IHOP Girl: Stuck in the UK

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Stuck in the UK

I finally got a minute to pop on here and update.

So when we left for London little did we know that this giant volcano was going to start erupting ash into the sky, which in turn would leave the skies over the UK strangely void of puffy white jet trails. The airports look like grave yards, with the scattered people still turning up to check on flights while most have relinquished the wait to more permanent accommodations. Crazy I know! God has watch over us though! Since we were here before the eruption started most of our trip has been unaffected by it all. This last part however has been a bit difficult, and yet we have always had the right person to help us at the right time - its really been awesome - thank you for your prayers!!

I don't think I could possibly do justice to all we've seen and done (I'll try to post pictures if we ever get back). It's been amazing! We have all gotten along, had fun, and seen so much. There definitely is a bit of a dark feeling here in general, but I still really love it, and my friend Stacey who is on the trip too have joked that we'll just move here. I know right - nutts ;-).

Mmm, we did get the chance to try some Haggis and Black Pudding, but I couldn't do it. The girls said the pudding was gross, but the haggis wasn't bad. I'll leave you all to look and see what they are if you don't know.....I've tried other stuff though, and I've drank enough tea and coffee to float me home! ;-)

Anyways, more later - enjoy the update - sorry no music for tomorrow! Instead leave me notes!!!! Love and miss you all!!!

2 comments:

shrunken_frontal_lobe said...: actually, the volcano is the little one.

it's the big one that usually goes off AFTER this little one, is what's got all the geeky weather predictors all concerned.

take a ship home and be done with it.

WOT's working on it for you as i write.

do not trust the greedy airlines with you're life. they're saying it's ok, but the finnish air defense department has DATA to prove it's not. they flew F18 fighters into the ash, and then looked at the jet turbine blades showing that the ash has melted and deposited onto the engine blades.

this means the ash got melted after being sucked into the hot section of the turbine, deposited onto the blades, and then starts corroding the blades, putting them out of balance, and ultimately causing blade failure and possible catastrophic destruction of the engine.

you see, the airlines are going to play roulette with your lives for the sake of their profit. if a few folks die, the cost is far less than not flying for several more weeks. so let's roll the dice...

do not get on a plane!; 8:09 PM
shrunken_frontal_lobe said...: note!!!

dublin to holyhead, wales is the shortest ferry to the UK. then train to southampton for the cruise ship home. trust WOT, she's lived all these paranoid years for this moment. trust her instincts...

hew!; 8:15 PM

Movie Night In...I love a good movie!

Mega Mind
Taking Chance (Will make you cry like a baby)
Charlotte Grey (A bit of a different take on Nazi Germany)
Series - Merlin (I LOVE BBC)
Robin Hood (Okay, a love Russell Crowe, you'll have to understand that about me...)
Kingdom of Heaven (Chuck full of acting power with an epic tale)
Miss Potter (Such a great film! Story of the creator of Peter Rabbit)
How to Train your Dragon (Possibly my favorite animated movie ever...I'm like a little kid, I watch it over and over)
Buck (Sundance winner, Biography of Horse Trainer, heart touching)
Lost in Austin (Modern day spin on Pride and Prej.)

Life as a nurse...

Great words by Reb Jeff: Vayishlach: Facing Death

"Rachel died. She was buried on the road to Ephrat — now called Bethlehem. Jacob set up a pillar above her grave. It is the pillar at Rachel’s grave to this day."–Genesis 35:19-20

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidui http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_(Judaism), and preparing the notifications to the community, feel like little fragments of the sacred. I have been entrusted with the care and tending of the most powerful, complex and difficult emotions that a person can experience in life. I have been made, in some small part, a guardian of the memory of a departed soul — a life that touches upon many other lives.After dropping off my older daughter at her high school this morning, I made a stop at Treasure Coast Hospice http://www.tchospice.org/, a remarkable organization that sets a very high standard for the loving and respectful care of the dying. There, I visited a lovely man whom I have seen a few times in his hospice room. I sat by his bedside and listened to him (in full possession of his faculties) as he told me about his worries about his family, the support of his wife after he is gone, and the future of his children and grandchildren. I was deeply moved by the way he put any concern for himself — even while facing death — in a distant backseat to his concerns for his family. When my own time comes, I can only hope to have his awareness of the way that one life can touch so many others.Also at hospice, I visited a woman I have known for the past two years — a dear soul who is a former Jewish religious school director. I sat with her, too, singing psalms to her as I listened to her heavy and labored breathing. I have no medical training, but I have come to know the sound of a person who is close to death. The body begins to fight for each breath as it slowly looses it grasp on life. As I held her hand and sang, I realized that being a rabbi is no protection against becoming one of the people caught in the web of connection. I, too, am changed by the loss of a life that has touched mine.Later in the day, I met with a couple from our congregation. She had just learned that her brother died yesterday in a car crash. Coming to terms with the loss is made more difficult for her by the fact that she and her brother had not seen each other or spoken in five years. Sometimes, people think it is easier to mourn the death of someone who has moved out of your life. In my experience, though, it's harder. Grief is magnified by wounded love and regret. I have no magic words to say to ease the pain of mourning. All I can do is listen, become a vessel in which people place their stories, and offer compassion.Actually, there is one more thing I can do. I can have faith that "all I can do" is all that I need to do. It is enough.In this week's Torah portion (Vayishlach) Jacob watched Rachel, the love of his life, die in childbirth. He was overcome by grief. Jacob had worked for his cruel uncle Laban for fourteen years to earn the right to marry Rachel. Now she was gone. Because she died while they were traveling, Jacob had to bury her by the side of the road. He built a pillar of stones on the spot to mark the place as sacred.This is what we all do, in one way or another, when death enters our lives. We grieve and our hearts break. We wish that we could continue to walk along the path of life with our loved ones forever, but the dead cannot fully join us. We have to leave something behind in order to resume our own journey. So, what do we do? We mark the moment as sacred. We erect monuments — both in cemeteries and in our hearts. The stones we place on top of stones remind us that a life may end, but its sanctity is forever.The Torah says that the monument Jacob built for his beloved continues to stand until this day. A life that touches the lives of others never ceases to send living reverberations throughout the web that binds us all.