We are home tonight back in California and I am strangely awake. I should be jet lagged and maybe I am. It is 1 AM in NY but I am here at my computer. The dirty laundry we trucked home has been done along with watering the roses, feeding the dogs and sorting our trinkets. I am very awake and thinking about the many strange and wonderful things that I experienced over the last week.
To say that New Yorkers live a frenetic life is not exactly true. They certainly drive like maniacs and we got lost several times coming back to Long Island from Woodstock even with the GPS. The interchanges of freeways seemed utterly insane to me and made my heart race wildly as we could see the next decision to make looming on the GPS screen. My partner was amazing at the wheel, driving through all that chaos at breakneck speed. I was horrified by that part of our vacation. I am a wimp in traffic but I have an appreciation of our Northern California ridiculous freeway now!
We stood in line on Sunday for two hours in order to take the ferry to Liberty Island. A childhood dream of mine- standing at the bottom of the Statue of Liberty, we decided to join the teaming masses and wait for her. We ate street made pretzels with salt-yum!-and people watched in the sun and humidity. I could see the top of the Empire State building as we shuffled along and one of the Freedom Towers being built near ground zero. There were people of many nations there in line with us and we all waited to see her for about two hours together.
Needless to say, even with a child's excitement alive and well inside of me, I was in awe as we walked around the base of the statue looking up. How can I explain something so inspiring, grand and imbued with meaning? You just have to see her, in the flesh, to understand.
We then drove to upper New York state and it was absolutely beautiful. It is lush and brimming with an effervescent green that I have never seen. The humidity was torturous though which seems to create all that green. Just the same, I was amazed. We stayed in a B & B run by very quiet people who we later found out are Buddhists. No wonder the house was so still. Their calm pervaded even with a house full of New York guests for the Memorial weekend. This home was built circa 1700 and then turned into a B & B. They fed us like royalty and I left feeling full in many ways.
We got lost coming back to Long Island but made it thanks to my sweetie. It was arduous and tense. New Yorkers aren't any more generous than Northern California drivers it seems. Yet we had dinner with my partner's family and packed up our stuff to come home today. It was fun and we laughed together as we ate. They offered us a way to make a deeper committment to one another and that was such a sweet gift.
On the plane home I fell into a deep, exhausted sleep, waking up at different points and falling back into that pool of fatigue several times. The flight was bumpy but I slept through it. That is a miracle and I am grateful for it since I am terrified of flying. Onto the bus at SFO and then to our car finally in Sonoma County, we are home now. It is hard to adjust even though we are tired and re-entry can be difficult to bridge back into our lives. My partner may lose her job soon and I am only working for the summer. However, I have one more day off and I am going for a run first thing and feel my lungs stretch and the cadence of my stride bring me back to earth.
I am so very grateful to New York for the chance to join others who wish to gain the simplest of civil rights others easily enjoy. I am honored to have been able to marry and there were many obstacles that tested us along the way. We adjusted and found fun and adventure nonetheless. Not bad for a couple of country girls from Northern California. Not bad at all.
