On the Way to the Christy Awards!

I’m making an album on facebook to hold the pictures for the next few days. All of you, even if you are not a facebook user, can access it here.

Some people dread traveling. Not Mom and me. We love riding the shuttles and guessing what families or individuals are off to do. Making friends while waiting at gates. (A woman at LAX had just read a review of The Familiar Stranger and gladly took my card!) Making friends on shuttles to hotels.

I was explaining the advantages of flying away to a dear friend, trying to make him understand why I love it so much.

~no cleaning, cooking, or refereeing
~nap or read at any time on the plane
~free movie this time around
~no children tugging at me–which I love, but DO need a break from occasionally
~someone actually brings me a snack and soda while I read/nap

What’s not to love?

Mom and I are so alike and flexible, which also makes it relaxing and an adventure. For instance, our luggage took forever to come off in St. Louis, so our shuttle loaded someone who wasn’t supposed to be on ahead us. “Never mind,” we said, “we’ll take the next one.”

Or this morning, when Mom let me sleep until 11 local time, then work on the newsletter until almost 2 without eating breakfast or lunch. We meandered down Washington from the hotel and found the yummiest food at The Mango, a Peruvian restaurant.

Interesting moment: as we were walking back with full and satisfied tummies, an African-American person approached.

“Excuse me, ladies? I’m gay.” He stepped back and just looked at us.

O-kaaay. What were we supposed to say to that?

Turned out he was in town for a drag queen convention and had run out of gas. For whatever reason, by looking at us, he thought it would matter he was gay.

I wish I could have sat down with him and shown that we don’t dislike him because of who he is or what he does, maybe shown a bit of God’s unconditional love …