found deficient

I am back. Back to our screaming neighbors, $7 milk, streets crowded with parked cars, tents lining the sidewalks and parks, reports about needles and drug addicts and dog maulings, and a brand new NO GUNS sign on the library doors. 

 

My sister-in-law did a great job keeping the house in order and the cats alive, but her solution to pesky odors is to drown them out with dozens of clashing and very strongly-scented products, so she did not notice the rotting can of maggoty wet cat food that was in the microwave for two weeks. Who even put that in there? Why did she not open the microwave even once in 2 weeks? I do not know, but the cats and chickens are all accounted for, so I accept a bit of detective sniff-work as a trade-off.

Also, I'm sleeping on the couch, because Mike is locked in the bedroom with airplane Covid. The rest of us escaped it because I was booked separately from the group and traded seats with him so I could sit by the kids. HA. And now I have to go to work. Damn.

Zenny cried as we left Saint Andrews. I walked with her to the playground by the museum one last time, where we said goodbye to the wild bunnies and listened to a distant tune of bagpipes while playing on the see-saw. On the bus to the train station, we waved to all the good dogs on leashes and dads with baby strollers and sheep with black faces in the fields, and headed down to Edinburgh. 

Edinburgh is not as charming, except that at 8pm the streets roll up and the entire city sleeps in silence until daybreak. Our room was on the Royal Mile, an area full of gorgeous old medieval buildings and hideous shops full of identical tourist garbage and street performers literally yelling "LOOK AT ME!" and then just doing cartwheels. It was chaotic and loud and crowded with visitors. The worst thing about Edinburgh, though, was that my mother-in-law decided to go on her own vacation to Scotland and meet us there for dinner and a tour of the castle, bringing along her travel companion; the mother of my arch enemy. I did not push the Ghost of Enemy Future off a castle turret, despite her taking unflattering pictures of me and posting them on Facebook for her daughter to smirk at, so... you know. Disappointing.

At the Edinburgh airport, we became separated from each other by quick-moving lines through TSA, and I waited on a bench with Zenny for everyone to reconvene. Gavin was taking the longest. Two airport police officers walked by with machine guns, which surprised us. Not a lot of guns in Scotland, and those things were huge. Folks, THEY WERE THERE FOR US. Earlier in the week, we went to a toy store in Dundee and the boys thought it was interesting that you could buy realistic die-cast cap guns in the UK, so they bought one. And then forgot to put it in the checked baggage. So Gavin went through the TSA scanner with a very realistic metal revolver in his backpack. 

They kept the toy gun and did not shoot my son, which seemed fair.

 

And now we are home. Saint Andrews was wholesome in a way I'd forgotten was possible. Maybe I can figure out how to make more peace in the place I live now. Maybe I can escape.

 

Leif was so happy

 

The flock of ducks and moor hens at the dorms, Leif's best buddies

 

Sticky toffee pudding, the best

 

One of the classroom buildings at Saint Andrews University

 

The see-saw of happiness in the bunny park behind the museum

 

I got a clover!

 

Our hotel was actually a locked gate leading to a whiskey-smelling dungeon that led to a winding staircase - it was scary in a good way

 

Edinburgh

 

One of the underground vaults, where people made shoes in the dark

 

Solid mass of humans just up that road, toward the castle

 

Edinburgh 

 

From the battlements at Edinburgh castle

 

This guy found an entire meat pie and ate it whole

 

The Mitre pub, next to our room

 

Last pint

 

View from the bus on the way to Edinburgh airport

 

LAX, after 10 hours of flying

 

Across the planet, chasing the sun

She's so happy to be home /s