Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Many Reunions


On Sunday I called Jack and asked if he and Tyler would want to get together at my house on Wednesday and he said yes. The next day I went to my art class with Jack and I got a call from a woman named Danielle asking me to take part in a THRIVE focus group. My phone had broken earlier so I couldn’t answer it, but when I got home I was able to talk to Danielle and she asked me if I could talk on the phone on Wednesday at 10am about what went well with the THRIVE program and what didn’t and I agreed. Then at 7 I went to work and at 10 I got off.
            The next day my mom and I rearranged my altar a little bit. I put up images of Tibetan Buddhist saints and so on who I recite mantras to in my daily meditation, including the White Tara, a manifestation of the Green Tara; Chenrizig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion who the current Dalai Lama is believed to be a manifestation of; Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom; and Padmasambhava, an Indian Buddhist monk who brought Buddhism to Tibet. I got these images from a pack of cards my dad bought me while I was in tenth grade.
I went to get a new phone for me before I went with her to her yoga class. After that we got home and then went to eat at Saigon 39 before going to see the movie Moonrise Kingdom. Overall, I thought it was pretty good and I liked the story line. After we got out of the movie theater, we saw in the parking lot a small stray kitten. We tried to grab it, but it got away. After we couldn’t find it, Mom left it some of her chicken from the restaurant and I left it some of my rice and vegetables.
The next day I took part in the THRIVE focus group with Hillary, Zach, Gabe, and Dave. I told them that what I was ready for the THRIVE program partly as a result of having gone to Johnson County Community College for three years, that I liked about the THRIVE program was how I began exercising regularly after taking Adaptive PE, how I learned to become a better textbook reader, and how I learned to ask for help. After the focus group was over, Tyler and Jack came over and we swam, ate lunch, and I gave them a grand tour of the house.  That night after they had left, I went with my Granddad to Winstead’s, then Barnes and Noble, then the Pathless Land. The next day I went to my art class then went to the library to pick up the DVD of Casablanca that I ordered.
On Saturday I helped pull weeds from the back patio in preparation for a party for people from Dave’s choir. I went over to my friend Erin’s house and we watched two movies, The History of the Celts and Good Fortune, a movie about why foreign aid in Africa is doing the opposite of what it was intended to do, since we both have an interest in history and political science. After I got home I took Wally for a long walk and I called work and found out I work on Monday from 7 to 10, Wednesday from 10 to 4, and Friday from 1:30 to 10. The next day I went to Yoga class with my mom and Dave.

The Cradle of Civilizations


I emptied the cat’s litter box and packed some more before we went to the airport. We got on the airplane and took off to Boston, Massachusetts. We took a bus to our hotel where there was a jar of chocolate and macadamia nut cookies for visitors. Mom, Dave, and I each took one then took the elevator up to our room. It had a living room with a foldout couch, a television that hung on the wall, a dark wood desk with steel legs with wheels, and a lamp in the corner. There was a microwave and a sink in the corner facing a dark wooden framed mirror and a trash can. The floor had rectangular ceramic tiles a carpet with orange and gray waves on one side and dark gray and light gray waves on another. The only other rooms were the bathroom and the bedroom.
Mom and Dave looked up restaurants and decided on the Garden of the Cellar. We took a taxi and reached Harvard College. Mom and Dave liked its gothic architecture, but I thought it was kind of ugly.
We made it to the Garden of the Cellar where we sat at a small table. Mom sat next to Dave and I sat across from them. I drank a glass of water then had a keg beer. The appetizer included bread with olive oil and for dinner I ordered a cellar burger, medium, with mustard on the side. The burger was huge and came with rosemary fries. The mustard was rather spicy but that was good and I shared a small round donut with Mom, which came with several dipping sauces. After we paid and left, we walked through the neighborhood where I saw several bookstores until we hailed a taxi and rode back to our hotel. We each had a chocolate and macadamia nut cookie before we took the elevator up to our room.
The next day I got up, took a shower, and then went down to breakfast. I had two cinnamon rolls which tasted very fresh, a cup of orange juice, and a sausage patty. On the television was a man talking to a fortune-teller in Morocco then to a man in Mali.
After breakfast we brought our stuff down to the lobby and walked up the street from our hotel. We passed an antique shop with a brightly painted sign and after a taxi ride we passed several old-fashioned colonial neighborhoods and saw the obelisk, which was nearly thirty stories tall. I climbed the steep spiral staircase up the building occasionally holding onto the wall to let families go down and use the railing. I made it to the top where I could see Boston below through rectangular windows.  The walk down was considerably easier than the walk up.
After that we saw Freedom Park and made it to where we could see the U. S. S. Constitution and a World War II destroyer in addition to a magnificent suspension bridge. In the distance I could see a tall clock tower. We followed a brick line known as the Freedom Trail until we reached an old cemetery, which was a great way for me to contemplate our own mortality. After passing several shops and old colonial buildings, we reached the Old North Church, where one lamp was lit to warn of a British attack on ground, and two lamps were lit to warn of a naval assault. I looked in the gift shop then went back to it so I could get some water from the vending machine for which I bought a homemade cherry lollipop, a blue and white candy cane stick, and while I was at it, a pocket owl as a souvenir. Then I bought bottled water from the vending machine before we went on a guided tour of the church.
We went into the foyer through a side door up a steep wooden staircase into a room then up another steep wooden staircase into the bell room. Our tour-guide, a short, dark-haired young woman, led our group back down the stairs and through an underground charnel room, explaining that parishioners wanted to be buried where they worshipped, before the city of Boston cracked down on it, proving to me that religious freedom is not absolute and does not cover practices that are harmful to the welfare of others.
We went through a door into low-ceilinged charnel halls one containing the tomb of a British general when the British seized the church. It twisted and turned every so often until we made it outside and the tour was over.
After the tour was over we saw the churches Garden of Assisi. Then we left through the back way and saw a giant statue of Paul Revere. We walked farther along and saw the house of Paul Revere before we went to a seafood restaurant, where I got a shrimp roll and some lemon tea. We ate lunch by a fountain where Mom shared with me some lobster from her sandwich and then we took a taxi back to the hotel, got our stuff, and drove to New Hampshire.
            We passed peaceful country road, coming across a bearded man sitting on his front lawn wearing only shorts and then we reached our house, a quaint little cottage next to the lake. We went a few houses down where I saw my grandmother, Uncle Andy, Aunt Marge, Uncle Kurt, Aunt Barb, and my little cousins, Kyley and Hunter. After dinner Uncle Andy and Aunt Marge drove me back to our cabin and my mom and Dave came back a while later.
The next day we went to see a waterfall and Castle in the Clouds, the mansion of Thomas Gustave Plant, who made his fortune in the steel industry. After dinner tonight we went out for ice cream. I got raspberry sorbet with gummie bears. We looked at the docks, which had several boats and one great yacht. We looked in a shop selling shirts before we went back to our cabin.
The next day I woke up and later I went down to the beach where I kayaked while taking pictures with my newly charged camera. I picked out several reeds, which I took to our cabin and laid them out to dry and then give them to people as gifts. For dinner we went to a seafood restaurant where I drank a Samuel Adams Summer and ordered some pan seared swordfish. After dinner, my mom, Dave, Uncle Andy, Aunt Marge, and I drove down to an ice cream shop where I ordered a two scoop Denali Chocolate Moose Tracks, which turned out to be much bigger than I expected.
The next day Mom and I went to the Libby Museum and then had lunch with my grandmom, Uncle Kurt, Aunt Barb, Kyley and Hunter. I ate a delicious grilled cheese sandwich with bacon and then Mom and I explored the town. After we looked in a jewelry store, I went to the bookstore where I had been hoping to go. I saw one book that really interested me called In the Shadows of the Buddha about an American Buddhist pilgrim in Tibet who saw the atrocities the Chinese are committing and went to great personal risk to smuggle out evidence.
            That night I had dinner over at Uncle Kurt’s, Aunt Barb’s, Kyley’s, Hunter’s, and Nannies cabin. After dinner Kyley and I drew on this portable sketch board she owned which you can erase when you’re done and start over. That night I felt I really bonded with her.
The next day Mom, Dave, and I climbed Mt. Washington. When we got to the top we took the train down and then went back to our cabin. That night we ate out at the town. I had a hamburger, which was rather big with some fries.
On the last day Mom, Dave, Uncle Kurt, Aunt Barb, Kyley, Hunter, and I ate steak Florentine, mangoes, potatoes, and tomatoes. The next day we dropped Cam and Graham off at an airport at Manchester, New Hampshire, then Mom, Dave, and I flew to Memphis, then to Kansas City. When I got home I called Hen House and found out I work on Monday from 7 to 10.