Off to the races
Sunday, October 18th, 2009Wow, it’s been a year since Europe. We’re not quite as far away from home as last time, but we’re hoping we’re far enough away that our responsibilities won’t find us.
Pittsburgh International Airport is a mess at 5am on a Saturday. Adventures on two planes and three airports included: watching two weary fathers make friends through their adorable toddler daughters on the moving walkway, a woman performing a voodoo dance in front of a plane lavatory, a seatbelt snake fight (we were sleep-deprived, shut up), and Josh navigating a too-full coffee cup through some rough turbulence (it didn’t make it).
Josh plays with an interactive Traveler’s ad at Minneapolis’s airport.
PDX was full of dogs undergoing therapy training, so that was a nice surprise from Portland. I quickly fell in and out of love with a bright white dog whose breed must be Adorable Abominable Snowman. Aw.
Dad picked us up and we embarked on a quest for lunch. Once at home, my brother showed us videos of his school’s marching competitions, then we went to watch his open band practice. Seth is over six feet tall, two days away from turning 18, and driving his own car.
Let me repeat that: he’s driving. The horror!
Seth has been playing trombone for years, and he is really into it. Since we’ve been on separate coasts since he was ten years old, I haven’t really had the pleasure of watching him play.
Open practice from 6 - 10pm.
There is nothing better than live music, and watching Seth do something he obviously loves (and is very good at) is even better. They did some marching outside, too, and we watched until we froze out.
Both my mom and Josh were band geeks in their day, so they could comment intelligently. I was just amazed to see a bunch of teenagers moving into what might have been a straight line with minimum yelling. Once back inside they worked on “dynamics” — or the varying levels of volume in a piece — and blew us away working on a Chicago song. AWESOME.
We lasted almost an hour after getting back to the house, and then fell into West Coast Comas because we’d been awake forever.
It’s nice to see the family, and though it rained most of the day (and is supposed to do so all week), it is so great to be away.