Posted by: alece | May 7, 2008

visiting virginia

Our last two nights in Virginia were spent with some friends. We stayed up late talking on our first evening there. As we regaled them with funny stories from our travels so far, they suggested we write a book about it all. They figured that people would pay to hear the sometimes-bizarre happenings in our lives.

The next day, they flew out of town.

Niel and I spent our unexpected free night on a date. We ate at a Mexican restaurant, and shared some tasty fajitas and sopapias. (Since we were going to miss our annual staff Cinco de Mayo party, we had our very own Uno de Mayo party.)

We got back to our friends’ house around 10:00 and decided to throw in a load of laundry while we watched a movie. They had mentioned that something is wrong with their dryer and that it takes longer than normal to dry the clothes. We figured we could easily run the dryer twice and it should still finish up before the end of our movie.

Two dryer cycles later and our clothes were still just as wet as when we first put them in!

I worked hard to keep from going into panic mode, considering it was 12:30 at night and we had a mound of sopping wet clothes. We draped them over every chair, table, and surface we could find and hoped for the best. We figured—worst case scenario—if it was all still wet, we’d put them into plastic garbage bags before packing them into our suitcase, and figure out a Plan B when we arrived in Colorado.

The living room, dining room, and kitchen were a sight to behold, with our pants, shirts, and unmentionables covering everything in sight. I wish I’d taken a picture.

Niel got up early in the morning and flipped all our still-damp clothes. I tried not to think about it as I showered, spent time making my hair look messy, and finished the rest of the packing.

Thankfully when we went to check the clothes again, everything was dry. Phew!

We laughed as we recalled our friends’ suggestion that we write a book about our crazy experiences while traveling. Little did they know that they’d win themselves their very own chapter!

Responses

oh now this is traumatic…

you should do it. i’d buy a copy!

and the crazy thing is…this chapter sounds more like it should be filed under “tia” rather than “usa”!

that’s SO great. and exactly what i’m usually doing the night before i leave somewhere… no matter how long i’ve had to think ahead!

i’m sure that book has many, many chapters already. i can think of a few myself!

ha! too funny!
and i totally agree. a book would be poyfect! write, write!

Too funny! What part of Va by the way? That’s my home! :)

a great ending to a frightening situation.

really!

And that is only one story.

This morning as I was switching loads and heading over to hang the wet clothes on the line I was thinking about you. (This is before I read this blog post.) I was wondering to myself if you were missing your Joyce yet. Then low and behold this post…

yes - write a book!

Love it!!

angie — i do miss me some joycie!

roo — you can think of some chapters for our book? like what?

Alece, I love reading your story in your blog.

Do you have a washer and dryer in Africa? I get this picture of you washing the clothes down by a river. :)

If you hung your clothes outside to day would any of the wild beasties nibble on them for lunch? :)

What do you miss about not being in Africa right now?

i do have a washer and dryer… but not in my house. joyce makes my life so wonderful; she is my “house help”. we have a big laundry room elsewhere on the property where she takes our clothes to wash and dry. and everything gets ironed. i mean, everything. that’s the african way.

i miss joyce.
i miss not having to wash my own clothes! ::wink::
i miss our staff and interns.
i miss the “our own space”-ness of our house.
i miss our couch.
i miss our tiVo (am i THAT surfacey? yes. apparently.)
i miss starbucks. (not the coffee kind. the bird kind. my pet african grey is named starbucks.)
i miss lemon tea.
i miss my big comfy bed.
i miss our staff and interns. (worth repeating…)

sarah — we spent 2 nights in stafford and 2 nights in arlington. and then the last 2 nights were in north potomac, maryland.

big oops, actually. we were in maryland when all this went down. not virginia.

oh well.

Guess what!!

Joyce is going to laugh at this one.

I bet you miss ALL your “life” , but I cannot imagine what God is supplying you with here!!! (except a dryer :))

prayin.

i so appreciate your prayers, heidi. thank you!

and yes, joyce will laugh. i wish i could bottle her laughter and bring it with me. it is joy-enfusing.

oh - I feel you Alece!

Go to your suitcase. Pull out the shiniest pair of shoes you can find and put them on. Click your heels together, stick out a pouty bottom lip and repeat with all your heart, “There’s no place like home…”

If that doesn’t work, Dorothy Dear, it means you are not to the end of the book yet and you still have some wonderful friends to meet along the way.

Hang in there - you are doing a great job. I believe in you!

Praying for you, too.

maybe that’s my problem—i don’t have any shiny shoes!

(and thanks, angie!)

it sounds like that guy niel you keep talking about may replace joyce with all the laundry he is doing and tasks he is performing here in the states… sounds gay to me

i was here.
i am tired.
i blame it on the TEEEEEENIE bit of wine i had tonite.
i’m saying hello.
i’m going to bed now.

i would be buying me a copy. i actually prefer wearing wet cloths… especially jeans. it makes me happy. ACTUALLY, wet clothes are one of my biggest pet peeves.

anti - i too have been given cause to ponder this niel character. i am not too sure about him.

i’m very amused by this as well, anti-blogger. hm. worth thought. he concerns me at times.

alece–there are lots of adventures that have happened over the years. just a few: your house being roofless, your fireplace catching on fire, your dam adventures (including pulling the bakkie out of the lake, along with the boat). maybe these don’t all count in the “while traveling” category, but i think your crazy adventures in general should be a book.

oh, and there was that time that you and kel rigged that shower “curtain” for your hotel room. also a great story. :)

That was pretty funny.

Yes, yes a book would be great! And just think, you already have so many great pictures to go in it (picture books sell better than the all-words kind…ok, I made that statistic up…but they say that 90% of all stats are made up on the spot anyway….hehe…i made that one up too…)

ANYWAY… I like the idea of a book. Niel should write a chapter with no further editing after the first draft. That would be AWESOME. :)

funny story…

Yesterday at LaunchPad an older lady came up to me and asked, “Where is Mr. van Rensburg?”

“He’s in America with Mrs. van Rensburg” I answered.

“Who?” she asked.

At this point I should tell you that she is VERY elderly and so I thought maybe she didn’t hear me.

“MRS. VAN RENSBURG” I said a little louder.

“Who??” she asked again.

“He’s with Mrs. Alece van Rensburg… his wife.”

“Who?” she questioned for the third time.

Finally I gave it a shot and said, “Mamaroti Alece”

“OHH! Mamaroti Alece. I love her. Really, I love her!”

lol! Just thought I’s pass that along! You’ve got a fan in Mmakwane.

And, by the way, it was really weird referring to you guys as Mr. and Mrs. van Rensburg!!

P.S. I love you too, Mamaroti Alece :)

funny story…

Yesterday at LaunchPad an older lady came up to me and asked, “Where is Mr. van Rensburg?”

“He’s in America with Mrs. van Rensburg” I answered.

“Who?” she asked.

At this point I should tell you that she is VERY elderly and so I thought maybe she didn’t hear me.

“MRS. VAN RENSBURG” I said a little louder.

“Who??” she asked again.

“He’s with Mrs. Alece van Rensburg… his wife.”

“Who?” she questioned for the third time.

Finally I gave it a shot and said, “Mamaroti Alece”

“OHH! Mamaroti Alece. I love her. Really, I love her!”

lol! Just thought I’s pass that along! You’ve got a fan in Mmakwane.

And, by the way, it was really weird referring to you guys as Mr. and Mrs. van Rensburg!!

P.S. I love you too, Mamaroti Alece :)

Imaginations work well when no pictures are present. :) What a time.

That Anti is a piece of work. But it’s nice getting to ‘know’ him a little. ;)

roo - yeah. you’re right. sheeeesh.

kel - people would buy the book just for niel’s unedited foreword. we should publish just that. — thanks for passing along that story. it made me smile really big. and, you should know, it’s even weird for me to be referred to as mrs. van rensburg!

Leave a response

Your response:

Categories