Still kvetching after all these years

Sacre Coeur rainy day, by objetsparis.

Oy vey, even first class is tough at this age, but thank god for all those miles we were able to use. We finally got to the hotel at about 10 p.m., (1 p.m. California time), having left the house 20 hours before.

They give you pajamas on Lufthansa! Now that's what I call civilized. We both slept several hours thanks to the magic of pharmaceutical chemistry, managed a quick shower in the Munich lounge, had wheelchairs throughout for the broken-toed gimpy husband, but still, it's never a breeze...god knows what we'll do when we run out of mileage! Spoiled? Hell yes, I'm a princess and we all know it!

When we checked into the hotel we got the message that G. and M. were waiting for us at Lipp, so we met them for a late dinner. First time we've met her, and we liked her a lot; I hope she made allowances for us.

This morning it rained just long enough for us to get wet moving into the apartment that will be our home for the next two months and to do a little damp grocery shopping, then a bit of sun finally came out. It's a wonderful neighborhood, lots of cafés, food shopping, restaurants, boutiques, and easy transport to nearly everywhere in the city. And luckily the apartment is just as charming as we remembered from our single visit last year.

The major challenge so far was our inability to connect to wi-fi, but I got hold of our landlady's cute young IT guy who came over, spoke English, and hooked us up. I would have settled for two out of the three, but we hit the trifecta. Voilá, we're connected to the world again. Amazing how everything seems magnified with jet lag; I was ready to throw things in frustration at being unhooked from my cyber-lifeline.

Actually I had gotten hold of our friend Linder, who in an incredibly bizarre coincidence lives in the same building we’ve just moved into, next staircase, who brought over a life-saving ethernet cable that would have allowed us to limp along on one computer, fighting for access with teeth bared, but that risk to our happy marriage is no longer one we have to deal with.

So now we're happily typing away at our separate laptops, just like home. I had another little glitch when I couldn't get Skype working, but that too has passed and I had a quick chat with my sister, whom I miss terribly already, even though we sometimes go days without speaking to each other on the phone at home. The distance, the long duration of this visit, and the fact that I can't just jump into the car to go see her, makes the inability to connect loom large.

And now that tout va seemingly bien, it’s time to find a café, have an aperitif, and begin our Parisian life. Yippee!!

(I'll try to limit future kvetching, so don't write me off yet)