Relative Something

It’s official. I have scheduled time off from the day-job for the days that Cyndie will be in town this December. I have no idea what we will be doing during that time, because, with the physical distance separating us since she moved to Boston, we haven’t gotten around to talking about any holiday plans. It is interesting to discover the little, seemingly insignificant, exchanges that we no longer have, day-to-day. Most of that kind of detail ends up being overlooked when we do connect for a brief visit over FaceTime, through a text message exchange, or an online chat window. I should probably learn to write myself a note whenever I think of something I would normally say to her if she was here.

With the arrival of the month of December comes the onset of holiday gatherings. In years past, whenever an event involved the contribution of food, I relied entirely on Cyndie’s skills. I won’t have that luxury for most of the month, so I am wrestling with the decision of whether to experiment with actually trying to prepare something myself, or just give in and buy a pre-made dish to share.

Maybe I could stack Cheez-it crackers into a tree, using Cheez Whiz to hold them in place, and garnish the sculpture with some blue cheese sprinkles to look like snow on the branches. I could put some red cinnamon candies on it for ornaments and carve an angel out of a marshmallow for the top.

Hmm. That wasn’t so hard. Maybe I’ve been relying too heavily on Cyndie for party food preparation. Bring on the pot-luck celebrations!

First off, I can happily report that I did not witness anything in the way of excess crowding or delays in either leg of my air travel over the holiday weekend. Maybe that incongruity contributed to the complexity I felt in my first visit to Cyndie’s new residence.

We had a wonderful time. The weather was unseasonably warm. Cyndie’s brother was a wonderful host in a variety of ways, particularly in enlisting our company to join him in heading out on Thanksgiving morning to visit the historic house owned by his friend, Michael, followed by the spectacle of the reenactment of a fox hunt. The progressive Thanksgiving meal with Barry and Carlos’ friends was a particular delight, regardless how distant it was from my life-long experience of the traditional gathering of relatives around our family table.

The ultimate complexity for me, really was the situation of being in Cyndie’s new apartment, as a visitor, when both of us truly would prefer to be living together. Amid all the festivity and activity of the holiday, I was trying to wrap my mind around the possibility of living there with her.

I am left with a sense of how incredibly comfortable I am in my current living situation in Minnesota.

Only 25 days until she flies home for the holidays. I don’t expect that visit will feel quite so complex to me.

It is Sunday. We pack our things and head to the airport, leaving Cyndie with her one-bedroom apartment all to herself again. I get to go home, but alone.

We’ve had a wonderful time here, hosted in large part by Cyndie’s brother, Barry. Yesterday he drove us to Faneuil Hall marketplace and we heard a huge group of tuba players perform Christmas music. We toured Cyndie’s workplace to see her office and walked up to the water of Boston Harbor. It has been beautiful weather in Boston this weekend. We walked around without coats yesterday.

Traveling can do strange things to a person. Yesterday, I allowed myself to be talked into going into a retail store on the busiest shopping day of the year. It is the very last thing I can think of ever choosing to do with my time. In consolation, at least the first store we entered was an Apple store. While we have been in Boston, Julian and I have tended to some maintenance on Cyndie’s computer, iPod, and iPhone(s) [she now has a work phone in addition to her own]. We also set up her new printer, connected an antenna to her television, and fixed her bedside clock so it would read 12-hour time.

We visited the Apple store for an appointment at the Genius Bar to have her MacBook Pro diagnosed. Since she has AppleCare, it won’t cost her anything, but she will need to leave her computer there for a few days. We bought an external hard drive to back up her computer and she will wait to take hers in for service until after she receives the new work computer that has been promised. The trackpad on her computer isn’t responding to ‘clicks’ properly. It takes several tries before it senses it, unless you press in the very lower left corner.

While out tending to shopping errands on foot, it is enticingly easy to step into a pub for a little snack break, and so we did, sitting at the bar where I made myself a nuisance with the staff and where I was able to catch a fix of sports broadcasts on the multiple TV screens. It felt a bit like being on vacation for me. I certainly wasn’t in my usual frame of mind, …shopping …on Black Friday?!

Cyndie showed off the car she has been provided for use on school business only, and today I’m hoping she will take us to see the office where she works.

This is all worlds away from a horse farm in Minnesota, I tell ya.

Only Cyndie could envision the two scenarios as fitting together into one dream. I have no doubt that she is one who can pull it off!

Thanksgiving morning we headed out into the New England countryside and attended the start of a “pretend” fox hunt. Everything is authentic, except for the fox. They use the scent of fox to entice the dogs to chase, and the horse riders follow along, jumping stone walls and any other obstruction the faux fox happens to have crossed. It was quite a spectacle.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Julian and I have reached Boston, safe and sound. All my positive thinking about our air travel played out exceptionally well. The threat of the overwhelming crowd of holiday travelers was unrealized. We had less than expected activity at the Minneapolis airport. Of course, since we expected it to be busy, when we found a line at the security check point, we immediately took our place at the end of it. After shuffling along for about 5 minutes, an agent announced that there was NO WAITING at the station two positions over. We walked over and went right through security.

The only problem that popped up was a slight delay in clearing our plane for boarding. That turned out to be a blessing for Julian and me. Others chose to go back and sit down, but we remained standing near the gate, so when they announced we could board, Julian and I got right in and easily stowed our gear. When all passengers were seated, we discovered that Julian would have an open seat next to him.

At the Boston airport, it was so desolate, it appeared as if the passengers from our plane were the only travelers in the whole place. The moment we exited the airport, Cyndie and her brother were right there to scoop us up and whisk us away to her apartment located on Harrison Avenue.

Today starts with a planned visit to the start of a fox hunt, and then we will experience a progressive dinner for the Thanksgiving feast.

What a treat!

Recovering today, from yesterday’s marathon of exposure to adventure stories and films. The experience was enhanced by a little snow storm that moved into our area, just as I left my house. Pam and I parked the car and walked a bit through the snow, which helped put us in a good, adventurous frame of mind.

We attended three presentations by adventurers who shared images, videos, and tales of their experiences in the Himalayan mountains, and beyond. After over three hours of mostly sitting, we ventured back into the falling and blowing snow to walk to a restaurant for dinner. Then it was back to Willey Hall on the U of M campus for one evening of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour.

I don’t attend many film festival presentations. My impression from having done so last night is that seeing one film, right after another, tends to steal some impact from each previous one viewed. Maybe I will ultimately absorb all that I witnessed yesterday and last night, but right now, I am a bit dizzy with the combination of everything that I saw. There were some spectacular accomplishments projected on the big screen, and I am inspired to seek out a couple of the full-version movies that were shown as ‘short cuts’ in order to be included in the festival world tour.

It’s a good thing the weather outside today is prime for hunkering down by the fire, under a blanket. I feel like I could use a day off. I will take advantage of it to gather my strength and consider all the images bouncing around in my head to see if I become inspired for a new adventure of my own design. In three days, I head to Boston for a mini-adventure with Julian to see Cyndie for the weekend and explore her apartment and workplace. I should probably reserve some of my mental energy for preparations toward that, as well.

Time for some hot cocoa!