Sylvia's Journal

I thought Sweden had laid claim to the colors blue and yellow – but all the jerseys I see say ‘Boston Marathon 2009.’ I am flying to Amsterdam with many winners, some the world’s best who are going home to Addis or Nairobi, and some who achieved their own personal best. There are a few who wear their medals around their neck, others are still in their running shoes. Many are travelling with proud significant others, including kids, who cheered. I see more women than men who are recognizable as marathon runners, although many others, not in gear, also look trim and fit; this plane load has very few of the usual obese Americans.

Northwest has moved in with Delta – its looks like absorption rather than a merger. I see only Delta uniforms, Delta logos and wonder about the nice Northwest people who used to check me in, serve me – did they simply change uniform or were they laid off?

Axel brings me to Logan and we miss the nice dinner we used to have at terminal E – it was part of the parting, the treat of a last dinner together. At terminal A, Delta’s home, there is no restaurant for people who are not passengers, only one Au Bon Pain. It is dirty and serves nothing of interest to us. Axel is very affected by this change and I see him walk away with droopy shoulders. When he is out of sight and we are done waving goodbye we talk on the phone for awhile longer. He said the goodbye hit him harder this time. We wonder whether it is the missing restaurant. We could arrive earlier and have dinner at one of the airport hotels. Next time.

I am in the Delta lounge, waiting for our call. I am surrounded by suits, a few women, runners, but mostly suits; a man with high blood pressure makes an aggressive call to an underling back wherever his office is to do things the underling finds difficult or uninteresting. The boss is persistent and speaks louder as the clock ticks towards our departure. There is an urgency in his voice (‘I have no time!’). I am glad I don’t work for a company that ends in –ex or –co, even though it might give me business class travel.

Sita is going to Beirut on the 8th of May before going to Amman. That is the day that I am flying over Beirut from Dubai to Amsterdam. It gives me an idea, but how to make it work. I travel on such cheap tickets that any change requires change fees of hundreds of dollars. Still, I am going to explore this. I bet I could fly to Amsterdam and get a miles roundtrip ticket to Beirut and hang out with her for a few days before resuming my trip home, on the hallowed grounds that saw Axel and me turning into a couple, now 30 years ago.

I sleep fitfully in small chunks throughout the flight. I watched the Benjamin Button film without sound because I wanted to sleep. This makes it a very confusing movie – even more so when you miss whole segments while asleep. The only thing I got was that the main character got younger and younger and it had something to do with a clock going backward.

Sietske picked me up for a brief layover at her house where everything is in bloom. There are freshly laid eggs from her chicken. While she checks out a Polish couple who are going to clean her house, I get to write my blog and take pictures of the cherry tree in full bloom with petals blowing covering everything like pink snow. Sietske feed the potbelly pigs and alets them loose in the yard. If she gives them enough food they will not uproot the bulbs and perennials. They are like hippos, but not dangerous.

We go for a walk with her old dog Trouve who reminds me of Axel in the way he is distracted by every interesting thing (for the dog it is smells) on his path. It’s a slow walk which gives me extra time to enjoy the flowers, fully leafed out trees and the geese, ducks and other water fowl with their darling babies.