Andy Update (written 11Sep2007)

Plaster hands

Update on Andy…truly the best kid EVER!

School started…high school to be exact. It caught me a little off guard…just the transition to this other big world…and the memories of all the bad decisions that I made when I sailed through this vast sea. But Andy has turned into some other alien kid that I’ve never met before. He’s taking school seriously, doing homework, nightly showers, chores, helping out when I need it, not abusing computer/video game time…all without complaining and just SO HAPPY. Who IS this kid?

AND he’s scheduled to get braces tomorrow…AND he’s excited about that also. While I’m been in Toronto, he stayed with some (very awesome, kind) friends and got sick last night. The dr. said that she thinks he has asthma (or bad tonsils), so if things don’t clear up by tomorrow, the braces will have to wait.
Asthma…weird.

I just love that kid and continue to like and respect him more and more as the years pass.

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UPDATE:(16 Oct 2007) Here are the braces:

And I have my old Andy back…OK, well, maybe not the same ‘ol cause this alien teenager-acting being has taken over…but the “perfect-child” has exited the stage.  **sigh**

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Travel

Some catch-up since the last entry of many months ago:

I spent the spring traveling. Here’s the schedule:

Feb: CO for Jill’s bachelorette party at Breckenridge
Mar: St Thomas with Jen & Andy for Jill & Matt’s wedding
Apr: Las Vegas with Joan & Ivory (where I was initiated into the world of luxury traveling)
May: Cancun with Joan & Ivory (and the spoiling continued)
Jun: Ft. Lauderdale, FL (where I realized that I just couldn’t keep up with them)
Jul-Aug: Stayed home to regroup and get grounded in various ways
Sep: Toronto, Canada for training. I realized when I walked into the hotel room, disappointed that it wasn’t a suite, just how spoiled I had become with only 3 trips with J&I. Sigh.

So, now I’m planting the seeds for a 2008 summer consisting of:
The Telluride Bluegrass Festival in CO (with Jill & Duck)
Costa Rica with my homies from Rockford (Mari, Sue and Naomi)
Southeast Asia (East Timor, Bali, Vietnam)

See a theme here? I need to be a correspondent or something.
I also need to make more money.

Toronto, Canada (written 11 Sep 2007)

It’s time to add something to this here blog. But I know only Jen checks it, so Jen, this is for you:

I’m sitting at O’Hare airport in hour number 4 of a 5-hour layover. I got here early, but the only earlier plane that I had a chance of getting on was canceled due to high winds in Chicago. I’m coming back from training in Toronto. It was actually really good and true to my adventurous spirit, I took every opportunity to explore the city. Taking the bus and then subway from the airport hotel to downtown (with travel book in hand) was relatively easy to navigate. And I have to say, both nights that I went into to the city, I asked directions repeatedly and EVERYONE was super nice and patient with explaining where I needed to go and how…dropping whatever they were doing and taking time to direct. I was really amazed. I wonder if people in Madison or Chicago are that nice to tourists?
AND Madison pays lip-service to diversity, but Toronto HAS it goin’ on! Everywhere I went, people of all different nationalities/colors/languages walked together, laughed, held hands.

(Working in an airport has to be one of the most stressful jobs in our civilization. People just get so pissed when things don’t go their way.)

The first night in Toronto, I went alone and had dinner at a fantastic place called “Thai Basil.” Two of my favorite things, so I went in & was not disappointed! After stopping at a bookstore, I took the subway back to the hotel.

The next night, I went downtown with one of the presenters at the training after we were done for the day. It’s always more fun traveling with someone else and the evening was “delightful” (as he said). I was introduced to Vietnamese food (yummm!!!), walked through one of the 4 Chinatowns (shops were closed, but it was still nice), and followed the big “needle” to the CN Tower. There we took the elevator to the restaurant and had delicious deserts while taking a rotating high rise tour of the evening city lights. It really was somewhat magical.

(My time at this airport just got extended by another hour because the plane is late coming in….sigh…why didn’t I take the Van Galder bus?)

There are just so many cool things about Toronto. The mix of old brick and new modern buildings and the scattered cool art sculptures are a few. I’ll put the photos up on flickr, but they just don’t capture the feeling of walking around the city at night.

(Someone earlier reminded me that today is Sep 11. I haven’t heard any talk of it here at the airport…. Hard to believe it’s been 6 years and hard to comprehend the shit position this presidency has put our country in in that amount of time.)