Tuesday, June 08, 2010

I didn't know there were this many stars...


Things that make my heart happy on Tuesday, June 8th:

1) I've spent a decent amount of time lately at Gate 15A, the International Arrival gate at Dulles Airport. I've recently discovered this to be my new favorite place, and for only $4 an hour. I usually arrive about an hour early before I pick-up the camp counselors coming from London. There are usually passengers from about 4 international flights clearing customs at that time. There's a mass of people waiting anxiously at the gate for their friends/fathers/daughters/boyfriends/granddaughters/etc. to veer the corner. I like to watch their faces when they finally spot eachother through the crowd. I usually make up the stories behind all these strangers. How long has it been since they've last seen eachother? The grandparents greeting their new grandbaby for the first time and their eyes welling up with tears. The couple that's been living 6,832 miles apart. The group of women that haven't been together since college. The two little girls and their mom leaning against the railing, waiting for their dad to get back from his business trip. Even if I didn't have anyone to pick up, I would probably still pay $4 an hour for airport parking to do this. Am I the only one?

2) This past weekend we had the 8th grade boys from Bell School in D.C. stay at Horizons. For a lot of the boys, all they know is concrete. One boy said he'd only seen mountains in pictures. When asked what D.C. smelled like, a majority responded simply with "gasoline." When asked what the woods smell like, they responded with "The Amazon." When the group was on a hike, they were allowed to eat edible plants, like dandelions or wild parnsip. When they were later asked what edible plants they'd eaten, they said "marshmallows on sticks." The one comment that I found the most striking was during a campfire on Friday night. One of the boys looked up and said, "I didn't know there were this many stars."

3) Jeremy getting stellar grades and getting into JMU.

4) JMU Dining Service's staged an intervention for my 'granola addiction' when they caught me stealing it from d-hall 2 years ago. I now enjoy starting my day with a run down Mountain Valley Road ... and a granola parfait for breakfast. Here, we call them "parfs
."

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