Dear Canada,
Your money sucks, eh. It is about 2 millimetres too tall to fit in my zippered wallet without getting stuck in the zipper.
Dear Toronto,
Your traffic sucks also, eh. It should not have taken me over an hour to go 20 km. Was it really necessary to shut down all lanes, both directions of the Gardiner for the whole weekend? Your secondary streets are not designed to handle that amount of traffic.
Dear Blue Jays,
Thank you for winning!
Dear Boston Sports Teams,
Take note and stop sucking.
Dear Canadians,
I LOVE YOUR ACCENTS!
Dear Montreal Canadiens,
Good luck and please win. Someone needs to take out the Flyers, and I'd love to see a team from Canada in the Stanley Cup.
Dear Jack Astors,
I forgot how much I love you and your cheesy garlic panbread.
Dear R & K,
Congratulations and thank you so much for inviting me to your wedding! I had a great time, you guys both looked fantastic, and I hope you have a blast on your honeymoon.
Love, Kate
Hiking exploits, experimental cooking, general nerdery, and cat pictures.
Seriously. Do not call me Katy.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Homecoming
About a month ago, I made a whirlwind, 22-hour trip to Maryland for work. I complained well and mightily about my time in the Philadelphia airport on Facebook at the time, but I never mentioned what I saw at the Manchester airport first.
As I sat waiting for my flight, I noticed two little boys, maybe around ages 4 and 6, hanging around my gate. They had various adult-type people with them, including one woman with a camera around her neck. I thought "oh cute, it must be their first flight and mom's taking pictures of them waiting for the plane" and went back to my book. Looked up again a couple of minutes later and noticed the boys had 1) posterboard signs with them and 2) American flags in their hands. About then the inbound plane arrived at the gate, all the adult-type people clustered around the boys, and it occurred to me that I was about to see a reuniting family.
As the inbound passengers started coming off the plane and the family members rearranged themselves, several things happened in quick succession. I realized that the woman with the camera probably wasn't mom, but an aunt/sister type. It was pretty clear another woman standing next to the boys was mom. Dad came off the plane and immediately dropped to a knee and swept the two little boys into a bear hug. Dad stood up, mom turned towards him, and before they embraced I noticed she's wearing a baby in a Snuggli - likely a girl judging by all the pink. The baby looked about 4 months old. The family definitely looks like dad's been gone longer than 4 months. Which means it is entirely possible that this is the first time dad is meeting his daughter. I have no idea what happened after that, because I grabbed my carry-on and headed to the restroom to take care of whatever had gotten into my eyes to make them all teary.
Now I was raised to possess a relatively healthy level of social manners and mores - in other words, I try not to openly stare at people in public and generally try to give strangers their privacy. At the same time, I have a soft spot for members of the military, and especially for military families. So yes, I watched, even though it was none of my business. I tried to be as inconspicuous as possible, and I'm sure the family in question didn't even notice me - they had much more important things on their minds. I'm not sure what my fellow waiting passengers thought about the businesswoman in their midst who was openly staring at strangers, tearing up, and then running to the bathroom to cry in private. I'm also pretty sure I don't care what any of them thought either!
Now, a month later as I write this, something else has occurred to me. I was sitting at my gate, watching all of this unfold. The inbound plane the dad came in on was the same plane on which I was outbound. In other words, I was past security - as were these 3-4 adults and 3 kids. I don't think they were meeting at the airport and flying on together to somewhere else - none of the waiting family had any carry-on type things with them. I don't know if my local airport routinely lets military families through security to meet homecoming service members, if this was a special circumstance, if the family had bought tickets they had no plans of using just to get through security (last one seems pretty unlikely). In retrospect, it has been years since I've seen a gate-side welcome home, and it's probably unlikely I'll see one again. I'm glad I saw this one.
As I sat waiting for my flight, I noticed two little boys, maybe around ages 4 and 6, hanging around my gate. They had various adult-type people with them, including one woman with a camera around her neck. I thought "oh cute, it must be their first flight and mom's taking pictures of them waiting for the plane" and went back to my book. Looked up again a couple of minutes later and noticed the boys had 1) posterboard signs with them and 2) American flags in their hands. About then the inbound plane arrived at the gate, all the adult-type people clustered around the boys, and it occurred to me that I was about to see a reuniting family.
As the inbound passengers started coming off the plane and the family members rearranged themselves, several things happened in quick succession. I realized that the woman with the camera probably wasn't mom, but an aunt/sister type. It was pretty clear another woman standing next to the boys was mom. Dad came off the plane and immediately dropped to a knee and swept the two little boys into a bear hug. Dad stood up, mom turned towards him, and before they embraced I noticed she's wearing a baby in a Snuggli - likely a girl judging by all the pink. The baby looked about 4 months old. The family definitely looks like dad's been gone longer than 4 months. Which means it is entirely possible that this is the first time dad is meeting his daughter. I have no idea what happened after that, because I grabbed my carry-on and headed to the restroom to take care of whatever had gotten into my eyes to make them all teary.
Now I was raised to possess a relatively healthy level of social manners and mores - in other words, I try not to openly stare at people in public and generally try to give strangers their privacy. At the same time, I have a soft spot for members of the military, and especially for military families. So yes, I watched, even though it was none of my business. I tried to be as inconspicuous as possible, and I'm sure the family in question didn't even notice me - they had much more important things on their minds. I'm not sure what my fellow waiting passengers thought about the businesswoman in their midst who was openly staring at strangers, tearing up, and then running to the bathroom to cry in private. I'm also pretty sure I don't care what any of them thought either!
Now, a month later as I write this, something else has occurred to me. I was sitting at my gate, watching all of this unfold. The inbound plane the dad came in on was the same plane on which I was outbound. In other words, I was past security - as were these 3-4 adults and 3 kids. I don't think they were meeting at the airport and flying on together to somewhere else - none of the waiting family had any carry-on type things with them. I don't know if my local airport routinely lets military families through security to meet homecoming service members, if this was a special circumstance, if the family had bought tickets they had no plans of using just to get through security (last one seems pretty unlikely). In retrospect, it has been years since I've seen a gate-side welcome home, and it's probably unlikely I'll see one again. I'm glad I saw this one.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Saturday Night Book Reading
Today was disappointingly uneventful, but I dragged myself out of the house and went to a book reading and signing tonight. The author was Kate Jacobs. She wrote Friday Night Knitting Club and its sequel, Knit Two, and also Comfort Food. Comfort Food just came out in paperback, so the tour was in support of that, although Ms. Jacobs talked about all of her books.
It was very interesting. The reading was at The Toadstool Bookshop in Milford, which is a nice little independent bookstore I've never been to before. There were about 40 women there for the reading. Ms. Jacobs talked about her life and writing process for about 20 minutes, read for 15, and then answered questions for another 20 minutes.
It was very interesting. The reading was at The Toadstool Bookshop in Milford, which is a nice little independent bookstore I've never been to before. There were about 40 women there for the reading. Ms. Jacobs talked about her life and writing process for about 20 minutes, read for 15, and then answered questions for another 20 minutes.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
End of an Era
I just finished watching the final episode of ER and I'm sitting here with tears streaming down my face. Not because the show was that sad, and not because I'm going to miss it. Heck, I haven't watched it regularly since the 1999-2000 season, and I don't think I've watched it at all since 2002 or 03. But for my whole adult life it's been there...somewhere in the background. And tonight when I watched the finale and the special beforehand, it brought me back to college.
Freshman year we had a Thursday night schedule that never varied. Crammed during dinner, took an exam from 7:00-8:00 (at my University, most large lecture classes scheduled exams outside of class during the evenings), watched Friends to relax, did Calculus homework in a group because it was always due Friday morning, and then watched ER. Every single week. The next three years of Thursdays were pretty similar, minus some of the exams, plus some beer as we got older.
I stopped watching ER regularly a couple of months after I graduated and moved to Western NY all by myself. The first round of regular characters had left the show, I just wasn't as into it, and it was making me way too tired on Fridays. You can't sneak a nap in between classes when you're working. So almost all of my mental associations to ER link back to college. And although that seems like just a couple of years ago, I've been out of school almost a decade. If you had asked me in high school or college or even just after graduation, I would have never imagined my life being this.
So I'm not crying because ER is over. But I am crying because that part of my life is over. I'm crying for the things I didn't do for whatever stupid reason that seemed so important at the time. I'm crying for the wasted time I can't get back. I'm crying for friends I have lost touch with, who I will never be as close to again. I'm crying for the dreams I had that didn't happen, and crying in thankfulness that this life happened instead.
Freshman year we had a Thursday night schedule that never varied. Crammed during dinner, took an exam from 7:00-8:00 (at my University, most large lecture classes scheduled exams outside of class during the evenings), watched Friends to relax, did Calculus homework in a group because it was always due Friday morning, and then watched ER. Every single week. The next three years of Thursdays were pretty similar, minus some of the exams, plus some beer as we got older.
I stopped watching ER regularly a couple of months after I graduated and moved to Western NY all by myself. The first round of regular characters had left the show, I just wasn't as into it, and it was making me way too tired on Fridays. You can't sneak a nap in between classes when you're working. So almost all of my mental associations to ER link back to college. And although that seems like just a couple of years ago, I've been out of school almost a decade. If you had asked me in high school or college or even just after graduation, I would have never imagined my life being this.
So I'm not crying because ER is over. But I am crying because that part of my life is over. I'm crying for the things I didn't do for whatever stupid reason that seemed so important at the time. I'm crying for the wasted time I can't get back. I'm crying for friends I have lost touch with, who I will never be as close to again. I'm crying for the dreams I had that didn't happen, and crying in thankfulness that this life happened instead.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Back in the States
Dad has requested that I post something besides the picture of my laundry! And I will admit that I got busy the last week I was in France and didn't update here. Now I am back in the States (and back to my loooong commute) but I will be adding a few more notes and maybe even some pictures. I will most likely post-date though, so scroll back over the past few entries for the new stuff.
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