party hardy

snapper had her first birthday party today, with beautiful pictures courtesy of nate.

while she loved all the toys and books the received, the timing was a little off and she had to go to bed before she got her first taste of cake. maybe next year!

semi-circumnavigated

alas, i’m finally back.

where did everybody go?

to answer your immediate question, india was fine, i guess. to be honest, i don’t even know if i feel like i visted india at all. sure, i was IN india, and i certainly saw some of india, but i don’t know if i really visited india. going anywhere on business is drastically different than going somewhere as a tourist, especially if you’re being shuttled from nice hotel to office to western restaurant by a car service the entire time. it leaves none of the actual experience of travelling, such as getting lost, trying to figure out how to buy a ticket for the bus tomorrow, and why is someone trying to sell you a jar of yellow mustard seeds when you actually just want a ticket to new delhi.

i will say this: indian traffic is CRAZY. all the stories are true and it’s truely a sight to see. lanes, lights, all semi-ignored, yet everything flowed with a swarming (in)efficiency that results when thousands of people get together to play a huge game of automotive chicken. and of course it’s fine for them because they’re used to it. i’m even more impressed at the pedestrians who cross the street. additionally, i now see that i can no longer complain about crappy commutes: while it may likewise take me 45min-hour to get to work, at least i’ve actually travelled for about 45 miles, as opposed to the 5 miles that would take over there.

as for london, having three days to tool around because of the weekend and bank holiday was of course a wonderful luxury. lots of museums, walking around, and running around trying to find gifts for the girls with dubious results. i did manage to catch the merry wives of windsor at shakespeare’s the globe theatre, which was a lot of fun.

but i come back home to an empty house. everyone’s gone off to burning man, and the girls are in lost angels. i’ll probably hop back onto a plane maybe as soon as tomorrow so i can finally see snapper again.

and away we go

here she is: ever since dancing around with auntie cheryl a couple of days ago, all snapper wants to do is to grab my hands and walk around the house. she even walked a couple of steps on her own, but of course, you never get to film those, right? but instead here she is, blazing around the room. at this rate, she’ll be walking before she’s one., for sure she’ll be running around before i get back from india…

nuestra vida loca

just to catch you up on the crazy things going on here.

originally we were looking to see if we could start a new nannyshare with sam this week, to try and ease snapper into child care as well as give hmc some time to start looking for some gigs up here.

and then she gets a call asking her to work. immediately. in lost angels. starting, oh, monday.

it would be a vfx coordinator job, picking up shots on oliver stone’s “w”. which i still can’t believe is a real movie. i keep thinking it’s a youtube joke. being it’s last minute extra shots, the job would be incredibly hectic, and would be 6 or 7 day weeks for 5-6 weeks. which would mean that we’d have to find someone to look after snapper for almost full time for a month.

oh, and did i mention that i’m going to india/uk on business for a week and a half starting on satuday?

after much consternation and heart-wringing, hmc decided ultimately to do it. we’re running around scrambling to get all of our ducks in a row. my parents were delighted to be able to take snapper for a month, although now hmc’s parents are also jockeying for their share of time.

everything’s a whirlwind now, and we try not to think of the huge looming things in the slightly farther future. such as hmc’s impending gig on tim burton’s alice in wonderland project. and then the other thing that’s been looming for, oh FOREVER that might actually come to a head soon.

oh, and how was your day?

what hath we wrought?

we were at mijori sushi with xz, danger, mamaluna, and maya, having a great time. the kids were in high chairs, eating, not eating, reaching for food, dropping food, having fun, being fussy. it’s a lot of fun, and then i look around and realize that we’re that table: the table with the screaming yelling babies, causing all the ruckus.

and then jen & todd show up with elijah and river, and it all goes to hell because we’ve instantly doubled our screaming baby count.

awesome.