Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
Halfway house
After a good travel day yesterday I am grateful. Everything ran on time, my seat mates were friendly, the crowds were manageable, and TSA pre-check is the best gift of all. The line to be checked in there was not very long, while the “regular” check in lines were astoundingly long. My flight left Sarasota bound for Atlanta.
While in Atlanta I didn’t have to de-plane since the aircraft was going to St. Louis. Instead I waited to see who would settle next to me. As it happens it was a nice lady traveling home from “Thanksgiving with family”. I asked how it was and that launched a conversation that lasted from Atlanta to St. Louis. She and her husband were frazzled because they had missed their first flight and almost missed this one. Her story started with, “We went to see his family, and all they wanted to do was get to the casino. We don’t gamble but we had to go along to keep the peace.” In the process of not wanting to be where they were, her husband lost his wallet with all his ID’s and Medicare cards. Hence they missed their flight because they had to be subjected to a rigorous process with TSA in order to prove his identity. All this for a visit that was not the most pleasant – even the Thanksgiving fare was “OK” but not seasoned properly. Happy Holidays!
Waiting to board my flight in Sarasota, I got a phone call from Richard, the father of my children. He was calling to let me know that Southwest was having a killer sale on flights from St. Louis to New Jersey, and asked if we were planning to go to New Jersey for grandson Xander’s fifth birthday in February. I truly hadn’t thought that far ahead, but thanks to that heads up call I snagged two round trip seats on Southwest for a ridiculously low fare. I called New Jersey first to verify that it was OK to come and got the go ahead.
Xander got on the phone and told me he has a new superhero. Iron Man is out, and a new Marvel guy has captured his attention. He said I had to guess who it was. After I offered up the two names that I could think of he gave me some hints. “Yaya”, he said, “it’s a guy who turns green and gets really big! Now can you guess it?”. Of course, the Hulk! So on February 6 he will awaken to a Hulk-themed birthday table thanks to Jackie’s creative imagination. That is unless some other superhero steals the scene between now and February.
My attention has been on our next trip coming up in January. Southwest will carry Jan and me to Los Angeles for a few days with Ted and Sarah. That trip feels special because we don’t get to see them very often. They are busy people, working for their respective employers. Sarah works at the Getty Museum, and Ted is wrapping up his PhD thesis and teaching at two colleges. He has sent out dozens of job applications for next year when he will be Dr. Mark and be prepared to teach and do research.
Living in Saint Louis has lots of benefits, not the least of which is its placement in the middle of the country, so I can fly to either coast without too much effort. When kids live at a distance, as both of mine do, planning visits is an exciting endeavor. When I started working part time for pay, I committed to make my earnings mostly a travel fund. Now that Jan is a whole new woman, she is ready to travel, and we have the means to take short trips. For that I am eternally grateful. On that note, I must get ready for what promises to be a busy day at Legal Services’s Immigration Law Program!