Grand Reunion Tour - Bonus Stop

I couldn’t bear to fly across the country just to be sad, to remember someone who doesn’t have any more tomorrows. Not when there are so many people I love who are still out there, hearts beating, lives racing, and time escaping us but time left still. So I contacted my friends, some I hadn’t seen in several year, some since my wedding reception, and a special one for whom it’d only been weeks. Magically, a California friend even fit in the New York mix. And we made plans, so many plans, too many plans. I met new children, tried new restaurants, spun and flipped and stretched at aerial classes. I did flying trapeze and don’t need to do that again. I squeezed in some flying pole right after landing in California and will do that again. I sipped on Yemeni spiced teas at Qahwah House. I sampled an iced mushroom latte at Le Botaniste. I inhaled bagels, cozied into slices of pizza, and nibbled through dim sum. I talked. I laughed. In the quiet moments between the love, on trains or in the shower or late at night in bed, I cried. I was very much alive and human, and other than sleeping, got everything I needed. I hope it won't be so many years before the next round of reunions with the lovely folks of New York, but at least I know if the years slip past us again, the folks will still be there on the other side. Some people just feel like home.

A whirlwind of an emotionally fulfilling and physically exhausting trip through New York after saying goodbye to Grandpa. Caught Nikki at the tail end of her East Coast adventure, reconnected with Rui & Max (now with baby Luna!), met Amy & Jim's very new Justin, saw Esther, finally caught Hakim who's relocated East, and crashed and drank and ate and flew with the one and only Sharon.

A return to California and life as normal felt horribly anticlimactic after a week of living so intensely, so I found something to help motivate me to board the final plane westbound: a flying pole class mere hours after landing, booked over a sleepless layover in the Denver airport. You don't need to sleep to pole, right?