20K and a Year Away

It has been too long since I wrote an update. It seems as though time is flying by. I have already been to Italy and back since I last wrote something, and will soon be taking a trip out to Washington with Axel to see my brand new (well, not so new anymore) niece, Betty. She still lives with her mother.

The months from January to April have been full of all kinds of new things. I am still adapting to life in Texas – and all that that entails. It is a definite culture shock for me in some ways, even knowing what I was getting into. The politics in this place are extreme and very ugly sometimes. I am not sure what is around the corner at any time. People do not think the same way we do about issues and beliefs. At the everyday level, it is a nice place with people who are generally kind. That is the crazy juxtaposition here – insanity on the one hand and kindness on the other. Insert “Bless your heart.” here.

Library life is still awesome. Yes, you heard me. Library and awesome are intrinsically connected. I have been working on some stuff. We have access to a multitude of resources through the state library, resources that have not been promoted or taken advantage of in the past, and my mission now is to get those out there and used. Databases for learning anything you want. Access to e-content and digital downloads. You name it, we got it! We are like every public library around – so much to offer and people just aren’t aware. The focus for the next year is to increase that awareness. I anticipate a ton of community engagement in my future. I am really looking forward to meeting people and seeing the role the library can fill for them. Exciting times!

In the Senior Center world, I wish someone had told me how much like a teenage movie with rival cliques this would be. Seriously?!? She said what and you did what back? I am beside myself hearing some of these stories. It’s like turf wars all the time. Do not, I repeat, do not let this interfere with BINGO time. Let me tell you a little story about what happened the other day at bingo…

I have an activities director at the center who, you might have guessed, coordinates all the activities for the center. Wednesday is the big bingo day (Monday is the small bingo day, just FYI.) As part of our programming, she includes nutrition presentations with presenters from Meals on Wheels – which we use as a contractor. One Wednesday, she scheduled the nutrition person to come out right before bingo. The presenter was doing her thing when one of the seniors started pounding on the table and yelling – I am not even joking – “I did not come here for this! When is bingo?!?” The activities director told her it would be right after the presentation, but that was not enough. This woman – who gets around in a walker, just for a richer picture for your imagination – started banging both fists on the table as hard as she could yelling, “We want bingo! We want bingo!” She was out of control She made the presenter cry she was so offensive. The presentation wraps up, the presenter leaves, bingo starts, and the lady goes up to the activities director about an hour later and says, “I might have been a little out of line, I owe you an apology.” Seriously. She was talked to and told she owes the presenter an apology and that that kind of behavior won’t be tolerated – like a kid in detention. This is not the first time this kind of thing has happened. Who knew there was this kind of thing at Senior Centers – and if you knew, why didn’t you tell me?!? I am constantly surprised. Constantly amazed by the drama.

Since I last wrote, all the children were here for our January Christmas. Matilda flew in from South Korea, Lydia flew down from Washington, and Axel came out of his room. It was the best. While they were here, the girls and I had a girls’ day and got tattoos, as one does. We opted for matching, but not matching, swords. I, of course, had more done after they left, because I can.

After the visit with the girls, we started some cooking lessons for Axel. He is learning to cook so he can be a full-functioning adult one day and feed himself. The first big recipe he has taken on is meatballs. They were pretty tasty. I made my first real moussaka, too. It turned out great, but I am the only one who wanted to eat it because the boy does not like eggplant. I had quite a few delicious lunches at work.

Axel spent spring break at his dad’s house. It was his first solo flight. He did a great job. He has flown enough to know the ropes and breezed through. He will be taking another solo journey back to Washington in June. We have added TSA Precheck to his game, so it will be even easier for him. The life of a jet setter is hard.

But, how was Italy you ask? It was fantastic. The weather was phenomenal and the places were beautiful. We got lucky, for the most part, and all the train tickets we bought beforehand were unaffected by strikes. There was the threat of the plane home being rescheduled due to strikes, but it was fine. The plane ride over, however, was interrupted by bad weather at Heathrow, causing a cancellation and an overnight delay. They cancelled every flight out of Heathrow for the night. British Airways gave us hotel rooms and food, but we lost valuable time. I have decided I will avoid Heathrow for connections from now on. It was an insane day of chasing British Airways down until, eventually, American Airlines came through and saved the day. British Airways, if you are reading this, you let me down. You let me down. Actually, you let everyone in that half-mile line down. Did you know there are no ticket agents at the British Airways counters in ALL of Heathrow? Now you do. There were thousands of us being told to call a phone number that was no longer allowing calls to go through. They really need to rethink their cost-savings strategies.

One perk of the trip this time was getting access to the flagship lounges in all the airports. I had never bothered with lounges – in all the traveling I have done – but I might start thinking about them for long layovers. It was very comfortable to sit and relax in a quiet space rather than fight for the USB port on that one chair at the gate. Definitely a shift in my perspective on long trips. I will probably not bother with them for short jaunts, but for those looong layovers, I will be checking them out.

Italy… We got to Milan and immediately left for the Duomo from the Airbnb. We were a day late and our tickets were for that morning. Fortunately, we were there in March, not June or July, so crowds were not an issue and the time on our tickets was not a problem. We walked everywhere! The buildings and streets were incredible. I love seeing all the timelines of humans in the architecture. We saw churches and museums and markets and people everywhere. And lots of smoking, which was reminiscent of my childhood, that I haven’t seen or smelled in a while.

Rather than write all the details, here are a bunch of pictures of the places we visited, Milan, Florence, and Genoa. We had to hustle to see a lot, but it was fantastic. I plan on taking another trip to Italy in the future to visit Rome and Naples – possibly Sicily. There is just so much to see and experience.

As a side note, we did climb the 414 steps to the top of the bell tower in Florence and then, an hour later, we did climb the 463 steps to the top of the dome of the cathedral. We were feeling the burn after that second one. Luckily, neither of us had to be medically assisted. Another thing that I saw everywhere was Vespas. Everywhere. In long lines or huge lots. It was amazing. It makes sense for the narrow roads they have everywhere. Even the cars are very small. There were seas of scooters as far as the eye could see.

We have been back for three weeks. Our next short trip is in a week, then we will have a trip dry spell. Axle will go to Washington in June and I will go to Greece in July. I have been searching for flights to Vietnam for January. I have a permanent flight price notification set for Panama, of course. But there are no set trips beyond July. EEEEK! What will I do? This can’t stay like this!

The price of tickets has gone crazy. I just checked Japan and it was over $2,000. That is going to put a huge damper on our future escapes. While I contemplate the changing airfare scene, I have added a new hobby for Axel and me. We did our first 5K run/walk. It was fun and good for us. I plan to sign us up for a lot more. Axel, as you may have surmised, is beyond pleased. HA!