Chinnu and I had a 10 day trip to Atlanta to visit my friend's family there. My friend's son was a great company to him while we both would chit-chat about quite a lot of stuff.
I flew by Delta and had a bad experience during the flight. The crew member that served juice and snack gave me a paper napkin but just passed by me w/o giving the edibles. It was as though she did not notice that I was there. I got so much irritated and told myself - "It is all because of you, my dear husband. This is a foreign land and I am insulted for being an alien". When one of them (not the one who gave the paper napkin) came back to each passenger to collect the trash, I called her and asked her if the service is ticket-dependent as I hazily remembered that there was no in-flight service in the trip. She said no and told me that she thought I was sleeping. I told her that the other lady gave me the paper napkin. She apologized and later the lady who (purposefully) ignored me apologized as well but my blood was still boiling. I wanted to complain to Delta. Later when I checked the Delta webpage, there was no option to lodge such complaints. I had to leave the issue there - chee chee inda pazham pulikkum.
My friend was very happy because her naughty boy had naps in the noon and his lullaby was our gossip talks. The weather was awesome there, a temporary relief for us. We spent the evenings in the community park when the kids liked to play in the slide and the swing. When his friend rides on his volvo (his tricycle) around the kitchen, Chinnu will follow him like a calf following its mother. They both had some fun in the backyard, punching the balloons, cleaning the house with the toy vaccum.
My friend was happy introducing me to all of her friends whom we met during one of their friends' son's Bday party. Alpharetta had good amout of Desis and my friend has a good circle of friends - konjam poramaya irundudu. Costco, Kohl's, Walmart are within few miles of reach. My friend drove like a man (I hope I will make her happy when she reads this!!) and I was scared to sit on the passenger seat. We bought some butter biscuits and chat items from Hot-Breads - sad that Pittsburgh does not have these facilities :((.
It was raining for 4 days or so and the temperature was quite low in the nights. Chinnu got accustomed very well over there. DH came online to see his DS. Chinnu did not bother to look at him. I knew DH must have been crestfallen then.
My friend did not want me to leave at all. She was persuading me all along the day - she would suggest that my husband better move to Atlanta. (not a bad idea as Hot breads was within reach). She also made a variety of food items for me to enjoy my meals. She was quite satisfied and moved when I commended her dosa (I told her it was like my mom's dosa and it was so too).
I met one of my ex-colleagues from BSSL. Went to her house that was 2.5 miles from my friend's place. She has a new born boy and my friend bought some nice gifts for her kids on my behalf. We talked about a few other friends in the states and got back home after an hour or so.
Did not know how time passed by. We had to leave on the 18th. Chinnu did not want to leave that place, he was throwing tantrums when we were about to leave. I dumped some food inside amidst his tantrums and we headed to the airport. I checked in online as suggested by my friend's husband and that gave us enough time for security check though we reached the airport little late than we thought. Chinnu behaved well in the airport and there was again a bad experience and this time it was the confusion with my seat #. The one at the counter gave me a new aisle seat with an unoccupied middle seat as I was having a baby on lap, but she was too considerate that she gave the same seat to somebody else as well. I had to again wait and got another seat and the wait time for take-off was almost 40 minutes (thats why you should not live in such big cities) and we reached Pittsburgh at 11.40 pm. Dad was eagerly waiting to see his son and when they met ore paasa mazhai than.
I was fully charged during this break. It was a wonderful time well spent. I am hopeful of having her and her family here in Pittsburgh during summer 2011.
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