Today is Thanksgiving Day. Upon waking this morning I went through all I am thankful for, people and situation and stuff. It is a very long list topped by people. That’s part of the wake up ritual on this day, and then I fell asleep again, also part of the ritual since there is no need to be anywhere or do anything today other than cooking our meal which we will do together; I do the pies and Tessa and Axel the rest of the meal. We don’t eat turkey, which we save for Christmas; Tessa chose ham.
To complete the arrangement we ate green eggs this morning, not with ham – that is for later – but with apple-smoked bacon, while we listened to the reactions to the Mumbai drama that is unfolding half way around the world from us. We are grateful to be living that far away and not knowing anyone involved but also knowing that the next attack could be closer to home. Life is risky.
Yesterday was my one long and full workday before the next trip. The Bangladesh visa has been stamped into my passport, the reservations are made and I should be on my way on Sunday again. This meant that many meetings had to be squeezed into this one workday. I did a dry run for my conference presentation and received some pointers to make it better and slower; the rest of the day was claimed by Ann B. who used to be my squash partner, my Halloween co-conspirator and my constant companion during many years of working in Bangladesh. Now she is interviewing a bunch of us to see if she can discern patterns in the way we go about our work and transform health professionals into ‘managers who lead’ in countries around the world. By the time the day was over I was hoarse from talking – it was also the beginning of a sore throat and possibly a cold, the first of this season.
I had offered to do the thanksgiving meal shopping and regretted it as soon as I stepped into the overcrowded and overpriced supermarket near my work. I refused to pay 45 dollars for the ham that Tessa had requested and sent Axel on a parallel shopping trip to a supermarket for ordinary people further up north.
I came home late and was not feeling well, and ready to go to bed at an early hour. But then I discovered that I had only emails of my itinerary and none said ‘e-ticket,’ which brought about a frantic search and some phone calls to my hapless assistant who was on a bus somewhere between Boston and NYC. I finally found the words ‘e-ticket’ on the Emirates website under the ‘manage my bookings’ tab and was reassured that all was well and everyone could relax again. The only thing missing, a rather important piece, is my passport which should be en route from DC to our house. Incha’allah, they say in the part of the world I am going to.
Sylvia's Journal 
0 Responses to “Green eggs and ham”