Well, I have some catching up to do. As
I write this blontry, I am in an airplane headed back to Delhi. It is Monday
the 5th, or perhaps by now it is Tuesday the 6th.
Sometime during this trip it will cross over. I left Portland Monday morning
and arrive in Delhi Tuesday night.
There’s a story even in that. I was
supposed to have left Portland Sunday morning. My flight was at 7:15 and
Brendon dropped me off and I was checking in at 5:15. When I tried to log on to
the ticket kiosk to get my ticket, I received an error message stating it was
too close to flight time and I couldn’t process my ticket request at that
location. I asked the helpful attendant (this is one of those cases a sarcastic
font would be handy) how that could be. She asked, “What flight were you
supposed to be on?” I said the 7:15 to Newark and then on to Delhi. She said,
“There is no 7:15 to Newark. Only a 5:50.” I asked, how that could be, seeing I
held in my hot little hand an itinerary showing I was on the 7:15 flight.
“Well, there used to be two flights, one at 5:50 and one at 7:15 but the 7:15
flight has been cancelled since September and there is only the 5:50 flight.
You should have been notified.”
When I assured her I had not, in fact,
been notified and asked, “now what can I do?” In her most caring and concerned
voice she said, “Go stand over there.” “Over there” turned out to be a line to
meet with the Solver of Problems. A woman who, through her access to all the
flights on all the airlines can magically make problems disappear. However, in
my particular case she seemed in no great need of providing said solution.
First she offered me a flight through Chicago. The only problem was, it didn’t
arrive in Newark until after my plane to Delhi was scheduled to leave. No
worries, I could just spend the night and the next day in Newark (who wouldn’t
want to?) and take the flight on Monday night instead of Tuesday. Now I have
had experience with Solvers of Problems before and know they can be immensely
helpful. If the airline in question does not have the right flight, they have
carte blanche to use a code share airline. If that doesn’t work, they are even
authorized to put a person (me) on a competitor airline.
Well our Solver of Problems must have
either been new, already exhausted, or really didn’t care because she did not
try any of those solutions. No, my option was to fly to Chicago, have a
layover; fly to Newark have a really long layover; and then leave a day later.
“So,” I asked, “that means I will be on the same flight out of Newark that I
would have been on only a day later?” “Yes,” came the forthright reply. “But in
order to do that, I need to fly to Chicago, have a layover, and then fly to
Newark and have a really long layover?” “Yes” she affirmed. Pause 1, 2, and 3 …
“Well, I guess you could just take the same flight on Monday you were going to
take today and then you wouldn’t have a layover in Chicago.”
Let’s see. I have my choice of the Grand
Tour of airport terminals in Chicago and Newark, complete with accompanying
layovers, OR I can have another day with my family? Hmm. That wasn’t too hard
of a decision. So back home I go with tickets for the next day in my hot little
hand. It was kind of fun seeing the confusion on the faces of Jeremy and Sarah
at home and then Ben, Becca and company at Church when I was where I clearly
was not where I was supposed to be. Overall, they seemed glad to see me. At
least they did not sing the “They don’t go” song from Pirates of Penzance.
The extra day was actually a blessing. I
had one more Sunday with our friends in our home ward; got to hear Lauren and
Becca bear their testimonies; Ben teach Sunday School; Julien give a talk, and
give blessings to Jeremy and Rachel. All of that was the good part. The bad
part was another night with very little sleep as I got up early to catch the
flight and even worse having to go through another round of saying goodbye to one
and all. I really love our family and enjoy just being with them. Having to say
goodbye, even though I know we will talk on the phone, or Google-Chat, of
Facetime is really hard. I hope that someday we can all live in the same area.
For now, I will just count it a blessing that we can get together for some time
and that despite the occasional emotional jostle, we enjoy that being with each
other.
Saturday, we had a great family event:
Quincy’s baptism. For those of you who do not know, in our Church there is no
infant baptism. We believe that children are born without sin and have no need
of baptism until they reach the age of accountability, which is eight. Prior to
that age, a child can do wrong (boy oh boy we all know that is true) but they
cannot sin for they have not reached the level of maturity to make decisions
truly understanding the consequence. So Quincy turned eight just before we got
to Portland and he decided he wanted to be baptised. Due to the press of the
holidays and to ensure the maximum number of people could be there, the date
was set for the Saturday after New Year’s. Here are a couple of pictures. I love the one of Ben and Quincy talking.
It was a very nice service with many
tender, sweet feelings. Rae conducted the music, Aunt Sarah gave a talk on
baptism; Becca gave a talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost; and Ben performed the
baptism and confirmation. There was way more than one tear shed during the
service I can tell you. I for one was quite verklempt. I almost asked people to
talk amongst themselves (reference anyone?) but I could see they also were also
touched by the spirit of the occasion. After the baptism we went to Ben and
Becca’s for pizza and desert. I good time was had by all.
Moving further back in time (I seem to
have a whole reverse chronology thing going here. Just call me Benjamin
Buttons. Or Merlin) we had a very quiet New Year’s Eve. We made it to midnight
but just barely. Everyone came over for an early dinner. We had Indian Fry
Bread. Then one family at a time, people peeled away to their various and
sundry commitments. We were left Jeremy, Sarah, Merrick, Carrigan. Sarah and
Jeremy had recorded a New Year’s countdown by King Julien of Madagascar fame.
Shortly after 8:00 they played it and we all counted down from 10 and shouted
Happy New Year when we reached zero. Merrick and Carrigan were very willing to
go to bed at that point, having observed the sacred ritual, not realizing it
was about four hours too early. After they went to bed Sarah, Jeremy, Rae, and
I watched a movie (don’t ask; it was not a great example of the cinematic art
or even otherwise very entertaining). At midnight we toasted with Martinelli’s.
Kissed our respective spouses, wished each other a happy new year, and went to
bed. I will refrain from mentioning that someone whose initials are Rae
Lundberg got an early jump on the going to bed part. She would periodically
punctuated the movie with the most delightful, feminine snoring, come to, and
ask, “Did I snore?”
Roughly a week, no actually just a week,
prior to New Year’s we had Christmas. It was a great event at the Lundbergs,
Browns, and Cliffords. There were plenty of great presents and even more of
laughter and good company. Christmas Eve we had a family dinner with four
different types of soup and homemade roll, followed by pie and other deserts. I
don’t think it was too taxing on anyone. It was all delicious, and it allowed
us to quite easily accommodate the various no gluten, no dairy, no eggs, and no
nuts dietary requirements of various family members. I think it should become
the traditional Christmas Eve meal.
After dinner was cleared up I read the
Nativity story from the Bible while the Grandchildren acted the various parts.
It wasn’t the most spiritual nativity play that has ever been produced but
everyone enjoyed it and the message was there, if somewhat obscured. The
cousins then exchanged Christmas presents and each family went to their
respective homes to prepare for the arrival of Santa Claus.
In between these events, there was much
laughter, shopping, football, cooking, and great cheer. I think I may have
mentioned I really love my family and enjoy spending time with them. The only
mar was that Emily and her brood had to go back to Phoenix the Monday before
Christmas but at least we did have time with her and Kai too, although Michael
missed the frivolity. Probably not next year, since we are not planning on
coming back to the States for Christmas, but one of these years we will get everyone
together for the whole shebang. Then, Katie bar the door!
Namaste
No comments:
Post a Comment