Mat and I had three great flights yesterday, from Sydney to Halifax to Montreal to Newark. Whew! I did end up buying that Vogue, with spare change that I was keeping in a tin that used to hold cherry-flavored candies. With the rest of the dimes Mat bought batteries. The airports were interesting places to watch people--there was a collection of either German- or Hebrew-speaking Hasidic Jewish men, all in black; a man carrying a cardboard box with "Lobsters/Homards" written on the side; and a man talking on a wireless cell phone attached to his ear the whole time he sat at the gate, so that it looked like he was talking to himself. Mat and I proposed he was crazy and perhaps thought he was Napoleon. We got on the plane to Newark and he was sitting behind us. It turned out he worked for some candle company and was hammering out the details of some sales deal. Not Napoleon after all.
We got in safely. Our cab driver was from Egypt and sped us along the Interstate to Berkeley Heights. He was a karate instructor who smiled a lot. We noticed right away how much leafier New Jersey is than home; all the leaves are out on the trees and the temperature was in the 20's yesterday. (Celsius.) Today it rains, but that only serves to make the green all around more verdant, somehow.
It is wonderful to see Granny and Grandpa again. We went to a sweet little park yesterday, where they like to go and have lunch and see if they can see deer. We didn't see any deer, but we sat beneath a large oak tree and ate, and talked. We've been doing a lot of talking! It's wonderful, it's what I like most about visiting with relatives.
Now we are staying with our aunt and her kids, a mile or so from our grandparents. It's going to be a good sojourn, I think: both relaxing and exciting, inspiring and fun. I think I'll get to see the Guggenheim! Also, it's not snowing. That's always a plus.
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