When will the jet———lag stop?

After our backpacking trip with the kids, we headed north to Mount Shasta to visit my father and sister Ludmilla. When I last saw my father, his wife had just died and I had to leave him to get back to training at the FSI while he waited for a hearse to take her body away. Since then, he still grieves and the strongest image of him in my mind was my departure. He now lives with my sister and niece (Sonja) and my sisters’ boyfriend, Jeremy.

My sister Nina came down with my nephew Peter and his girlfriend Clara. We had a splendid evening one night when Clara and Peter sang for us and then my sisters and I sang rounds with guitar like we used to in our youth. Dina’s parents joined us as well. I didn’t get to spend the quality time I wanted with Milla and my dad so after we left, I returned for 3 days with my sister Alex and the kids. Dina stayed in Portland to relish in her time alone to Goodwill shop and visit friends. Oh that Dina is a real fox! Anyway, it was great to spend the time driving in the car with Alex and more one-on-one time with Milla and my dad. He turns 84 today. Happy Birthday pop! I know you can’t stand it but I’m glad you’re still around.

I do so much love Portland! We visited our friends (Dave and Elizabeth, Kathy and Lee) and hung out with Alex, Nina, Peter, Helen, and Elliott at Powell’s Books, Hawthorne Street, our house on Reed College Place, dinners at Dave and Elizabeth’s while our kids play with each other, the gondola ride up to OHSU, our dentist (Dina’s cousin Roger), and Dina’s colleagues at Hanna Andersson. I did miss friends I really wanted to see (Vivian Tong, Paul Fick, and colleagues at OHSU to name a few).

The condo Rajesh and Kshama let us stay in was very nice. It’s right on the Park blocks and walking distance to PAM, the Pearl, and right on the MAX metro line. All of our time on vacation was spent with great friends and family. We wasted no time and really enjoyed ourselves despite the heck-tic schedule. Even shopping at Ikea and Whole Foods was pleasurable (when you don’t get to go for a whole year).

The flight home was another story. We had last minute pressures to clean the condo, pack, box some books for shipping, buy and deliver consumables to Dave and Elizabeth’s house to be shipped to Niger, and get to the airport to drop off our rental car before flying. I have nothing good to say about Delta Airlines except that they are a partnership with Air France. There is no comparison. We flew from Portland to Atlanta. They overbooked the flight so we had to wait over an hour while they took someone’s luggage off the plane and then blamed the weather for the delay. The flight attendants weren’t very friendly. We were hoping to miss our connecting flight to Niger so we could stay in Paris for a couple of days and would have had it not been for a flight delay to Niger. The kids barely slept the entire 26 hours except for the last 4 hours coming to Niamey.

We were all zombies and still are a week later. The kids have been up most nights from 2AM until 5AM and then we all have to get up to go to school and work. I’ve overslept on several occasions and had no time for breakfast or coffee. One day in particular, I took my blessed home-roasted ground beans and filter to work, only to arrive to a full waiting room of patients. I don’t do well before coffee but I was forced to perform and play doctor. It was 11:30 before I could sit down and have my first cup.

Last night I was reading “Three Cups of Tea” until midnight and planned to sleep in this morning. I was awakened by a patient at 8:30AM. “Welcome back!” I heard them say.