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During my trip back home last year, we went to Pennsylvania to visit my grandma and to see that area of the state that was my home for the first year or two of my life. At that time grandma was living independently in an apartment so we stayed with her for our five day visit. After spending our first week of visiting in the oven that is Texas, it was nice to be in Pennsylvania with its milder temperatures.
During our visit, we spent a lot of time driving around to family landmarks and visiting some extended family. I saw the location where the hospital where I was born once stood. More interesting was going down the back streets of the town to see the first house where I lived. It doesn’t really look that different to when we lived there. Just a bit older and maybe overgrown a little. I remember we used to make a traditional visit to these places each summer when we made the trip from Georgia to Pennsylvania. Except that the hospital was still standing until I was probably in my teens. I have a vague memory of it, looking a bit like a dilapidated old house.
We drove over to Grandma’s old house, where we stayed most summers. It now belongs to my aunt who lives there with her husband. Unfortunately my aunt wasn’t home at the time so I never got to see what it looks like now. It’s a small house with just two bedrooms but somehow we used to manage to fit my grandparents, my two aunts along with the five of us in for a week at a time. Most summers there was a family picnic at the house on the 4th of July. There was the picnic during the day and at night most of the men would play poker down in the basement. The women would play cars up in the kitchen. Cigarette smoke was everywhere because just about everyone in the family smoked. Big chests of ice filled with beer bottles soon became empty beer bottles filling the bins. Kids would run around inside and out playing and sometimes watching the adults. This was often the time I’d see most of my cousins…or should I say second cousins who just happened to be closer to my age than my mom. I also remember seeing the amazing game Pong, for the first time at this house. I’m going to assume it was for the benefit of my aunts still living at home. Later there was the Atari console with the many cartridges. I remember one year when my aunt spent hours playing a single game of Pacman and collecting some crazy high score. When my grandparents first lived there, there was nothing behind the house, just a hill filled with wild strawberries that grandma would turn into jam each year.
I think it must have been our second last day there where Grandma took us out to eat at a little diner called Deb’s Place. I think the place has been there forever but I don’t recall ever being there. The food was pretty typical diner food that wasn’t bad but not great either. It did provide a break from cooking that night and it was kind of neat to go to what apparently was a popular hangout for the locals. Once dinner was over, we had dessert at the ice cream place that is part of the diner. Ice cream is served at a window and eaten at tables out by the parking lot. After making our decisions, Lego Lover and I placed our orders and we waited. What I didn’t notice very well was the anticipation of both my mom and grandma. When the ice cream cones came out, we nearly fell down in shock as they were enormous. I think I ordered a double scoop and it honestly looked like three or four scoops. Lego Lover was similarly amazed and impressed. Both Mom and Grandma were rolling with laughter. It was quite a sight to see. As there was no place to sit at this point, we got back into the car and started to leave. But I had the misfortune to lose the top scoop from my cone which fell off and went rolling down my blouse and leaving streaks of some chocolatey ice cream in its place. This was a brand new top that I don’t think I’d ever worn before. And it was a bit stained after that although it eventually did come out. Despite my mishap, this was my fondest memory of my stay last year.
When we weren’t driving around the area, we were hanging out at Grandma’s apartment and talking and watching tv. Â Eventually we got to what had always been my favorite part of visits: photo albums. I particularly liked the older photos and the stories about the people in them. Mostly the people were family from before my time along with some close friends and even a couple old boyfriends of my grandmother. Grandma would sleep in her recliner chair as she didn’t sleep well in her bed. It was a big, fancy chair that quite possibly was as comfortable or more so than many beds. Most nights she fell asleep while watching tv. Most of the time this happened while watching four episodes of Golden Girls late each night.
There was a lot more to that short visit but I won’t go into that now except to say that much of it was quite memorable for many different reasons. At the end of the visit, it was with a heavy heart that we parted to travel back to Texas. The only regret is that despite taking heaps of photos there, I didn’t get one of me with my grandma.
Earlier this year, my grandmother’s health began to decline rapidly and she had to be moved into a nursing home a few months ago. At the end of last month, she celebrated her 90th birthday with a small family gathering at the nursing home. Mom managed to scrape enough money to be there for the special occasion. Soon after the doctor discovered a severe foot infection which couldn’t be cured with medication. The only option was amputation but Grandma wouldn’t have made it through surgery. So the last few weeks have been a waiting game. This afternoon, I got a message from my mom that the wait was over.
Grandma’s life wasn’t any kind of life to live at the end, with others having to meet most of her basic needs. So I am relieved the end has finally come. Obviously that doesn’t take away the sadness of the loss and there is still a bit of the shock of it really being the end. And there’s also the unreality of it for me, being so removed from family. I think I might spend part of tomorrow getting back to work on all the photos I took during last years visit and finally finish that off.
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Falling behind
I have been working on a post from my birthday for a few weeks now. It’s not so much that it’s long but I’m trying to include photos and that seems to take a lot of time. I will hopefully have that up in a day or two…maybe within a month of my birthday if I stick to it long enough.
Meanwhile, the year continues to pass by so quickly that it’s hard to imagine we’re near the end of the fourth month already. Despite the passing of the months, the seasons have been a bit more sluggish. We finally saw the beginning of autumn weather a couple weeks ago after a particularly warm start to April. The nights are definitely much cooler now but summer has not left us just yet. Tomorrow is supposed to be pretty warm and it’s going to be hot on Friday, hopefully the last gasp of summer. Then we are due for possible showers over the long weekend. I won’t hold my breath at this possibility as it only leaves room for disappointment. I think it’s quite possible we will be watering our yard well into winter this year.
That said, the Scientist and I are going to an outdoor concert venue on Monday night to see Neil Finn and Paul Kelly perform. We believe it’s more likely to rain then than at any other time. Of course, it could very well rain at the venue but not here at home. It’s located in the Perth hills, which have had considerably more precipitation than we have in recent months. This will be the first time seeing Paul Kelly and a first solo Neil Finn show for us. It’s a special Anzac Day show called Songlines and will also feature Lior And Ben Merito, singer/songwriters from Australia and New Zealand. It should be a special night of  Australian and New Zealand music in the hills overlooking Perth.
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USA adventure, part 1: Flying east
The great American adventure started out on May 29th. In fact, it really began the night before as we departed for the airport.  It was a very chilly night as we packed our bags into the car to go to the airport. Our flight left at 1am and we arrived with plenty of time to spare. I’d been concerned my backpack would be too big on the Jetstar flight but it turned out to be fine. So our bags were checked in and we were mostly ready to go. There was a stop at the newsagent for chewing gum and then there wasn’t much to do. So we ended up saying our goodbyes to the Scientist and Game Fanatic soon afterwards. We went through security and I was stopped briefly for some random security check. I was so distracted when I was finished that I didn’t turn to wave to the family I was leaving behind until they had gone.
The flight to Melbourne went very well. Lego Lover was quite anxious for the take off and landing but gripped my hand when he needed support and was fine. It was a very short flight that arrived just a little before daylight in Melbourne. We had to pick up our luggage and transfer it before we did anything else so we sorted that out and moved to the international terminal to check in. Our plan had been to buy a couple Krispy Kreme doughnuts for a snack as a special treat. We had worked out ahead of time where the outlet was in the airport but when we got there, we found no Krispy Kreme. After wandering around for awhile, I asked one of the shopkeepers and was told that it had closed in that terminal. The only one remaining at the airport was in a different terminal. We’d already been through security so we were pretty much stuck where we were. So we ended up eating not very nice food from a coffee house as there was nothing else at all suitable for that time of day.
As we still had a long wait ahead of us, I stopped at an internet kiosk and used that for about ten minutes. All I managed in that time was a quick email to the Scientist and a brief status update on Facebook. We walked through some shops and bought some postcards to send home. The rest of the time we spent writing and sending the postcards. By this time the crowds were starting to gather for our 747 flight of more people than I care to count. Eventually they did start calling passengers through and when we got up there, we were detained due to a random security check of Lego Lover. This was far more involved than the one I went through at Perth airport. He had to take his shoes off and had to be patted down by a security person. Initially the lady said that maybe we needed a male to handle it but I insisted that I preferred a woman. Lego Lover was so excited that he handled it all quite well and we were finally on our way onto the plane.
Our seats were nearly at the back but we only had the two of us in our row, which worked out really well for us. Lego Lover had his seatbelt on in no time at all and was ready to go even though we had quite some time until departure. There was plenty of time to look at the in-flight entertainment and see how it all worked. He was in heaven. Eventually the flight did depart and we were finally to the long leg of the journey, a trip that takes fourteen hours. Lego Lover had great fun exploring the entertainment system for the first hour or so of the flight. I mostly stayed with the interactive map showing where we were. Lunch was served within the first couple hours of the flight. Lego Lover got his early because it was a special request kids meal but because we were at the back of the plane, my food didn’t come for nearly half an hour after his. He wasn’t all that enamored of the food he was served so I ate some of the parts he didn’t want. When mine came, I gave him my roll and some other bits so he’d get enough to eat. I rarely drink but decided to partake in wine with my meal as it was “complimentary”. Just as it took ages for the food to be served, it took a long time for it to be cleared away. This was particularly difficult for Lego Lover, who had finished eating ages before.
Most of the passengers go to sleep after the meal is served and I tried to do the same but found it nearly impossible. I ended up having a long series of catnaps that couldn’t have lasted more than a minute or two at most. There were two main factors from my point of view.  It was a really bumpy flight with turbulence through about half of the trip. This was quite uncomfortable at times and was very stressful for Lego Lover. He did eventually relax and I think the bumpiness did help him to fall asleep for a few hours. Also, in our section was a couple with a baby that cried most of the flight. I really felt for them because we experienced that with Lego Lover on our first trip back to the US. It was quite a nightmare for me on that trip. So I really did sympathise. But between the constant bumps and the crying baby, I never got more than those little catnaps the whole trip. I ended up getting up several times to walk around for some exercise and to pass the time. When I would sit, I’d stare at the interactive flight display for hours. I couldn’t read or work any puzzles because my concentration levels were quite poor.
Breakfast was served a couple hours before we were due to land. By this time most of the passengers had woken and were starting to move around. I’d already gone to the toilet to wash up a bit before everyone woke because I knew it would take ages to get in otherwise. Breakfast was quite decent although Lego Lover again didn’t like much of what he was served. We ended up trading bits and pieces again so that he’d get a decent meal out of it. We started to see some light out the windows as dawn approached. I had hoped to see the sunrise from the plane but we were in the wrong direction to see it. The last hour is always the longest on this flight. So close and yet not close enough. We watched the screen carefully to see where we were most of the time. Lego Lover must have recharged his batteries enough because he became quite the chatterbox for the remainder of the flight. We circled Los Angeles for a while before we were given clearance to land. It was a great relief to finally disembark following the never-ending flight.
Immigration went easily enough although the officer was a bit rude in his questioning for no apparent reason. He wanted to know why I didn’t live in the US so I told him I was married to an Australian and that we were visiting my family while in the US. He then proceeded to ask why I was in the US. So I very emphatically told him that I was visiting my family as I had just said before. Fortunately that was the whole of the interrogation. I know some Americans with dual citizenship in Australia don’t bother retaining a US passport and just come through on their Australian passports. Apparently they don’t have any problems. But the treatment I had from this officer is one of the reasons I won’t risk that. Technically, if you are a US citizen, you are supposed to enter and leave on the US passport. So I travel with both passports for myself and the kids. That was the only negative experience in Los Angeles. So it was off to baggage claim where our luggage was about the last to come off. The lines for customs were long but moving reasonably quickly. The only thing I had to declare was a small jar of vegemite which wasn’t an issue so that we got through customs without too much ado.
I will point out that Lego Lover did not once leave his seat on the flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles. So he had no toilet breaks of any type the whole fourteen hours. So when does he suddenly need to go? Just as we are getting off the plane, of course. There are no facilities available from the time you disembark until you get through customs. So the poor guy was pretty miserable by this point. Fortunately, there were toilets just outside the customs area. He had more trouble at this point because he was nervous about going to the men’s toilet alone. When he did go in, it looked much different to what he’s experienced here and he came back out a couple of times before finally getting his business done and returning. It turns  out the toilets and sinks were all automated which put him off initially. I think his discomfort did motivate him to figure it out in the end, especially when it became clear there was no way I could go in to help him.
Our next business was getting to the American airlines desk to check in. In hindsight, I just don’t know why the Qantas representative didn’t issue boarding passes for this part of the flight in Melbourne. It would have made things so much easier because we could have just transferred to the appropriate terminal without the need to go through security again. Instead I found myself trying to work out how to use the kiosks and not doing very well. There were staff around, though, who were very helpful and I had my boarding passes in short order after that. Security was the worst part of this experience because I had no idea how it all worked and it was far more involved than it is here in Australia. All the staff were quite friendly throughout, which made it much more bearable.
So we made it to our gate to wait for our last flight. It was very crowded and busy by this time (mid-morning). I tried to get some cash out of a machine but it didn’t like my bank card so I gave up. We got some more chewing gum, some postcards and bottles of water from a newsagent in the terminal. Then we found a place to sit and just waited until it was time. It wasn’t a long wait but it seemed like we sat there for ages. Boarding for our flight started about fifteen minutes ahead of departure. It was a fairly small plane so didn’t take too long for us to get situated. And so we finally reached the last three and a half hours of the trip. The flight went well and we landed in Dallas nearly half an hour ahead of schedule, which was nice.
I will admit that I’d been feeling quite alien since arriving at LAX but perhaps the lack of sleep and long hours of travel accentuated this feeling. So when we finally disembarked in Dallas and made our way outside of the gate to the baggage area, it was a great relief to see the familiar faces of my parents and one of my nephews waiting for us. My parents were both in awe of the almost flat baggage we brought with us. It didn’t take too long to get everything and move out to the car.