Sylvia's Journal

The last two mornings it was cold enough that the heater in our house jumped into action and I needed to  blast warm air into my car. This means we are halfway through the summer and have begun the fast slide down towards fall. It is a little depressing as we haven’t even had our usually August heat waves yet. There is much else that we typically do in a (normal) summer that has not happened yet either, like a cookout on the beach, putting out the lobster traps and much more swimming and kayaking.

Yesterday at work consisted of nonstop meetings as everyone is clearing the decks to head out on vacation. This includes me. Part of the deck clearing was preparation for a trip to the Ivory Coast in September that was finally approved. With that I will have hit three official (according to the US government) danger spots in 6 months. I had not realized that the Ivory Coast is still in some state of turbulence (guns on the street as Malcolm told me) because it rarely makes the news here, being part of the French ecosystem and thus not likely to be on our Anglophone screens.

Tessa visited MSH to explore possibilities for an internship with the communications department which would be wise to take advantage of her energy, graphic and organizational skills. Maybe they will. She is looking for ways to learn about her new profession in the workplace before she goes back to school in January, assuming she gets accepted at MassArt or any of the other places she is applying to.

She was home early and had dinner on the table before I returned; for someone who takes her meals at 5:00 AM and at noon this is a rare treat. Everything was familiar from previous days; she had reheated all the leftovers she could find in the refrigerator. It’s the kind of meal I like with small portions of many different things that don’t match but look sort of nice on your plate, like an edible modern art quilt.

After a postprandial walk with Axel, puppy and kids around the loop in the beautiful early evening light, I peeled off leaving them to complete the larger loop without me while I finished my sewing project. Being in a hurry (when you get up as early as I do the evenings are very short) I managed to cut in the wrong places (measure twice cut once) which required additional remedial work. But now all is well again and I am pleased with the result. Axel had a private showing and approved the new outfit, wondering when I plan to wear it; someplace overseas, I responded, and at weddings or other happy dress up events.

And then we started to think, seriously, about going to Linda’s funeral in Atlanta as emails from other relatives came in with their travel plans. Going to Atlanta means missing the family reunion, an old tradition that petered out after the previous generation had mostly disappeared.  Axel had worked hard to bring it back to life in a new format and had invested much psychic energy in the event. We sat for a long time in front of the Delta website with our itinerary on the screen, hesitant to hit the ‘purchase’ button. We agonized about our choice, go or stay, and called in all the forces of the universe to help us decide, including native American medicine cards and Axel’s co-organizer of the reunion. In the end we decided that it was more likely that we would be at the reunion wanting to be at the funeral than being at the funeral wanting to be at the reunion. And so we pressed ‘submit’ and now have two tickets for a trip to Atlanta 10 days from now.