I should be learning about autism. . . .

But I decided to download and post a few photos. I hope this doesn't bring me bad karma. I've been running around like crazy here in Hawaii. Meetings from 6-3 and then a bit of wandering around Honolulu, dinner and collapse into bed. With the 5 hour time change I don't know whether I am coming or going half the time. My legs and back hurt from walking miles in bad shoes and carrying my conference materials, purse and cameras over my shoulders. It is hard to wear sensible shoes in 86 degree weather. But the Crocs are hard on my feet over time. My hotel is around a mile from the conference center. It makes for a lot of walking but it saved me a small fortune!
I can't wait until Sunday. My plan is to get out of the city then and see a bit of Oahu. Waikiki, although warm and sunny, isn't great for photography.
Here are a few of my limited number of photos:

Hello from the Pacific!

 

So I’m sitting in LAX, short for Los Angeles International Airport, although I’ve never heard it called that. I’ve spent a lot of time in this airport, on the way to visiting my grandparents or heading home from or back to college and graduate school. Neither the airport nor the city is the home of too many fond memories. Well, I guess memories of my grandparents and other relatives who have lived here are good but I never liked the city. I wonder if the smog is less severe now. In the past, flying into LAX meant descending through a layer of orange-yellow fog that made one sympathetically gasp for air even from the canned atmosphere of the plane.
The good news is I’m not staying. I’m merely waiting for my flight to Honolulu. No, Honolulu is not my favorite city in the world, far from it. But as winter begins to descend on Chicago, a few days in a tropical paradise don’t seem so bad. I’m attending a conference in the city and the warm weather and beaches make the very long flight worth while, or so I think at present. I will even have an extra day at the end of the conference at which time I hope to see a tiny bit more of the island.
Lest you think I’m lazing around, I will be putting in around 20-25 hours of lecture time (continuing medical education) over a five day interval. This exceeds the average weekly load of a college student although I won’t have homework or quizzes. I do know that by the end of one of these conferences, I have basically exceeded my ability to absorb new information. When my brain starts telling me that I cannot learn one more thing, that is when I start playing hooky and heading off to the beach.
I’d rather be on vacation with my family and I’d rather be on a different island, Kawaii would do in a pinch, but a conference in Honolulu is sort of like having one’s professional cake and eating it too.
I’ve had another day or two of internet exasperation so I have no idea when I will be able to post this or the pictures I plan on taking but at least I’ll have a post ready for whenever I am next on-line.
Think of me as the autumn leaves fall, or if anyone from the southern hemisphere swings by, as the spring birds get busy nesting.

Me

I mentioned in an earlier post that a family member is very ill with cancer. Another family member is gathering together photos of his friends and family showing him a "high five." I posed for this shot holding my turtle to add a little humor to the scene--as if I wasn't funny enough in my men's Hawaiian shirt! Dandelion didn't appreciate being drafted for the photo--she was clawing at my hand in the shot and her claws are sharp. But, as they say, no turtle was injured in the making of this photograph.
We might be getting a second box turtle. My son's school initially had bought two turtles for the classroom. One went to us and another to a classmate. Now they feel they aren't caring well enough for their boxie and have requested we take her on. What's one more turtle between friends?
I found a quote I liked in Real Simple Magazine today:
"I feel most myself between the having done and having to do again." Jonathan Safran Foer
I think this puts very well that feeling of stepping of the treadmill of work and family while knowing that in a few hours you step back on. Speaking of, I need to get ready for work.
Have a great Wednesday.

Not all grave news is bad news

Carved into bench at the Sex family plot.

All right, this was an outright manipulation, but it made you look, didn't it?
I got out to take a few pictures and visited a local cemetery which has an old Jewish section.



Until I started roaming Chicago with my camera, I'd never seen the old Jewish cemeteries with their tumbledown stones, Hebrew lettering and ceramic portraits. I find them very moving and thought provoking. Long forgotten family members with inscriptions stating they will never be forgotten, infants implying terrible sorrow, glimpses of history lost and unvalued, and ceramic images from the 1920's looking as good as new--all create an urge in me to honor and record those interred there, as if I alone can keep their memory alive.



Perhaps I should have been an historian and not a doctor. Of course, isn't psychiatry a kind of probing into history, only of the living and not the long dead?

Negativity

My brain seems to be empty of words and the photographer in me seems to be asleep as well. Autumn tends to be a low energy period for me. The shorter days and chilly air make me want to hibernate along with my little box turtle. If only I could dig into a muddy hole and sleep until March!
Nothing is all that bad. Work is good. The family is fine although I miss my older son. He came by today to get some rest as he has a cold and was a bit disheartened. I think we managed to get him on his feet again.
I just don't have much energy. I go to bed early, curl up in bed with some light reading and wake up late. I keep up with my structured time but my free time seems vacant. The good news is I am taking a second term of the black and white photography class so I hope to have some interesting prints to share in a bit. I'm also taking a modern dance class which means I have a number of sore muscles in interesting places. Finally, tomorrow I start rehearsals for my annual Nutcracker performance. This will be my third year. My younger son plays the Mouse King this year. It is a great part--very funny and full of action. He will be wonderful in the part, I'm sure.
That's all my news. Nothing all that creative or exciting to report. I'll come out of it in a month or two and have something good to write. I'm not giving up blogging. Never fear. Not at all. No how.