Post Thanksgiving

I went away for Thanksgiving. Thankfulness is all about perspective. I am really thankful to have someone like my sister in my life. We did lots of kitchen types of things and lots of outdoorsy things before the kitchen things.

When I got home I discovered some new tenants on my porch: Smoop and Lucky, two cats. They keep on coming on to my porch and I think I'm going to let them without too much grief. I have the room, they need a porch. However, I won't be feeding them no matter how tempting. Besides, they are far from skinny, which makes me wonder how many porches they frequent.

Beyond all of that I thought I would share some travel observations and some noted unnotable moments which are numbered for no reason--

1. The airport in San Francisco is not a warm place. They even have a large piece of public art with the word "void" across it. It felt like being on the campus of KU. Everyone is walking around like everyone else is invisible. I really dislike those places. In spite of that I would like to visit (I've never been there). Flying out and looking down I wondered if I could visit some day and drive over every single bridge in one day.
2. Exercise makes life easier. I've been trying to be more diligent about taking care of my body for the past few months and I was pleased to discover that my Oregon hiking was much easier. We didn't do any strenuous hiking, but I did notice that it was all a bit easier.
3. I ate pomegranate for the first time the day before I left for Oregon. While I was in Oregon I cut open and seeded my first one. Before last week I had never thought about them and now I think that they are great. Yes, there is a huge life lesson in the pomegranate.
4. I don't think that I get enough hugs. Just an FYI. In case you see me, I'm open for a warm one.
5. If your little dog is hacking while you are hoofing it through the Denver airport, he would appreciate it if you stopped and checked on him. The girl walking behind you would appreciate it as well since your little dog's hacking is not a dry cough.
6. I will get dirty if given the opportunity, always.
7. Just because someone is rude to you when she gets on the plane, she might feel guilty by the end and be extra nice at the end of the flight. She didn't hate me just because she was mean to me.
8. Seeing old friends is magical and seeing old friends in the redwood forest makes you believe in magic.
9. God has blessed me with a wide berth of thought and a really entertaining mind. It's pretty fun to be me and I get a kick out of having pretentious reading materials when I'm travelling, but when it's late at night and my flight is delayed it would be nice to have something besides poetry, Dostoevsky, The New Yorker, and Harper's to read. I watched Larry King Live for an hour.
10. The issue of the The New Yorker that I was reading was the "cartoon" issue. As much fun as it is to have pretentious reading materials, I also love getting to an entire page of cartoons and not getting a single joke.