Back in the USA for the holidays

Dec. 13 thru Jan 24 in USA

I won’t go into great detail here, as I don’t really think folks are too interested in my adventures in the USA. Just want to catalog the vacation for my own information for the future.

Hey, by the way, thanks to all my supports of “not too much detail in the blog”. I guess it is mainly the guys who just want the facts without a lot of details (no big surprise). I’m really glad to hear back from people & knowing they are enjoying following my adventures and hopefully gaining a better knowledge of Asia. That is certainly my intent.

After 29 hours of travel time (we left HK Wed. afternoon Dec 13, stop in Taipei, San Fran, Chicago & finally destination Albany, NY on Thursday mid-morning) we were very glad to be on the ground. There were several hours of layover time, the time change helped us out. We spent Thursday night with Ellen, John’s sister. Visited some friends in the Albany area (Jim & Peg MacNeill, who didn’t know we’d moved and Sue Proulx & sons). We headed to Boston to watch some hockey, what could be more pressing than that for our first day back?

We went to the hockey tournament that the school Brooks went to (Kimball Union) plays in every year. We still know some kids that play. John also met up with some former work buddies for lunch. I stayed at the rink & watched hockey. I loved it, got to see 3 games! We had planned to see Brooks, but his exams ran late & he couldn’t get to the rink, so that reunion was delayed. We decided to head right up to NY to have our traveling over and we were ready for a good Sunnywood sleep (that means really cold with the window open & hopefully a good wind blowing).

Surprised my parents by arriving a day earlier than they had expected. They were not disappointed. We got our excellent sleep. We just enjoyed being in colder weather & relaxing & visiting friends & family. Brooks picked Jesse up at the airport in Burlington on Dec 20 & then headed over to Chazy. It was so good to see my boys. The look wonderful & I just loved getting to hug them. Brooks brought is girl-friend up with him, Jen Lucey, someone from his Kimball Union days. She lives in NH, but goes to Goucher in Baltimore. She is totally delightful & fit in just perfectly at Sunnywood.


Geoff & Kathleen arrived on Dec 23 in time for the 3rd annual birthday dinner at Whit’s End in Hemmingford, Canada. We had 20 people (Hubbells, Rileys & assorted special friends) and it was great as always. When they got our reservation they knew to make sure they had plenty of Irish stew. For dessert Brooks & Jen treated me to an Irish Car Bomb. This is a drink that consists of a mug of Guinness beer, a shot of Bailey Irish Cream & a shot of Jameson Irish Whiskey – it tasted great & packs a punch. I only had one so I could still walk out on my own 2 feet.
Rileys & Hubbells joined together for a Christmas dinner that was to die for, thanks to Ellen Riley. She really went all out. It was fun to have such a crowd of family.

John headed back to HK on Dec 27. He got word that morning that his company had been sold, but he was to go ahead back. His job seems safe, as the new company is in a related line of work, but not the same line. They already have an office in HK & wanted to buy Cadmus mainly for their packaging/printing expertise. I think the actually takeover is March 1. I think my days as a Cadmus employee might be over. Brooks headed out the same day. He was heading back to Boston then to Chicago to meet a friend from Kimball Union who’s family were taking them to Cabbo for a week. Poor Brooksie ! He has made good use of his Kimball Union connections.

Jesse & I headed out for NC on Dec 28. I had some doctor’s appointments scheduled & friends to see (oh yeah & a house & sister to annoy). It felt good to be back in NC, I guess I missed it more than I’d thought I would. I got to see lots of people and helped Patti do some cleaning. We had a fun New Year’s Eve dinner with some friends. I made Phad Thai & mangos with sticky rice (traditional Thai food). It turned out pretty well.

I had planned to head to Boston on Jan 7, but my doctor wanted me to stay around for some additional testing. I won’t go into the details, but I’m fine. What she thought might have been a growth in my uterus turned out to just be some old garbage which was fairly easy to clean out. I’ll leave it at that. But it did delay my trip to Boston. My reason for going was to get to see Brooks play hockey. He had 3 games scheduled that week.. As it turned out, he didn’t get back from Mexico in time to play in the first game & the other 2 were cancelled, so it all ended up fine. With my extra week in NC I did some painting & cleaning to help Patti out. The house looks great by the way. Patti is grasping having a home by the horns & running with it.

I got to Boston finally on Wed, Jan 17. I met Brooks at his dorm & got to attend a class with him. I picked up his car & headed north. Brooks certainly is getting to know his way around Boston & how to use the public transportation. I went to NH to spend the night at Geoff & Kathleen’s house. I couldn’t get up the driveway due to snow & ice, but Geoff came & got me. It was really nice to see some snow finally. We had a great visit as usual. I love their house, it is so cozy.

Left the next day for Chazy. Got back in time to take one of my favorite cousins, Katherine Baker, to Whit’s End for dinner. She lives in MN, but was taking a little time east after driving her daughter to college in DC. Friday, Jan 19 I went to Lake Placid to meet up with Kevin O’Reilly, Brooks’ hockey coach from Team Carolina days & still very good friend. His son attends school in Placid & they had a hockey tournament that weekend. I got to watch more hockey – yipeee!! We had a wonderful visit. I forgot to mention that before Christmas we went to a Chazy high school hockey game. I just wanted to make sure I got in all the hockey I could while at home.

There was plenty of snow on the ground now & I actually got to do some great cross country skiing with my mom, who is almost 85. She has finally slowed down to my pace, thank goodness. We shoveled the deck & my dad did laps around the deck. He seems to be doing great also. Just to be mean, I gave my mom an old laptop computer that we were not using. I set her up with a screen name on AOL & let her loose. I’m pretty impressed that she is willing to learn, but I think she doesn’t want to deal with the learning curve. I’m pretty proud of my parents for getting into computers at their age. It sure makes it easier to keep in touch with them.

Had a terrific Riley dinner at Martha & Bill’s to celebrate Bill, Ellen, & James’ (big 50) birthdays in Jan. They are all doing just fine. John’s mom continues to impress me with how good she looks & is doing. We are so blessed to have such health parents who remain so independent & active. I got to have a nice visit with Sue Lezon who returned from her annual Christmas working vacation in Egypt just in time for me to say good-bye.

I left NY Jan 24 & headed to Boston. I met Brooks at school. He took me by the apartment he & 5 friends are renting for next year. I got to go with them all to the lease signing. They seem like a really nice group of kids. Brooks will be in his first coop semester next fall, so it looks like he’ll be doing it in Boston. That is where most of the coop job opportunities are so it makes sense. Brooks & I had a really nice dinner together & then he took his car back. I spent the night at my cousin’s house (John & Kate) in Cambridge. Kate was wonderful & drove to the airport the next morning.

I flew from Boston to Chicago & then straight to HK. Enough of all of those layovers. United has a special section called Economy Plus which has 5 extra inches of leg room. It was only $100 extra, so I went for it. From Chicago to HK I got the window exit row, so it was definitely worth the extra money. Before we left Chicago our pilot announced that normally the route takes us over Russia, but the winds on that route were not favorable, so we would have to take a longer route. Because of the number of passengers we would have to make a refueling stop in Anchorage, AK. This all was going to mean a 1.5 hours delay in arrival in HK. I guess one of the 1st class passengers didn’t like this, so he decided to get off. This meant an additional delay of about an hour because they had to unload his luggage. Pretty selfish move on his part. The flight attendants were pretty pissed, but couldn’t prevent him from disembarking I guess. So I got some photos of the Anchorage airport. Big surprise, it was icy & snowy. Was very pretty flying in, but those photos didn’t turn out. We got into HK about 8pm, not too bad. Some of the movies were repeats (The Da Vinci Code, Little Miss Sunshine – one of my favorite new movies). And 2 new ones, The Departed (which I highly recommend, great cast & good action) & Gridiron (I didn’t see it all, but it looked pretty good).

I arrived home to the apartment around 9. John was here waiting. He hadn’t remembered my flight number so didn’t know I was delayed. He was concerned, bless his heart! It was nice to be back together.

It’s funny with jet lag, you just never know how it is going to effect you. Seems like each time I return here, I can’t sleep later than 5am. I have been waking up between 4:30 & 5:30 every morning, this despite going to bed at 11 or 12. I’m getting a lot done, but I know I can’t manage on that little sleep for long. I’m sure I’ll adjust, I keep forgetting I’ve not even been back a week yet.