Why couldn’t it have been March 10th?? I actually DID something that day.
March 9, 2007, opened with a conference call to a director in Canada who is coming to Metro State College in Denver next fall to direct her version of
A TALE OF TWO CITIES at the school. I am resident propmaster at the school so the whole production team was meeting with her via telephone to
discuss the needs of the production so we could begin work over the summer. Then I drove out to the Denver Airport to catch a flight to Phoenix where my son, daughter in law and grandson live. We all four drove to Sedona (about two hours north of Phoenix into the mountains) to spend the night.
Meals that day at the airport and at a Denny’s on the road. So no culinary adventures. Flying is old hat to me since I work for Frontier Airlines. I
occasionally fly to California for lunch or to see a play. So other than seeing my kids who I hadn’t seen in quite a while – it was a fairly inconsequential
day.
Now the 10th is where we had some fun. We went to a wild life preserve called Out of Africa in Camp Verde. They have lions and tigers and bears
– oh, my! And giraffes that eat carrots out of your hands. And wildebeests and antelope and ostriches and jaguars and all kinds of snakes. You
ride around in open jeeps and look at the penned up animals – but it’s a lot more intimate and more authentic than a zoo. But that was the 10th so
that doesn’t count.
I think the significance of the 9th was my reluctance to go. I should be working on my taxes – I could spend the day cleaning my apartment
– I can’t afford to give up a whole weekend of time – what about the movies that I haven’t seen – maybe I won’t be able to get on the plane (I have to
fly standby as an employee) – that would be a good excuse. When you don’t see people a lot – even family – they have less to do with your life.
And it’s easy to forget how important they really are. But the minute my getting-so-big grandson came out of the house so shy to see me because I
wasn’t important to his life either, I began to see the value of the trip. We needed to be important to each other again. Before I left on Sunday, he
was telling his father (my son), “Your mother is silly,” his way of showing affection. We had petted giraffes together, held a snake together, watched a
movie together, saw a hot air balloon, and kissed each other good night. And he’s important again.