So, picking up on Wednesday, June 20:
Jun. 22nd, 2007 02:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasLis and I were in a sleeper car going from Paris to Florence. We'd swapped bunks, because I decided that I wanted the window open while I was sleeping, and, when we went through towns, the streetlights threw light onto the bottom bunk, which bothered Lis. But I don't mind that, and the top bunk was higher than the window, so light didn't shine on it.
I woke up looking at a beautiful sunrise. And, we passed through a town, the first stop in Italy. It was gorgeous watching the red sun rise over the town.
Then it occurred to me that we were supposed to go through that town something like 4:15 in the morning, and it was now quite a bit more like 6:15.
We were scheduled to arrive in Florence at 7:06 AM, and there were several trains from Florence to Bucine. We had not, really, expected to make the 7:13 train, especially since we had left half an hour late. But we now realized that we weren't going to make any of the OTHER trains, either, except MAYBE the last one, the 9:34. Well, not the LAST one, but the last one until 11:something, which would get us to Bucine at too late to go back to Rome at the time we had to in order to catch the train to Castelgandalfo.
We had plans for the afternoon and evening of the 20th, you see.
It was going to be a bit of a complex travel day for our chunk of the family, in any case. My sister was flying into Rome. We were taking the train to Florence. My grandparents, two aunts, two uncles, five cousins, and one boyfriend were going to be going into Florence. (The remaining uncle and cousin will be here, um, tomorrow or the day after, I think. Also, all numerical counts of my family are approximate. The Osmond Uncertainty Principle is actually more restrictive than the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. You can determine the vector or the position of a particle, but not both. However, you cannot determine EITHER the vector OR the position of an Osmond, Rumney, or Soule, especially in groups.)
Just to give a bit of family background: my father has three siblings -- two sisters and a brother. Both sisters are married; Linda and John have has three daughters, Shannon, Jenna, and Nikki, and they all live in Australia. John and Jenna aren't here yet; they'll be here in a couple days. Diane and Walter have three daughters and a son, Meghan, Erica, Stephen, and Elizabeth. My Dad and Mom, David and Matia (aka rebmommy on LiveJournal), have Leila and me. I'm married to Lis; Leila is engaged to Kent, who didn't come on the trip, Meghan is seriously dating Patrick, enough that he's now coming to family events, which is the crucible, I suspect, to see if he thinks he wants to marry into this mess.
Presiding over this whole mess are my grandmother Grace and my grandfather Ralph.
I am the oldest cousin, and, I think, on this side, Leila is the second-oldest. So, aside from me, the cousins range from, I think, nineteen to twenty-eight. Apparently, it is a sight and a half when my cousins all get together and go out clubbing... one tall, blond guy, and seven girls (one brunette, one redhead, and five blondes), all athletic and good-looking, three Australian, one Australian-by-training, and the rest perfectly able to keep up.
I have never gone clubbing with my cousins, nor will I. I was born too old to keep up with them.
Anyway, it was becoming clear that even Lis's Librarian-like planning skills were no match for Italy's train system. We made phone calls to my folks to work out what was going on, and, eventually, just sat back and figured that all we could do was see how things would work out.
I needed a shower -- my skin was crawling from not-showering, and we found out that the train would expected in Florence at 9:30ish. With the last train to Bucine that would work to not screw up the rest of our plans leaving at 9:34.
It seemed like we were going to be doomed. But all we could do was sit tight and see what would happen.
I woke up looking at a beautiful sunrise. And, we passed through a town, the first stop in Italy. It was gorgeous watching the red sun rise over the town.
Then it occurred to me that we were supposed to go through that town something like 4:15 in the morning, and it was now quite a bit more like 6:15.
We were scheduled to arrive in Florence at 7:06 AM, and there were several trains from Florence to Bucine. We had not, really, expected to make the 7:13 train, especially since we had left half an hour late. But we now realized that we weren't going to make any of the OTHER trains, either, except MAYBE the last one, the 9:34. Well, not the LAST one, but the last one until 11:something, which would get us to Bucine at too late to go back to Rome at the time we had to in order to catch the train to Castelgandalfo.
We had plans for the afternoon and evening of the 20th, you see.
It was going to be a bit of a complex travel day for our chunk of the family, in any case. My sister was flying into Rome. We were taking the train to Florence. My grandparents, two aunts, two uncles, five cousins, and one boyfriend were going to be going into Florence. (The remaining uncle and cousin will be here, um, tomorrow or the day after, I think. Also, all numerical counts of my family are approximate. The Osmond Uncertainty Principle is actually more restrictive than the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. You can determine the vector or the position of a particle, but not both. However, you cannot determine EITHER the vector OR the position of an Osmond, Rumney, or Soule, especially in groups.)
Just to give a bit of family background: my father has three siblings -- two sisters and a brother. Both sisters are married; Linda and John have has three daughters, Shannon, Jenna, and Nikki, and they all live in Australia. John and Jenna aren't here yet; they'll be here in a couple days. Diane and Walter have three daughters and a son, Meghan, Erica, Stephen, and Elizabeth. My Dad and Mom, David and Matia (aka rebmommy on LiveJournal), have Leila and me. I'm married to Lis; Leila is engaged to Kent, who didn't come on the trip, Meghan is seriously dating Patrick, enough that he's now coming to family events, which is the crucible, I suspect, to see if he thinks he wants to marry into this mess.
Presiding over this whole mess are my grandmother Grace and my grandfather Ralph.
I am the oldest cousin, and, I think, on this side, Leila is the second-oldest. So, aside from me, the cousins range from, I think, nineteen to twenty-eight. Apparently, it is a sight and a half when my cousins all get together and go out clubbing... one tall, blond guy, and seven girls (one brunette, one redhead, and five blondes), all athletic and good-looking, three Australian, one Australian-by-training, and the rest perfectly able to keep up.
I have never gone clubbing with my cousins, nor will I. I was born too old to keep up with them.
Anyway, it was becoming clear that even Lis's Librarian-like planning skills were no match for Italy's train system. We made phone calls to my folks to work out what was going on, and, eventually, just sat back and figured that all we could do was see how things would work out.
I needed a shower -- my skin was crawling from not-showering, and we found out that the train would expected in Florence at 9:30ish. With the last train to Bucine that would work to not screw up the rest of our plans leaving at 9:34.
It seemed like we were going to be doomed. But all we could do was sit tight and see what would happen.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-22 07:43 am (UTC)*ENVY*
*loooooves Florence*
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-22 08:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-22 11:04 pm (UTC)Seriously, though, it is pretty small. Although my parents are one of four and one of five, only two of my mother's siblings have children, and only two of my father's siblings, too. And, on my mother's side, each of the three children who has children only has two children: my sister and I are two of only six on that side, and two of only nine on my father's side. So I only have eleven cousins, and one blood sibling.
Of course, I do also have a foster-sister and two step-cousins, but I don't count the step-cousins because I literally haven't seen them in YEARS. The foster-sister I count, though.