“Our lives are about to change!” Emily said last night.
We’re expecting…guests. For the rest of the month and possibly into April.
Tonight Emily’s mom and beloved Aunt Penny arrive for a 12-day sojourn. Because of some screw-ups by Delta – their journey has become a total of 40 hours from start to finish. Luckily, 16 hours of that was on the ground in Singapore where the airline afforded them a hotel adjacent to the airport.
Emily gets excited and savors anticipation, so while this visit has been planned since August, the last week has been nothing but ever-intensifying suspense. Right now, she could burst. The delay of Susan and Penny’s plane has her sitting in a quiet sputter.
Last week, we started buying supplies for around the house. Thursday, we briefed Nengah, our housekeeper on what was happening. Friday was a thorough inventory and shop for everything Emily wanted to have on hand for our guests.
Last night involved furniture moving, closet cleaning, purse cleaning (?!) and a lot of hustle and bustle which she classified as “nesting”. Fair enough.
Today, Nengah kicked into overdrive and between the two of them, flowers have appeared all over the house, lightbulbs were changed, things are in perfect order, everyone has freshly laundered linens and a traditional Balinese dinner is awaiting our guests should they be hungry upon arrival.
I’ve known Nengah for almost seven years now and I’ve never seen him so on his game. Although Emily doesn’t know much Bahasa Indonesia and Nengah’s English is very limited, they are somehow communicating beautifully. While Emily was at first a little uncomfortable with having house staff and was very timid about talking to Nengah, in the past week she has become the lady of the house. My communication services are not required nearly so often.
Since the moment we arrived in Bali – literally at the airport in the passport line – Emily has been planning activities for when her mom and Aunt Penny arrive. She’s collected brochures, maps, information, asked questions, done online research, and talked with me about it regularly. This is all part of the build-up that she loves in the same way her sister, Molly trembles with excitement leading up to hosting a party – her favorite activity in the world. It’s a family of party and event planners.
At this point, the layout of the next two weeks seems roughly apparent. There are “must see’s”, “must go’s” and “must eat’s”. We have weekend plans and corresponding reservations. We’ve rented a car for at month so we don’t all have to fit onto the motorcycle. Somehow, I’m still the only one who can drive either vehicle – but that’s fine.
A 12-day visit is exciting, and very desired, but in and of itself not necessarily lifestyle altering. However, two days after Susan and Penny leave, my cousin Jacob and his wife Diana arrive for a 10 day stay.
Of course we’re excited about this too. We spent months leading up to our departure convincing them to come and visit us somewhere. Jacob showed the most interest in Bali because he came here to visit me in 2005 and loved it then. Jacob – like me – has wanted to take his wife to Bali ever since he met her. Bali is just that amazing and incredible.
So it came as no surprise when we got emails saying they were shopping for tickets to Bali. When they sent us the actual booked itinerary at the end of January, we were thrilled. It all came together to create March Madness – a month of guests we love.
And just when we thought with the passing of March, we would see the last of visitors from home, my/our friend Conlan started making noises about the beginning of April. While it’s not yet confirmed, we’re very much hoping to hear back from him. Conlan visited me in several places during my time living abroad and is always a favorite international guest. He was here with me in 2006 and seems to have no trepidation about returning.
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen anyone from home. Our friends Autumn and Sharon met up with us on Crete in August. We saw Emily’s neighbor/childhood friend/family friend Alisa and her family in Israel also in August. Then my/our friend Tony had a trip to Nepal planned that coincided with our stay in Kathmandu. We had a few days together there. After that, there was a brief visit with my college friend Arti in Mumbai.
While my friend Chad lives here, he’s not a face from home. In fact, Chad and I have only seen each other stateside one time.
Now we have a string of visitors from home who we love and enjoy.
After months of it being just us and doing it our way all the time, our lives are indeed going to change – in a very positive way. There’s nothing quite so fun as sharing places you love with people you love.
The rest of March and hopefully continuing in April, we plan to create a lot of wonderful memories – since we’re already very good at doing that for ourselves anyway.
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