Hey my Mom is in town! She’s asleep right now and even though I grew up in a hideously cold house, I have turned the thermostat up a few degrees just so it’s maybe not quite so icy here. We had one of the neighbors over, a guy I met through Ola named Chris, and I made some soup/salad/bread meal and he regaled us with stories about leaving the family farm in Massachusetts and running away to New York City in the 40’s where he eventually became a window dresser at Macy’s and went to Parsons and lived in the Village. Chris can sometime be a bit of a monologuist, but if I’m in the right mood — as I was tonight — I find him fascinating and hilarious. He also made a pecan pie and I can listen to anyone talk about anything with enough good pie in front of me.
Mostly I’m just happy to have my Mom back, happy and game for anything in her fun sort of way. The last year was annoying for me, but it was hellish for her with a cancer diagnosis and surgeries and a lot of “hurry up and wait” crap. However, she seems to have come through it with a slightly adjusted attitude, a mildly more positive outlook, some nutty stories about radiation treatment that crack me up (as they are supposed to) and in mostly good health.
I kick off the 2007 travel year possibly as early as next week, but definitely in a few weeks from now where I go to Manhattan, Kansas to talk to some librarians about Library 2.0 stuff and then to AUSTRALIA with my SISTER for TWO WEEKS. Yes I’m excited. At the same time, Ola will be heading to Kiribati which means that we’ll be closer together when I’m in Australia, geographically speaking, then we are now. I hope she sends me a postcard.