Monday, 25 October 2004
waiting for my midnight plane to georgia
Yes, I’m taking the redeye home tonight—my flight leaves for Atlanta at 11:56pm.
Happily, I’m not stuck in LAX right now, perched on an uncomfortable chair near an impossible-to-find-outlet, paying by the hour for wifi. Instead, I’m in a soft, comfy chair at the Westin near LAX, taking advantage of Simon Phipps’ hospitality—we’re sharing the network connection over his Airport Express, and I’m streaming Genius Loves Company over it to his portable speakers.
We had a lovely day today. First we went to the Apple Store at the Grove, and then had a nice brunch at a nearby restaurant and did some retail therapy at the Nordstroms next door.
From there, we drove south until we got to Long Beach (Allan, so sad you’re not around this weekend!), which was more polluted and less picturesque than I’d hoped. It didn’t satisfy my ocean craving very well, so we headed north to Santa Monica instead.
When we got to the beach near the pier, the first thing we saw was a memorial to soldiers killed in the Iraq War. It’s a temporary memorial, put up every Sunday by volunteers.
There’s one cross (and some stars and crescents) for each soldier killed. There’s also a posted list of all the names of those killed, and photos of each.
They provide pieces of paper and pens, as well as rubber bands and fresh flowers, and ask people to write the name of a soldier on the paper, and then use the rubberbands to attach the name and the flower to the crosses.
I wrote the name of one young man, and attached it to a white cross, along with a red flower. Then I watched as many other people did the same thing. It was clearly an emotional moment for many of them. It certainly was for me.
The rest of the afternoon was more cheerful, however. We wandered the pier for a while, then had a nice dinner at a restaurant there, and watched the sun set over the beach—which wasn’t spectacular, but was still quite pretty. Then we headed over the Westin, and I’ll catch a shuttle to the airport soon.
I’m so glad Simon and I ended up with a free day in the same place at the same time—it was a lovely way to spend a sunny Sunday, and I’m feeling relaxed, refreshed, and ready to head home (even if it is on the redeye).
