Knock, Knock...

So it's about 6:40 am here on Tuesday and I've been up for a bit. Paul is still asleep and I'm sitting here with my big cup of instant coffee. I *had* to buy a big mug at Starbucks yesterday for souvenir purposes but also because the cups in the apartment are so tiny! Good for a civilized cup of tea but that's about it.

We had a good evening last night. We went to dinner with S who just became the mother in court yesterday to an adorable little boy in Moscow Region. It was fun to connect with another adoptive parent and share stories. And where did we go to eat? An aunthentic Russian restaurant with interesting cuisine? Ah no...sadly we went to TGIFridays. Isn't that awful? But it was the end of the day, we were all tired, it was close by, Paul and I were preoccupied with thoughts of today and weren't up for an adventure. Luckily we have previously had the opportunity to eat in more local restaurants and hopefully will again.

We came back and got a little organized for today...paperwork, camera, camcorder, extra batteries, toys, dramamine (for me just in case the car ride is long LOL), photo album, etc. I then went to program the alarm on my phone to find out that it won't allow this function while out of the service area...huh? Apparently the phone can't remember what time it is. OK...so we didn't pack a separate alarm clock and the apartment doesn't have one and Paul just took a tylenol pm. Hmm guess who wasn't going to sleep a wink?!? Yes, I was a bit worried about not waking up in time. Though in hindsight that was a bit of anxious thinking. We have to meet the driver at 9:40 am - when have I ever slept past 7am? OK, well maybe yesterday but that was different. I set an alarm on my ipod but not really sure if that was going to be loud enough. So 10p we preceded to go to bed only to hear the phone ringing at 10:30p. Only it wasn't the apartment phone but the one connected to the lobby downstairs - someone was calling from the main building door. Hmm - we weren't expecting anyone that we knew of...and thinking it might be someone just trying all the buzzers...we decided to ignore it. But 5 minutes later there is a knock at the door. Uh oh. Paul got up and asked who it was - "registration". Huh? And then I remembered that when we checked in to the apartment, we had given paperwork to be registered. All foreigners need to be registered with the authorities within 3 days of arriving in Russia. We were told to expect our registration paperwork within a couple days - but 10:30 at night?? And then the paperwork was only for Paul! The courier then said he'd check and find out where mine was. I guess that delivery will be at 10:30 tonight LOL. Finally we were able to go to bed and I only woke up once at 1am for about an hour..which for those that know me was just a small bout of middle of the night insomnia. And yes, we woke up in plenty of time!

Well I think that's it for now. Off to make some oatmeal and get on with the day!
Paka