Things You Don't Want to Hear at an Airport

1.) "Please move." -- After 10 hours on a plane across the Atlantic and at least 30 minutes walking from our arrival gate to our new departure gate, we were told to move 10 feet from gate 55 to gate 54.

2.) "Yes, hello, please move." -- After finally finding food and coming back to gate 54 and falling asleep, Gabby and I were asked to move outside of the gate area. We would need to go through security (for the third time in that airport) in about 30 minutes.

3.) "Don't drink the water." -- I asked for tap water, rather than paying 4 euro for a small bottled water. They put water in my water bottle but said that i should not drink it. I did. Everything was fine.

4.) "Due to malfunction, your flight will be delayed." -- This announcement was, of course, in German (as we were in the Frankfort airport). We had to ask for a translation.

5.) "Your bus is here."

Denise Levertov - from _The Stream and the Sapphire_

Primary Wonder

Days pass when I forget the mystery.
Problems insoluble and problems offering
their own ignored solutions
jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber
along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing
their colored clothes; caps and bells.
And then
once more the quiet mystery
is present to me, the throng's clamor
recedes: the mystery
that there is anything, anything at all,
let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,
rather than void: and that, O Lord,
Creator, Hallowed One, You still,
hour by hour sustain it.

After driving 1500miles...

My parents and i pulled up to the old house on Oregon Tr. just after midnight on Monday. I think it took me all of 2 minutes to makje my way to the basement, brush my teeth, and get in bed.

This morning i felt a bit lost. I knew where i was (i didn't wake up thinking i was in Vancouver...which has happened before when i visit my folks' place), but I didn't really know what to do with myself. There wasn't really anything for me to do, other than unpack...which will be a long process and i wasn't prepared to do pre-coffee.

So what did I end up doing? ...I unpacked enough of the car so that I could get to my clothes, showered and got dressed and had coffee with my dad. Now it's quite hot outside...so i think i'll postpone my walk around the 'hood to the evening.

It's funny seeing what's the same and what's different at my parents' house. Like trees that have grown, furniture re-arranged, updated photos in old frames. There are pictures of my nephews everywhere...which makes me miss them all the more. I'm looking forward to seeing the park near the house with the tree i used to climb barefoot and read in...and i'm looking forward to seeing friends.... like my crazy friend Chaundra whom i lived with for three years; she did her degree in musical theatre and now lives in New York working and getting gigs... or Clara, who also did English literature and whose wedding i was a bridesmaid in a few years back...and i wonder if i'll run into old professors or the gals i did grad school with here. Those gals and I used to go to Roma Pizza in Greeley on Monday nights for margs and bazooka beer. Good times.

Oh! and i'll definitely have to go to Gib's Bagels. yummy yummy... and explore downtown...and ride my bike along Spring Creek Trail (which flooded in 1997 and was a HUGE deal; lots of people died, actually and there's a statue up where the most devestation was)...and hopefully have beer with the guy who went bar hopping with me on my 21st birthday...

But mostly I hope to hit the "reset" button - just take a break and gather myself together before embarking upon the next adventure.