“Turn and face the strange, ch-ch-changes…” sang
Davie Bowie, and that’s how it seems to us in the last couple of
months. Things have been changing all
over the place, and you either hunker down in fear or face it straight on!
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| We are not afraid of change! |
First, Suzi and Ethan took my adored nephews Griffin and Ado
and had the gall to LEAVE US! How dare
they! The house suddenly became ten
times bigger and eerily silent as the four of us rattled around our
palace. But due to some unpleasant
events and even more unsavory people (the details of which we won’t bore you
with), they ended up leaving three weeks earlier than they meant to, and will
return in December. The four of
us—Todd, Tia, Sasha, and I—sat looking at each other around the now enormous
dining room table. “Now you’ll have to
cook, Mommy,” announced Tia. “Sigh…no
more taco night, no more delicious stir fry, no seared tuna…” groaned Sasha…WAIT A MINUTE! I actually CAN cook, I just DIDN’T when Ethan
was around.
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| Mi familia |
Suzi and Ethan are now happily ensconced in a little
three-bedroom house in LA, their own house rented until the end of
October. The boys are back at Franklin
Elementary in the Spanish immersion program, and are realizing the benefits of
their Spanish year. “It’s so
EEEEEEEASY!” proclaimed Griffin. Yeah, without Aunt Steph breathing down his
neck and making him do endless pages of calligraphy, I guess it would be. “I am the only one in second grade who can
write cursive!” crowed Ado, whose cursive was better than Griffin’s back in
April. “And they are doing 4+7!! That’s so EEEEEEASY!” This from the kid who could multiply already back
in March.
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| Cousins |
Then came the startling news from our friends Cheti and Pat
that they were being PSC’ed (that’s Navy lingo for being moved) back to
Washington, D.C., and that the palace—I should say, The Palace!—that I
originally begged Pat to give to me back when we arrived here in 2011 would
actually be available in early September. “Why should we move?? No WAY!”
said Todd. “I like our
place. I like the pool. I like my cave. That’s a lot of work to move.”
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| Tia dining! |
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| Glorious princesses |
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| Into the kitchen |
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| Out of the kitchen |
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| Living large |
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| Zebra-themed to the ceilings |
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| Out to the patio and pool |
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| Master bedroom |
But I begged and cajoled and took him to tour The Palace,
and after the first ten minutes he agreed—as long as I would do all the work of
moving, give up some of my extracurricular classes, and take the trash out at
least half the time. I quickly agreed,
and we signed the lease last week. It is
a residence with a history, and a setting that is straight out of the 17th century, complete with a coat of arms over the copper-studded wooden entrance,
a statue of Jesus, massive oil paintings of the Madonna and other religious
figures, interior columns flanking an enormous covered patio, and an Olympic-sized
pool set into an English garden.
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| Front door complete with coat of arms |
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| Cristalera interior courtyard |
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| Staircase with San Jose |
Todd is facing an ENORMOUS change: Yep, he is actually getting
out of the Navy. He vacillates between
exhilaration and terror; leaving the nest of the Nav after 26 years is both
hotly desired (no more deployments to Iraq, yay!) and fear-provoking (why am I
walking away from a perfectly good job in this economy????). I tell him about how good the life is here in
Spain—flamenco, padel, horsebackriding, fiestas, cooking, traveling—so we have
all our visa materials together, have reviewed it with the Extranjeria in Cádiz,
and fly to New York mid-October to make it official. We’ll stay here in Spain at least another
year so that Todd can finally learn to play the bulerias, become a competent
padel partner, and surf his heart out this winter. Not to mention travel a lot!
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| Todd is going completely native |
And speaking of change, Tia has some changes going on, too:
getting rid of her braces, having her own room for the first time (yes, The
Palace is big enough for that!), and starting a new school. Tia graduated from her primaria (elementary school) to the secundaria, the Spanish high school. We tease her about having to go back to first
grade, because that’s what they call it: first grade of secundaria. Sasha is
relishing having a room of her own, too, and is already making lavish plans for
decorating it. The girls decided to
change in their hamster for a bunny, and while initially skeptical about The
Palace, they are already planning a big pool party.
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| Look Mom, no braces! AND a mini-horse! |
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| Growing up |
A very sad set of changes occurred in the pet department,
aside from the hamster/bunny exchange.
Our cat, Circles, jumped off the balcony back at the end of July. We searched diligently for her, making the
rounds with posters and flyers, calling all of the veterinarians and animal
protection agencies, posting on Facebook, and doing everything we could think
of to find her. I finally located her
microchip number and sent it out to everyone.
A week later, we got a call from a private animal kennel saying they had
her! We joyously went to pick her up,
only to learn that they couldn’t locate her.
Two days and many phone calls later, we learned that she had been moved
to the quarantine area due to a respiratory infection, and had died the next
day. The girls were heartbroken. Todd and I felt terrible: she was so close to
being home, and it was such a bitter lesson.
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| A young Circles in IB |
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| Pretty kitty |
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| We love you, Circles |
While trying to assimilate this loss around the dinner table
that night, we heard a loud “thump” outside.
Flipper, our ancient 17-year-old cat, had just fallen off the upstairs
balcony onto the hard patio concrete.
His kidneys failing, blind in his left eye, and skeleton-thin, he still
purred as we held him and bawled. Our
wonderful veterinarian, Nathalie, took him home with her over the weekend, but
then called us with the results of the blood analysis. In short, it was time to put him to
sleep. He was the most amazing cat I’ve
ever had, strong and calm, loyal and affectionate, and we will miss him dearly.
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| Flipper in his prime--our big cat! |
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| Getting old in Spain |
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| We love you, Flipper |
Now the only other furry reminder of Suzi and Ethan’s
whirlwind year with us is their cat, Smokey.
The airline didn’t allow animals to travel during the summer, so Smokey
stayed with us as a furry hostage, one way to ensure that the Rico-Dubrows must
return sooner or later. And so they
will! If you didn’t have a reason to
visit before, The Palace has an old-world guest room, too. Come visit!
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| Smokey hanging in the fountain |
(pics of new casa, link to photo album)
