Growth

One of my favorite things to do is as follows. When I'm in Manhattan, I love to walk places. Particularly at night. I like to meet friends in the city for a drink on a less-than-crazy night and then put iPod on and walk back to my hotel...be it 5 blocks or 40. Tonight I did just that. Let me back up. I took a break from a mountain of work to have dinner with a good friend of mine. We met for sushi and as we're chatting I look up and across the restaurant see my friend from Burlington...a Vermont friend in the same restaurant at the same time on a random Thursday night in Manhattan. Anyways. I met them for drinks later and proceeded to walk back the mile and a half to my hotel, in a slight drizzle. Perfection. As I was walking, I passed a beautiful tree starting to bloom...really bloom. In an ideal world, time would have stopped, a bench would have appeared and I would have taken a seat, for at least a few minutes. It made me smile, smile and think. Think about how things grow...despite cold winds, despite global warming, despite being a tree amidst concrete. Growth and change is one of the few things that are certain in life.

I have been in the city for 2 days. Within the 2 days I have had dinner and 6 hours of amazing conversation with someone I was casual friends with in college. I was reminded of the fact that sometimes we meet people who genuinely are in our lives for a long time and sometimes we just meet them at a point in our life where we aren't well equipped to have them be a full timer. I have sat at dinner and, as stated above, seen a friend from my tiny little current hometown. I have seen the first true signs of spring. I am currently watching the Empire State Building spire disappear behind a curtain of mist as I work on my computer until the wee hours of morning. Is it this place physically or this place I'm in personally? Do you ever walk down the street and watch the lights, every light, magically change in your favor? Does it make you think that the world is walking with you?

Life sometimes just happens. Perhaps there really are signs all around us and we just don't have the right prescription eyewear to see them.

Airports...my 2nd home

I am yet again about to take off on another adventure involving multiple airports. I fly out of VT tomorrow, bright and early and head to NYC for a work event tomorrow evening. I have some meetings and then a big report to work on on Thursday so I have minimal work to do on the plane on Friday. Friday afternoon I'll be heading back to JFK airport but not to fly back to VT. I'll be meeting up w/my parents and oldest sister, Alli, to hop on our plane direct to Istanbul!! We luckily don't have any layovers, although that means 10.5 hours on one plane. It is a toss up...would it be better to be woken part way through the night for a layover and at least get to stretch your legs, walk around a bit in an airport, or have the whole 10.5 hours straight through? I suppose if the Ambien does what it's supposed to do, I'll be pleased with the long, direct flight. Granted, I may have to do some work for the first part of the flight, but small price to pay for a nice vacation.

We will be in Istanbul for 7 days and I'm so excited. Work has been insane lately (was here til 8:30pm last night) but that will make this vacation all the more amazing because it is so needed. I take an overseas trip every year and would have already gone on mine by now so I'm feeling the "itch" even more so. I'm really excited to explore a city that was once ruled by the Romans and is now 99.8% Muslim. It's going to be incredible! And I'm really excited to see my family. This will be the 5th overseas trip I've been on with my parents but the first with Alli. I've been to a few countries with Colleen, my other sister, but never Alli so we're really excited to explore together. We will definitely be checking out Istanbul nightlife once or twice.

Woohoo!!! Check back in about 10 days for some photos. Milk blog part 2 is still on it's way..I have a few more articles to read before posting.