud I am in watching what fine adults all three sons are becoming. I am proud of each and every one of them. More on this some other time.

Trip home from the US was pretty much uneventful … which is good … and lasted nearly 48 hours. The layovers in Chicago (5 hrs) and Singapore (8.5 hrs) were pretty tough – especially Singapore, where I landed at 1120 pm … and my flight to Jakarta was 750 am. One that layover, it turns out I had to recheck in (which I knew) but my bag was checked all the way to Jakarta (which I didn’t realize at first). But all went well on that. Bags arrived intact – but had to pay $100 for having my suitcase over weight.

To stay busy in Singapore during the layover, I did a little shopping at Duty Free and a candy shop. Then, I found a TV and watched it … my eyes were far too tired to read. Finally, the time passed.

When I got home, I distributed the goodies to everybody: bling-bling and shiny make-up to Chely and Thasya (went over well – Thanks Liz for helping me pick out the items); candy necklace to Chely (got a good laugh); mac n cheese to Thasya (got another good laugh); new phone to Chely (got a ‘wow’); garlic salt etc to everybody (got a thanks); and the new camera to Decy for Mother’s Day (got a wowee !!!!). On the new camera – by Sunday I was instructed by offload all the pics from the new camera and her old camera – and then there was a “custody transfer” … and Decy took FULL POSSESSION of the new camera.

When I came home, I found Thasya in a brace on her arm. Seems while on her week-long field trip to Yogyakarta somebody fell off of their bike in front of her and Thasya’s bike crashed. We had the arm x-rayed on Sunday and all is fine. Sounds like Thasya had a great trip.

As for Chely, she’s moving forward with school and getting closer and closer to graduation. Her prom dress is very pretty and nearly ready to go, but it is going to have to be taken in a bit due to Chely’s recent weight loss. RE her dental work, all 4 wisdom teeth are now gone and the root canal done. I think the new crown is to be placed on today. After the 4th wisdom tooth was removed, Chely’s teeth started moving so fast (in the braces) that it is causing some mouth pain. However, Chely is working thru that.

Decy stayed very busy while I was gone. Between having a Makassar friend over for a few days, having reunion from old school friends from Soroko (I spelled that wrong) in Central Sulawesi, and working through all the normal challenges she probably hardly knew I was gone. NOT !

Showed the family my new electronic picture frame and got lots of oh’s and aw’s. Decy promptly said she wanted a big one for the wall. Ahem … maybe next time.

Yesterday I worked on downloading / consolidating all the pictures; although I didn’t file them yet on the external hard drive … and haven’t yet fired up the new 1 tera-byte external … but I will this weekend.

Spent some time this past weekend reviewing all the paperwork on Chely for her to attend UCONN … and exchanged emails with the school. Seems they can do the Meningitis vaccination there (which we have been unable to do here due to lack of vaccine) … therefore, just need to wrap up those details. Oh, and I double checked some coorespondence – Chely will move into the dorm at UCONN on Monday 16-June … after orientation and health screening – MOM – PLEASE NOTE.

Guess this is a big week for me … turning 50. We have the lunch planned at my office with approx 70 invitees (those I work the most closely with) … don’t know how many will attend. It is Indonesia tradition that the “birthday person” hosts the commemoration event (lunch or dinner). Given that this is the big “5″ … “O” I will do my part. Afterwards, I am taking Thursday PM and Friday off. Haven’t yet made any night time plans.

** OH, got an email from Chris – he arrived safely in Johannesburg, S. Africa on Sunday morning … last leg to Durbin was supposed to be Sunday mid-day.

Gotta close this blog, time to eat breakfast and need to write some notes to Decy about UCONN.

Ciao ciao …