Back in the USoA

We flew from Amsterdam yesterday on KLM — when you are flying overseas, think of them, it is so nice flying with them, the flight attendants are so very nice — why, they even appear to like us customers! — and it’s like international travel used to be, where they feed you like every two hours. This was a different plane than the one I took from Amsterdam the last time I was there, after the Rhine cruise I took with Noekie — that time, don’t know what kind of plane it was but economy plus looked like our domestic business class — that was a cushy trip! But, while not as plush, it still was a lovely flight and we got in earlier than we would have on Icelandair. Not that it counted for anything because we got a late start, didn’t make up the time apparently and when we got to JFK, there was no gate for us — we had to ride around the airport for about a half hour until one was available.

Oh, but we got to the TWA Hotel, got to our room, rested a bit then went to dinner. Chris had encouraged a cocktail, so I had my usual. I had perhaps the worst G&T in my memory (well, no, I just remembered that Spanish gin and the Japanese gin we had at our gin tasting party — gin made from sake: so very wrong!) — it was called Dorothy Parker gin and I don’t know whether it was the gin or the tonic they used (need to ask what that is), but it tasted like drinking the watered out dregs of an old, perhaps from the 50s, perfume bottle, maybe from the suitcase of a TWA stewardess who was hoping to get lucky, meet a rich man and live in a mansion, be able to afford better perfume, but, alas, that never happened and she worked until the mandatory retirement age for stewardesses. Whatever happened to her, I wonder — I heard that she had inherited her girlhood house when her mother died, but no one knew if she sold it and bought a pre-war apartment in NYC or went back home and played canasta every week with the girls. Maybe she got a job at the TWA Hotel, Paris cafe hostess or front desk, she did have talents after all if you don’t count her taste in perfume. Oh, god, do you think she got married after all and when her son decided to start a gin distillery. . . .

Definitely not the gin for me! Nor do I get the name Dorothy Parker coupled with excessively floral gin or anything else in that vein. Unless they make an acerbic cologne????

The power just came back on — I was writing this when the (very loud!) fire alarm sounded and a voice said there had been an alarm and they were looking into it. So, about 2 1/2 hours later, it is back on and I am rewriting. In the meantime, we went down and got salads at the food hall and, ohsobad, desserts (bad in re calories, but tasty as …..). We missed Sia’s graduation ceremony because there was no internet — very sorry about that! Did anyone video it or is it saved on utube? Two schools down, Sia, one more to go before the big U starts — do you have any idea what you want to major in? In public school, I think you have to declare what your college major will be when you’re in 8th grade — it puzzles me that the system expects a kid to know what she/he wants to do with her/his whole life before she/he is even old enough to drive! If I had not been lucky enough to just fall into my career, I’d STILL be pondering that question! (This is somewhat reminiscent of Russia, where you take an entrance exam for each institution and each possible major at 16 or 17 and are pretty much stuck with that choice for the rest of your life. If you want to change majors, you have to go all the way back to the competitive entrance exams and start afresh — no transfer of credits).

We have a couple more hours to while away here, then we go through the tunnel connecting the hotel with the Jet Blue terminal and start preparation for the next-to-the-last leg of journey home. Everyone start practicing, building up your stamina — we have LOTS of repetitive pictures of the Floriade! We are quite charmed with the TWA hotel, which converted the massive, Saarinen designed central airport facility at the then named Idlewild Airport — In 1962, with the advent of the jet powered Boeing 707, the TWA fleet was obsolete. TWA sold to American in 2001? But if you’re in JFK and have the time, go to Terminal 5 (Jet Blue) and follow the signs from the skyTrain to the TWA hotel.

Sandy — hope you got over your cold and will have your knee replacement surgery soon — is it tomorrow? GOOD LUCK! We’ll be sending out love and good vibes to the Universe for you!

Congratulations, Sia!