Everything I've Thought or Done for the Last Two Weeks
OK, maybe that's a little ambitious. Truth be told, I tried to blog on my Sidekick 2 from the Maui airport (since I had to sit there for three hours) but the connection to the Web was so weak it was super slow and I got distracted, or bored, or something and gave up. Side note: In Hawai airports, they designate open-aired portions of the airport for smoking. So civilized!
Returning to the continential US was a bit of a haul. Have yet to learn to sleep on airplanes, so 1:30 am found me reading away. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime made good airplane reading, although it sparked a weird ongoing thread in my life in which every one I know now keeps talking about Ausperger's Syndrome. The book I read going to Maui, Susan Shapiro's Lighting Up was kind of a mistake. It was good, but reading about someone trying to quit smoking while on a plane unable to smoke for six hours was a bit much. Of course, sitting on a beach reading about a retarded African American man about to be executed for a crime he didn't commit wasn't all that cheerful either.
OK, enough about what I've been reading. Maui was awesome. The Aquarium was really cool, the sushi was delicious, the beaches were divine, my tan (now fading) was tasteful and the hotel was pretty swank. One odd thing about the hotel was that it was open air in the center, sort of tropical gardenish, and filled with squawking birds. There also were koi ponds where you could feed the fish, and a litter of feral kittens that hung out by the pool (friendly feral kittens).
I came back to everything in fine order, leading me to conclude, after many years of thinking otherwise, that I can take a vacation. Sweet!
Now am trying to catch up on the news I missed, get next week's paper out the door, and start preparing for the big Love and Sex edition on Feb. 8 that we publish for Valentine's Day (followed by a big, fun party Feb. 9 at Museum of International Folk Art. You should definitely come by. It's cheap ($2), benefits the youth membership drive at the museum, there will be great music, food, plus the exhibits up there are worth seeing (or seeing again perhaps).
In the meantime, I am returning to work, but with a cheerful attitude (have I mentioned I needed a vacation?), knitting (finished a hat for the boy, which is he is wearing, although I think it looks a little girly unfortunately), watching the first season of Lost on DVD—very good, although I'm glad I didn't start before leaving town as it might have made it hard to get on an airplane.
Am now facing choosing letters for this week's paper. Response to our story on the Santa Fe Animal Shelter was intense. Not surprisingly! As always, we will print as many letters as we can this week and keep them coming next week.
Also pondering Crosswinds closure. Actually, not so much pondering it really as biting my tongue. Like, really hard.
Mahola for returning to my blog after this long absence.
Side note, in Hawaii everyone says mahola and aloha. I thought it was interesting because Maui has a lot of similarities to Santa Fe: tourist town, retirement population, excessively expensive housing, tri cultural, local resentment against newcomers and tourists etc., But the one thing that's kind of cool is how much everyone uses traditional language, even just for saying "thank you." It's much more laid back and friendly than Santa Fe though, although I suppose since I was a tourist I'm not really qualified to say that—it's not like I know how tourists are treated here. But it's definitely more laid back. Case in point: my shuttle driver, upon taking me to the airport, pulled over on the highway suddenly, jumped out, rushed into traffic to grab a bungie cord that had fallen off another car because, he said, "I could really use this for my windsurfer."
Have I mentioned I am going to retire in Maui? Right after I win the New Mexico Lottery.
Returning to the continential US was a bit of a haul. Have yet to learn to sleep on airplanes, so 1:30 am found me reading away. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime made good airplane reading, although it sparked a weird ongoing thread in my life in which every one I know now keeps talking about Ausperger's Syndrome. The book I read going to Maui, Susan Shapiro's Lighting Up was kind of a mistake. It was good, but reading about someone trying to quit smoking while on a plane unable to smoke for six hours was a bit much. Of course, sitting on a beach reading about a retarded African American man about to be executed for a crime he didn't commit wasn't all that cheerful either.
OK, enough about what I've been reading. Maui was awesome. The Aquarium was really cool, the sushi was delicious, the beaches were divine, my tan (now fading) was tasteful and the hotel was pretty swank. One odd thing about the hotel was that it was open air in the center, sort of tropical gardenish, and filled with squawking birds. There also were koi ponds where you could feed the fish, and a litter of feral kittens that hung out by the pool (friendly feral kittens).
I came back to everything in fine order, leading me to conclude, after many years of thinking otherwise, that I can take a vacation. Sweet!
Now am trying to catch up on the news I missed, get next week's paper out the door, and start preparing for the big Love and Sex edition on Feb. 8 that we publish for Valentine's Day (followed by a big, fun party Feb. 9 at Museum of International Folk Art. You should definitely come by. It's cheap ($2), benefits the youth membership drive at the museum, there will be great music, food, plus the exhibits up there are worth seeing (or seeing again perhaps).
In the meantime, I am returning to work, but with a cheerful attitude (have I mentioned I needed a vacation?), knitting (finished a hat for the boy, which is he is wearing, although I think it looks a little girly unfortunately), watching the first season of Lost on DVD—very good, although I'm glad I didn't start before leaving town as it might have made it hard to get on an airplane.
Am now facing choosing letters for this week's paper. Response to our story on the Santa Fe Animal Shelter was intense. Not surprisingly! As always, we will print as many letters as we can this week and keep them coming next week.
Also pondering Crosswinds closure. Actually, not so much pondering it really as biting my tongue. Like, really hard.
Mahola for returning to my blog after this long absence.
Side note, in Hawaii everyone says mahola and aloha. I thought it was interesting because Maui has a lot of similarities to Santa Fe: tourist town, retirement population, excessively expensive housing, tri cultural, local resentment against newcomers and tourists etc., But the one thing that's kind of cool is how much everyone uses traditional language, even just for saying "thank you." It's much more laid back and friendly than Santa Fe though, although I suppose since I was a tourist I'm not really qualified to say that—it's not like I know how tourists are treated here. But it's definitely more laid back. Case in point: my shuttle driver, upon taking me to the airport, pulled over on the highway suddenly, jumped out, rushed into traffic to grab a bungie cord that had fallen off another car because, he said, "I could really use this for my windsurfer."
Have I mentioned I am going to retire in Maui? Right after I win the New Mexico Lottery.
posted by Julia at 11:39 AM
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