Post-weekend, pre-vacation

Well that was a busy weekend. In fact, it was a busy week. We had a dinner with B on his birthday Wednesday, dinner with mom who was here overnight on a layover before she flew off to Turkey (the country...that's not what she had for dinner), dinner with another friend on Friday for his birthday, and finally dinner with B & C, along with 9 other people, at B's surprise birthday gathering on Saturday. The three of us (Jayson, Anthony, me) spent most of the day Saturday getting things ready for the trip tomorrow. I had to the take the truck to get it serviced and washed, and then there were a ton of other errands to run. We had to wrap it all up by 18:00 to head to B's birthday thing. It was very much a success and I was very glad for that. I got to meet his brother and sister, and her son. I also got to meet C's parents which was a nice treat since I've heard so much about them. I wish I'd been able to spend more time talking with them. Bob truly enjoyed the dinner...I think we all did.

Sunday we slept in very late and then finished up our packing for the trip, along with a visit to the market for food. Jayson had asked Anthony and me to go with him to his temple that evening so we did. He's been a member of ISKCON for over 20 years now but has fallen out of the habit of taking part. Last night was the celebration of the appearance day of Lord Nrsinga Dev (pronounced Nur-Sing-A-Dave), who happens to be Jayson's personal deity. I'd been to temple with J once before and A had never been. To anyone who's not familiar, it's a different experience. Last night's program included bathing the deity while the congregation chanted, followed by a the temple leader discussing the significance of the appearance. That was followed by a "pasttime", which was really a short narrative play to act out the story of the appearance. After that, it's the feast. The feast is the best part, at least for me. The temple is not my thing since I don't really feel comfortable dealing with any organized religion. I do respect a religion that is thousands of years old, but it's still not my thing. But, it is J's thing and I was glad to accompany him. Anthony seemed completely weirded out by it but he was a trooper. I've encouraged A to get more involved in the temple since he seems to get a lot out of it, so hopefully after last night he'll feel more comfortable going regularly. We were some of the few westerners there and we could not have been made to feel more comfortable and welcomed.

Other than that, I'm just waiting for vacation to begin. Today was my last day of work until next Tuesday. I'm so looking forward to our camping trip starting tomorrow. We moved the departure date up one day since we had the option and now I'm just ready to go. We have everything packed and all we have to do it pick up the trailer and load it up. We had wanted to drive down Hwy 101 on the trip south but didn't think we had time since it's slow going. But, I think now we do so that will be a lot more fun than spending hours on I-5 looking at nothing. I'm a little nervous about pulling a trailer, especially one that's almost 30' long, but I'll manage. Plus I won't be the only one doing the driving! We don't have any set plans once we're there other than to sight-see, fly kites, relax, eat, etc. I'll probably try to update here every day or every other day but I'll see how I feel.