shutterbugDANCER

Right now I am in a plane flying over the Pacific Ocean on my way to Hawaii. It’s the first time I’ve ever flown over the Pacific, I really wanted to go to Bora Bora this year, but Hawaii it is! The trip from DFW to Honolulu is just over 8 hrs, so far we’ve been in the plane for about 4 hrs. I ordered a book on my iPad called “The Beginner’s Goodbye” by Anne Tyler. It’s around Halloween and I wanted some sort of ghost story to read. I checked a few and for some some reason I picked this one. I’m on page 35, it’s about a man who’s wife died and she’s returned from death. I’m not sure yet that I get it, I probably have to read more to understand why and how, but it’s not really piquing my interest yet and so far it seems a little far-fetched to be able to get into it, but, I do believe in ghosts. The house I grew up in was haunted. My grandmother had crosses all over the basement although I’m not sure what she saw or heard, but she knew that there was something there. One day, when I was about 20 yrs old, just before I got married for the first time (it was a short marriage, I think maybe 2 years, that was probably doomed from the beginning) a ghost came to me in my room. He just hovered over the side of my bed, he was tall and somewhat transparent, just as ghosts are supposed to be, he had a red beard, which was all I could focus on. It seemed as if his face and beard were sharpest ( yet still transparent) and the rest of his body got gradually transparent. He didn’t say anything, he just stared at me and I stared back, afraid and not sure what to do, then he just glided up and back and then faded away. I think he was there staring at me for many minutes. It was unsettling to me and I wasn’t really sure what to make of it and it never happened again. After my divorce, I thought that maybe he was warning me not to get married, but that was after my failed marriage so, it really didn’t help much. Anyway, the book is not exactly the kind of ghost story I was expecting. I like the more Gothic sort of romantic ghost stories in haunted houses set in the moors of old Britain… Wuthering Heights is one of my all time favorites. So, I had a few interesting books to choose from that were more my style, but for some reason, I picked this one, because I liked the opening sentence…. I guess I should have looked into it more. Maybe I’ll finish it on the flight home, or maybe it will be one of those unfinished books of mine, of which I have way too many than I’d like to admit. I have a little bit of a short attention span, and if a book doesn’t interest me, it’s hard for me to force myself to read it. So, while I was reading, the flight attendant came by and served salad for lunch (a huge salad), then lunch which was salmon on some kind of rice and then a cheese plate for dessert. I had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc (we.. Rally two glasses) and then some Bailey’s Irish Cream, which I haven’t had in many years. While I was eating, I decided to watch the movie, “Behind The Candelabra”, about Liberace, played by Michael Douglas. I have no idea why, but for some reason, I thought it would be about the entertainment business with Liberace In Las Vegas, not about his relationships, but it was about his private life and his relationship with Scott Thorson, who was played by Matt Damon. It was actually very good! It’s not a movie that I would ever have thought about watching at home (especially since I hardly ever watch TV or movies at home and hardly ever go to the movies), but since I’m in a plane with little to do I watched it on the Samsung Entertainment Tablet they handed out. That was how I first saw Strictly Ballroom many years ago, on a plane. It wouldn’t have been a movie that I would have selected (at the time I knew nothing about Baz Luhrman, and I wasn’t doing ballroom dance), but it has become one of my all time favorite movies! There are so many movies to choose from on the tablets they handed out…. They even have Funny Girl which is one of my favorite older movies with Barbra Streisand and Omar Sharif. When I was a young girl I went to the movies with my mom, along with my neighbor and her mom to see Funny GIrl. This movie has stuck with me throughout the years (I own it on DVD and had it on VHS. I could, at the time, and even now, relate to Fanny Brice, played by Barbra Streisand. To me, the movie is funny, moving and sad and I can feel her character every time I see it.

I am flying with my husband, Tom, on American Airlines in first class, which I would not be flying if he didn’t have so many frequent flyer miles from all of his trips to Thailand and beyond for work. It’s not the first time I’ve flown first class, when I used to travel for work, they would always fly us out on business trips in first class. In those days (the 80’s) they even provided limos (sometimes stretch limos) to pick us up at our houses or at work to bring us to and from the airport. After I left my company, I’d say that about half of my flights have all been first class through frequent flyer miles of both mine and Tom’s. This plane is a 767 and it seems to be from one of American’s newer fleets of planes. The seats are fully adjustable and also recline to sleep, although I have way o much to do than to lay down and sleep. They provide nice comfy blankets (I’m wrapped I two of them because the plane is so cold) and they have almost normal size pillows. As I write this, I am listening to Bach music by the English Symphony Orchestra. I also listen to it while I read. I like to listen to soft classical music when Reading, it puts me in a relaxed state to concentrate on the book. This only works though when I am completely engrossed in a book, which I am not With the book I am reading. Now, I think I’ll watch Funny Girl, there are still three hours to go with the flight. About 2 1/2 hours Later… We are approaching Honolulu Airport now. We have been flying over the Pacific, and looking out the window was just the ocean and clouds. The water has been a steel blue and it seems to be very rough… If I can see that from 30,000 miles in the air, I can just imagine how rough it is on the sea… Which reminds me of the movie “Joe Vs. the Volcano” with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan (who, along with Diane Keaton is one of my favorite movie stars), when they were lost at sea somewhere in the South Pacific. So now that the plane is starting to descend, I see Hawaii. It looks beautiful. I will post some photos after we land, I have to put this away now because we need to turn off all electronic devices.

Aloha! Laura Lynne