6/27/03

So I survived five days with the extended family and without the internet, and now I'm back. Except the weather makes it seem like I'm still there--when my connecting flight left St. Louis and the pilot announced that the current temperature in San Francisco was 92 degrees, I thought he had to be mistaken. He wasn't.

The city is completely different in the heat. Last night I was downtown and the streets were packed with people in tank tops and shorts. I think I am the last person in San Francisco who doesn't have a tattoo. Everything smells about ten times as strong, too. Downtown, it is the typical city stink, but out here, all I can smell is eucalyptus and the occasional skunk.

All last week, at the reunion, people kept asking me "are you going to write about this in your journal?" Yes, my entire family knows about it, largely thanks to my mom. I think she must have had business cards with my URL on them printed up because not only does the whole family know, I have even gotten journal related e-mail from her former co-workers. Then she complains whenever I write anything embarrassing, of course.

Anyway, I am not really planning to write about the reunion in detail. For one thing, there are too many characters, and too much exposition. For another, everyone involved would likely read it and be offended by some errant detail. But here are a few highlights:

-My mother and aunt decided to throw a "Fourth of July" party at the reunion, despite the fact that it was actually the 23rd of June. My mother twirled the fire baton (attracting the attention of the Canadian family across the street) and she managed not to set herself, anyone else, or the dried-out lawn on fire. Just in case, though, my sister's firefighter boyfriend was standing by with a garden hose, at my urging.

-One of my cousins used to work for ImClone, and one year, she dressed up for Halloween as a beauty queen with a sash that said "Miss ImClone." Apparently, she has a photograph of herself posing with Sam Waksal in this costume. Said cousin is also a Buffy fan, which prompted other family members to deem us "exactly alike."

-We had a wine tasting, and my mother tried to copy what I'd written on my sheet. I tried to convince her that it was about one's own personal opinion rather than getting the "right" answer, but she didn't seem to buy it.

-Our household had 5 copies of the new Harry Potter going at once. I didn't like it as much as the last one. I liked the tattered Zelda Fitzgerald biography I found lying around the beach house better.

And then on Wednesday, I headed back home, two days before the rest of the family. I had to get back to work and normal life, so my parents drove me two hours back to the nearest airport. I flew American and had a stopover in St. Louis going back, and on the way to the airport, my dad asked me if American had absorbed TWA, because St. Louis used to be a TWA hub. I shrugged. I don't keep track of that stuff.

Anyway, towards the end of my flight, I learned that that was, in fact, the case. The fiftysomething flight attendant who had earlier served me miniature pretzels and tomato juice got on the intercom to announce the gates of connecting flights. But then she went on, and her voice started to crack as she told us that this TWA flight crew had more than 130 years of flying experience between them. And then she started visibly crying when she went on to say that they were all scheduled to be laid off on July 2nd. (Note: when I told this story to Jen last night, she started laughing. Either I didn't tell it very well, or else she has a black, black heart. You make the call!)

All the passengers just kind of looked around at each other, unsure of how to react. Emotional displays from the flight crew are not a normal part of the air travel experience. But everyone seemed to make a point to thank her as they got off the plane.

So now I'm home again, and even the weather is supposed to be back to normal tomorrow. I am looking forward to it.