April 24, 2000

Easter 2000

Easter was a bright and beautiful day in Texas, if rather hot. I went home early Sunday morning so I could go to church with my mother. All the old faithfuls were there. It's nice to have that kind of continutity in one's life. That's one thing I miss here in Austin--knowing adult-type people who have known me all my life. Then we had pancakes at home, went and visited my grandmother, and then had a lamb shish kebab/ham dinner at the Luccheses' house (Mrs. Lucchese was my Latin teacher, and led the Europe trip I went on 10 years ago). It felt nice to be doing something Easter-y.

My mom is off to Italy today with her old friend Debby--she'll be gone for almost 4 weeks, and will be driving back from her friend's house in CT with a "new" Saab (new to her - it's Debby's old one). There was some excitement last night, because most of the flights in and out of Logan Airport had been canceled, so she had to find another way to get there this morning and catch her flight to Zurich. She just called me from Newark, so I think all is okay. By the way, she got re-elected as the head of the school, so I guess she's out of retirement now. I think she mostly retired before to take care of my dad, so now that Oma's in a nursing home, she has no more invalids to care for. Still, being the head of a school is more work than I'd want at her age.

April 19, 2000

Limerickal Silliness

There once was a young man named Srini
Whose passion was dining on blini
When the deli ran out, the loss made him pout,
Saying, "Now I must eat beany weenies!"

April 6, 2000

Tornado Nightmare

I had a mini-nightmare this morning that I was standing in my office, looking out the window at some ominous clouds that looked like they could be distant rain or a distant huge tornado. The radio only played maddeningly cheerful music--no storm warning or anything. Then suddenly the cloud came closer, and it was an enormous wide tornado full of dirt heading straight my way. Then it turned and started going down 183, whirling police motorcycles into its midst. I thought, whew! But then it turned again down Shoal Creek, I thought it was going down the middle of the street, past me, but then it changed course and headed inexorably my way. I suddenly realized I didn't know which way to run, and was only wearing night clothes. I thought, "They're going to find my battered body half naked in a pile of rubble." AAAAAH! And then I woke up. And realized that I had dreamed all that in the short musical interlude between two news stories on NPR.

Of course, when I drove to work this morning and saw similar clouds on the horizon, I just about had a fit, thinking my dream might have been a premonition. But the sun is out now, so I'm feeling calmer.