home sweet home

have you ever seen those movies about some person or family and their calamitous travels. you know the ones… every impossibility happens while they are trying to get to some event or return home from some event. well, that was my life coming back from boston this weekend. following are the journalings of my return home. just thought i’d share. I am back at work today. another day, another penny that I owe the government (i hope you enjoy the ride more than I did.) now that i have shaken this ordeal off of my skin with these writings, tomorrow I am going to share the details of my brother’s wedding which was gorgeous and wonderful. (I am so proud of him.) anyway. here we go… (REWIND)...

7/19/05
3:00pm-ish EST
flying these days requires a whole different level of faith and patience. air travel has proven impossible over the last couple of days. our original flight out of boston was scheduled to leave yesterday (monday), but hurricane emily is ripping the shit out of anything east. all connecting flights on our route, through chicago, were grounded/canceled so i resigned us to staying an extra day in beantown. cool. what better excuse to be with my brothers, my nephew and my sister-in-law? and i finally get to walk around harvard and harvard square. it’s amazing how much money must be floating in the pockets and bank accounts of the students because the stores and boutiques in and around the square are pretty price-taggy. in fact several shops i couldn’t even venture into on my current income. so never mind being a college student and shopping in them. anyhoo… it all balanced out by the activist efforts working exhaustively just outside the stores’ exit doors, pulling and prodding patrons and passers by for attention; the get bush out of the white house campaign; the stop child abduction in south america effort; the donations to the special olympics; and brother-can-you-spare-a-dime-from-the-$5 latte-$4 gourmet cinnamon bun you just bought-to-better-my-personal-life cause. funny how in some ways, as an artist and activist, i felt much more connected and comfortable among them than i did in surrounded by the ivy-covered brick walls housing the abercrombie and fitch-hilfiger-wearing, prada tote carrying silver spoon fed babies of harvard. okay, so there are more stereotypes and assumptions than i’d care to acknowledge in that last statement but whatever. we all have our issues, right. so before the tour is done, my daughter asserts that this is the school she will attend when she gets older. just like her uncle. somehow i don’t doubt that she will have this school among her roster of picks. that makes me smile… and cringe at the same time.

i also finally got to meet up with nicole from cc. she is gracefully earthy. the kind of woman who is so connected to the herself and earth that she never looks out of place or uncomfortable. just seeing her fully engaging smile (like “the last spokes of sunlight”… one of my favorite lines from a poem of hers) brought back the daylilies and the sound of kwame’s guitar and a host of other cc memories. it’s amazing how you can meet people at cc and, though it is intense, you only spend a week with them and emerge loving them like family and liking them even more than some of your family members, right? she perused the shops with us, watched the constant negotiation between my two children and me. today’s debates were about why the beanie-baby-esque $4.95 harvard t-shirt wearing bears were the better economic buy than the only slightly larger more furry ones for $8.95. these two, my children, are destined to be lawyers or tax accountants because they are masters of arguing the points for their expenses. i finally asserted that the bottom line was that i wasn’t paying twice as much for bears that would surely become one more item to lose or juggle on our trip home. and, that it would be those bears or they could take their chances and choose curtain number 2. they went with the bears. good choice.

5:15pm EST
we are finally on a plane that is supposed to be headed homeward, from boston to dc to austin. but for now, we are grounded. apparently there is issue with flying over new jersey, at least for the next 25 minutes. the weather map shows a large swirl of gray, yellow and orange patches that culminate into a large red blotch over the gulf coast and i realize it to be emily. and i realize only a woman on her cycle could do as much damage and have as great an affect on things as she is right now. i hear you sista, em. i hear you. i feel exactly the same way sometimes!

our delay has extended itself by more than 2 hours now. they told us not to but i brought the kids back outside security so they could play in the kids’ area. did they really expect children to not go insane in the waiting area by the gate? hell, most of the adults are on the brink. i am trying not to stress but i really can’t afford to miss another day of work. (that’s an entirely different blog.) anyway, the kids are having a great time. but this whole dynamic is so interesting. what people will and won’t allow their children to do. what children decide they can and cannot do. how they interact. my children become fast friends with a cute age 8-ish italian sounding, puerto rican looking boy. an obese girl of about 6, maybe 7, it’s hard to tell, wants to join in their play but can’t. the woman who lent me the ivory soap smelling pen that i use to write in my journal, sits next to me, sighs for the girl. says, after a triple suck of her teeth with thick caribbean accent, “poor ting.” i don’t see her for my writing but i imagine she also shakes her head, purses her lips. her energy feels familiar. the little pink gumball of a girl watches the kids run wildly around her. she wants to play too. i can tell. poor thing.

three asian people, 2 women, one man, sit in the white wooden rockers that face the large picture window where flights take off and land every now and again but mostly swim on the runways. they are engaged in lively conversation. i wish i knew another language.

“i’m too ol’ for dem to be lookin’ up in my ass. what you tink i am a teenager? i’m a ol’ woman.” auntie is on her cell. i hope she never reads this blog and discovers i’ve eavesdropped on her conversation. i will tell her i am grateful for the pen then leave her to her conversation about her old lady parts and their boundaries.

8pm EST
we finally reloaded the plane. a long day and my children are folding and fussy. i pray we last to austin.

okay, so before i turn this off as i am being instructed to, i must mention amos lee and raoul midone who are playing on the plane’s radio station. i first consciously heard raoul midone on david letterman. heard amos lee when he was in austin for sxsw. he opened for john legend when jl did the free concert at starbucks on the drag. anyway, if i had a recommendation, besides common’s latest joint, it would be them.

gotta cut off all electronic devices. finally, we’re going home!!!

midnight – give or take… EST
well our 6.5 hour delay has turned into what i expect will be a sleepless night at dc’s dulles airport. and as many people as i know in dc, i don’t have a single number on me. now would be a good time to have that cell phone i am, more often than not, relieved not to have. credit card calls are something ridiculous like $5 per call and the numbers i do have are to people’s cells so i can’t even call them collect. so, i will type for as long as i can. maybe do some jumping jacks and crunches when i feel sleep creeping up on me. (yea, right) my sweeties are outstretched on seats next to me under rice paper thin airline blankets. i am completely spent and not at all interested in writing so i think i will bid this blog adieu for now. hopefully the morning is more promising than this day has been.

7/20/05 so late i don’t want to look at the time… CST
i am not one to refer to myself in these terms but in the infamous words of taraji henson’s character in john singleton’s movie baby boy, “how much can a bitch take?” (and you know you have to suck your thumb when you say it.) so rather than really try to type all of the details of the last 24 hours, here are the remainder of this day’s details…

4:55am woke up from airport benches to get kids to new flight on delta.
5:25am(yes it took that long to reach the gate) we are told we cannot get on the flight because--the short of it is--united didn’t give all of the necessary documentation
5:35 am break up a sibling spat between my daughter and son
5:55 am got stuck in an elevator
5:56 am got out of the elevator
6:10 am break up a sibling spat
6:15 am made it back to terminal to get new flight from united; told to go to customer service
6:35 am stood in line at united customer service desk with tens of other irate customers
6:36 am break up a sibling spat; kid fall asleep
8:05 am finally got tickets straightened out and had to run to catch 8:30 flight at another terminal
8:06 am drag kids from their sleep down the terminal, lugging all my shit and their shit; my son crying for most, if not the entire trip
8:20 AM FINALLY board flight for home
8:30-11:00-ish break up several sibling spats; try to sneak in cat naps but it doesn’t work
11:00-ish FINALLY GOT TO AUSTIN… minus 2 bags that only made it here at midnight.

WHEW! i need sleep, for real…