Sylvia's Journal

I waited too long to write after waking up and so lost much of the detail from the vivid dreams. The parents of my friend Sietske showed up even though her dad is no longer with us. He was last night, the setting was Cambodia, which looked heavenly. I had to prepare for two sports events, one was swimming and the other rowing and I was having a hard time preparing for both and then finding the stuff I needed for competing (like a swimsuit and a boat). It was one of those dreams where things don’t come together.

I hardly needed a dream to tell me that I am not ready for this trip. I am leaving tonight and the passport/visa issue has still not been resolved. I am now trying to work magic on the arrival side. My Bangla friend and colleague Sayeed wrote me an email with the words: ‘send me your arrival information.’ That was all. The barebones email comforted me, he wants information. I gave it to him.

Unlike my previous trips through Dubai that always included a stay at an obscenely luxurious hotel, this time I fly right through, with only a couple of hours in the middle of the night during which I have to change terminals. I will be travelling for about 24 hour straight to arrive in the morning in Dhaka. I am sending some prayers into the universe for upgrades in the hope that someone in NWA, KLM and Emirates is listening.

Yesterday was a day of nonstop meetings because nothing could be postponed anymore. Everything that had been postponed had landed on yesterday’s calendar. There are nonstop demands on my brain’s left hemisphere; the neurons charged with understanding, categorizing, framing, planning, evaluating, judging, conceptualizing, and deducting are over stimulated leaving the right side of my brain literally at a loss for words and unable to compete. It is only in my dream states that it gets some words in edgewise.

I have to talk back to that part of myself now and then and say ‘shut uphhhh.’ That is one good thing about flying for so long –I get to use my meditation tapes which consist of hours and hours of silence. I usually fall asleep in the middle of that silence.

The day ended with a nice Mexican dinner in the next town over with Axel, Steve and Tessa. While eating hot armadillo eggs we listened to Tessa’s enthusiastic account of her interview at Suffolk’s art school. She’s determined to get that BA within the next 2 years. We think that it is a good idea.