Leaving and arriving

Dear friends and Internet vagabonds,

Yes, I am still alive. Very tired, though, after significant delays at the airport caused me to finally arrive home around 2:30 this morning. Fortunately I had the flexibility to go into work a few hours late today, but oy …

I’ve just looked through the photos I took yesterday, and by far this one is the most compelling:

This is Melissa’s son Ethan. He said he was sad that I was going back to Canada. Maybe that’s true. I guess at that age, kids are really needy and quickly form emotional attachments. (Either that or six-year-olds are just moody and he was blaming it on me. LOL)

Ethan’s so smart; sometimes to keep him busy and entertained (!) we did math drills. Without a day in Grade 1, he can add 21 and 42 (though it did take about 5 minutes and quite a bit of finger-counting). Since I always had a problem adding 8 + 5, we did every possible permutation of 5, 8, and 13 – to the point, years from now, he will no doubt think of me every time he subtracts 5 from 13 or whatever. :) I really do wish he lived closer, maybe part of that commune of people I love that I wrote about in my profile.

Chin up, little buddy; I hate good-byes as much as you do.