nothing says home sweet home like a bottle of veuve clicquot in the refrigerator, freshly delivered roses, a four foot stack of mail, and a cake on the kitchen counter!
i am home and i survived the trip with my son joseph. some rough stats:
1. we traveled–however briefly–to or through korea, taiwan, the philippines, malaysia, india, united arab emirates, italy, austria, germany, england, and ireland–approximately 24,000 miles altogether!
2. we set out to meet eleven facebook friends and were on a schedule of breathtaking speed. we failed to meet one facebook friend (mark del rosario) because he had appendicitis. his wife nona stepped in for him. we failed to meet rahul guru because his work schedule was unexpectedly changed–he sent his emissary f2fb friend #244 anto prashanth. we missed alessandro cerea because he got deployed a little earlier than expected but we are going to figure out how to meet before the end of the year. and i was defriended by claudia from dortmund. all in all, i count it as we saw nine friends or their designated ambassadors of good will.
jennifer christine harris of des moines, iowa was arrested for burning down the home of nikki rasmussen who had defriended her on facebook. i don't think i will be burning down claudia's house. i had too much of a good time in dortmund!
3. we didn’t rip each other’s heads off. my son is twenty three years old. plenty of my contemporaries complain about the relationships they have with their adult children. i think they should go on trips together. i learned to treat him as an equal. he has a soft spot in his heart for his mom.
so when i returned to chicago, i was (am still) suffering from strange jet lag. but the new years resolution continues. i went to see my f2fb friend #250 joe kral. i had never met him before and yet i agreed to meet him at his home. i allowed him to kiss me. on the mouth and hand and ear. he shoved his nose between my legs at the very point where t.s.a. agents like to linger with their blue gloves and wands. i also allowed four of his friends those same liberties. it was quite a party!
joe has his own facebook page and has many dog and human facebook friends. he is in a relationship with maya sharona joffe. joe’s older brother bob kral recently died of bone cancer and had his own page as well. bob was married to maya’s sister sasha. dogs relationships are just as complicated as those of humans.
joe’s account is run by his human mother f2fb friend #251 pb kral who is a dog whisperer. she helps people who think their dogs are the problem: it is usually the people who need to change. pb says the biggest mistake people make is to treat their dogs like human beings and not like dogs. she is the alpha for five dogs: joe, tommy, brea, brad, and billy.
- pb, joe and me — with brad in the red coat. . . .
arlynnpresser 
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