Sylvia's Journal

Today we are only two more months away from the anniversary of the crash. I repeat the monthly ritual of reading the previous (now nine) entries in my blog tagged as ‘the 14th.’ It makes me a bit philosophical. The 14th of July may well become our new collective birthday, or should I say, re-birth or survival day?

Sita sent us a note and picture from Frankfurt. Guess what they make there? She is flying to Egypt in style (business class). We don’t feel sorry for her. When we said goodbye yesterday I remarked how one of us seems to be always coming into the US when the other is going out. “I learned it by watching you, mom!” she answered. Watch out what you do in front of your kids!

Tessa’s arrival cancelled out Sita’s departure; we still have two kids at the dinner table, Tessa and Jim, and of course there is Chicha the puppy who greeted me with great yelps of something (curiosity, pleasure, fear?).

It was nearly warm enough to sit outside in the late afternoon sun. With a cup of steaming hot tea in our hands we could do it for a lilttle while. But when the sun goes down we are reminded that it is not summer yet.

Back at work I slid back into a work routine as if I had not left. There people are used to me flitting in and out. And when I have an internet connection on the road I keep up with mails, requests, etc. as if I were physically present. We actuallly do have many colleagues with whom we work just fine even though they live and work far away.

We are at the end of our annual workplanning cycle with several trips lined up for me in the second half of the year. I always worry a bit about scheduling but then, each year, things fall more or less into place.

For the next few months there are no trips scheduled which is a new experience this year, having made one trip each month. Not that I can sit back, relax and twiddle my thumbs. Next week is our project’s worldwide meeting where staff from all over comes together for a stock taking and celebratory event; after that an annual conference on international health in DC for people who are in my trade, followed by the organizational behavior teaching conference in Boston in mid June. In between there is jury duty; my first as an American citizen. Until September 21, 2005 I was able to ignore these calls for jury duty, as an alien. But now I am tagged for real. More about that later.