It's Closing Time

Rebecca Hilton and Eva Wachtel

Yesterday I said goodbye to my Grandma Eva and Aunt Becky.  Before leaving, I left my Grandma with a nice parting gift - I found her cousin Beatrice in Yonkers, New York, whom she hasn't seen or spoken to in about 80 years.  They are both 94 years old and enjoyed speaking on the phone after all those years.  Memories that had been hidden away in the deepest corners of the mind percolated back to the surface and brought visible joy to Grandma.  This is what I live for!

Willow and Marta

As I was already in Orange County, I continued further south to Irvine where I met my friend Marta Baillet Crane and her dog Willow at the dog park next to UCI.  The most beautiful dog park I've ever seen with plentiful grass, space, toys, and delectible smells that Emma and Cesa delighted in.  I used to work with Marta at the City of Santa Ana, and her husband taught one of my graduate courses.  Marta's son, Max, worked as an intern at PBS&J in San Francisco, where I worked for several years.  So I guess you could say that I have somehow become interwoven with Marta and her family.  Not sure how it all happened...we just clicked and have found a way to maintain a friendship over the course of the past 14 years with very little effort. 

At the end of the day, I asked Marta for a picture of her waving goodbye to me so that I could post to my blog...I decided to do this as I say my goodbyes and make my way across the country.  Well, she punked me by taking a photo of me waving goodbye and posting it to Facebook last night before I could finish this blog entry.  She beat me to the punch and took the wind out of my sail.  My original idea was hijacked.  Boo.

In other news, my itinerary is coming together nicely.  Confirmed cross-country stops in Seattle, Santa Cruz, Las Vegas, Houston and St. Louis.  This week I'll work on Portland (OR), Phoenix, and Boston.  I found a flight from Boston to London via Reykjavik that looks promising at only $399 with a 10-hour stopover in Iceland.  Those of you who know me know that the stopover is a good thing.

No more procrastinating...back to packing.