Jersey days

Is it still Thursday?

We woke up at 3 to catch the plane in Milwaukee at some ungodly hour to get to Newark by noon. The trip went very smoothly although sitting in regular economy class in a United plane has the air of steerage about it. There is now First Class which always looks great and where they still serve meals, Economy Plus in which a person over 5'6" can sit and where they still provides blankets and pillows, and Steerage Class in which the seats are still bolted to the floor -- at least for the time being.

Okay, just a bit more complaining.

We flew out of Chicago for the second leg of our trip out and walking through the terminal that United uses was all these banners advertising fully reclining seats, seats with butterfly wings, winged stewards serving delightful meal . . . . When you consider that most of us are stuffed into seats that an 8 year old can't get under because there is not enough room for her skinny body to kneel down to look for the missing white tiger, aren't those adds unfair?

Enough.

Julia was pretty good during the flights. She did not want to go to Jersey in the first place -- she did, however, really like going by plane. She asked if Babja was still dead. She told us that going to Babja's house made her sad and scared. I know that she has at least some concerns that we are going to stay a long time again and that David is not going to stay with us the entire time. I hope she is not having bad dreams that she is not telling us about -- I know what has them now and then at home. It is hard to get from her what those dreams are about. And she is very sensitive, observant. So much to wonder.

Julia is changing -- so hard to articulate in a meaningful way, but we can feel it. She curled up in her seat today with her head in my lap and took a nap. Being exhausted helped, but she usually tries to fight sleep on planes and in cars. Her vigilence is usually pretty high. She is letting down again.

A few strangers tried talking to her today - the security officer at the airpost, the waitress at the diner where we had dinner -- and Julia managed those general guestions of name, age, and grade pretty well. SHE ANSWERED THEM! Her eye contact is really not good with these types of strangers but she answered in a timely manner as well as with appropriate words.

She was also happy to see my sister and remember the names of my sister's cats.

We worked on her sight words while waiting for a plane, and last night, she read a few random pages from Green Eggs and Ham. She can do both. The first task was about generalizing in some manner -- not in our house (or with our mouse) -- and reading the words in an airport with lots of distractions. She did it with no trouble at all. The same with reading the random pages last night. I wondered if she had memorized the story in order -- I know that there are words that she really doesn't know except in their context in that story -- best example, "anywhere". But she read my ramdomly picked pages with no more missing of words than she would if we were reading it in order.

It is time for a new book!

A little about being back in Jersey and on this mission to clean and make the family house ready for sale. It is strange to see my mother's house being stripped of its furniture and decoration. This house that was kept so pristinely now has piles of wanted and unwanted, packed and waiting for plastic bags, and the remnants of drawers and closets stripped and swept clean. This is the house that my parents and family has lived in since I was 8 -- a very long time. It is a house that I have seen evolve and remember well what it looked like when it was first bought. I watched it grow a little bit when the basement was finished in those miles of 70's paneling and with the addition of the back sun room (Was that 90's paneling?). It is well kept still, and of a style. I have never liked this house, was never comfortable here (the first house I lived in, a two-family in Belleville, much funkier and much more lovable) but I am familiar with its shapes, its stuffiness in the summer, the size of its rooms, and the way that floors creek and a few stairs give. Although I do not have positive feelings for the years I spent under this roof, I do have the urge to make it ready for a new life with new people who are buying their first house. I am not doing any exorsism or blessing, but opening windows wide to allow the Chi to circulate and fill the nooks and corners. There are gleaming wood floors under the carpets, space in the once-furnitured rooms, and light and air coming into uncurtained and shadeless windows.