Round the corner...: smile

01.20.2010 or 20.01.2010

Anyway... we are 20 days into 2010 and I have yet to post. Although I recently just returned from a three week vacation in Australia so it is with good reason that it has been this long. Now though, I have so many different things that I want to post I don't even know where to begin. I guess the best place to begin is at the beginning.

How I spent my Christmas.

Christmas for me was a travel day. Day one of my vacation. Off to see two of my best friends get married on the beach of the Sunshine Coast of Australia on New Year's Eve under a full moon, a blue moon to boot. A trip I'd been waiting for a very long time.

I had allowed myself a 5 hour layover in LAX in case I didn't get out of our little valley due to snow. I made it out on time. The day was a good day to fly but we did lose power in the valley on Christmas eve at 10 p.m. and it was only partially back on by 2 p.m. when I left. Thanks go out to all of the Idaho Power employees who were working on Christmas eve and Christmas day in negative double digit temperatures trying to restore power to approximately 20,000 people.

Back to LAX. 5 hours people watching waiting for a plane.

A day I will never forget.

In the process of people watching I noticed a man in a wheelchair. He was doing laps around the room. Every time I caught eye of him he had already passed and all I saw was the back of his chair. Then at one point he paused before he passed completely by and the first thing I noticed was his smile. His smile.

SMILE!

That smile,

totally and completely infectious filling the whole damn room.

And then I noticed,

he had no arms and no legs.

And then I noticed,

his t-shirt said "Hugging Machine".

And then I noticed,

everyone else was staring at him too.

And he just smiled on.

SMILE!

He was then approached by a young guy, early 20s, covered in tats and facial piercings and he just walked up to him and gave him the biggest hug you ever saw. People started lining up and a great big hug fest commenced. I watched from my seat. One of the people that had lined up then came and sat next to me. Asked me if I knew Nick, the guy in the wheelchair. I didn't. He explained to me that he was born that way without any limbs. Originally from Australia and now living in L.A. He is an inspirational speaker. All of it was very inspiring. I particularly loved that the first person who approached him was the guy covered in tats and piercings.

The hug fest concluded. Nick then parked his wheelchair in front of me approximately 10 feet away. In profile. (I was in the bank of seats closest to the gate.) I was reading but every time I looked up I couldn't help but look at him. He knew it. I knew it. I couldn't help it. He just smiled away. And then he turned his chair to face me. (I think he does this a lot.) I then got up and got my hug.

I did write that proper. I got up and got my hug. Know that even though I was the one who got up and went over to Nick and wrapped my arms around him, he is the one who hugged me. Yes, hugging requires two, we were hugging one another, but he hugged me first. Putting all of this into words doesn't even come close to what actually happened but I did have to put it down into words that it did happen. (If you watch some video of him you can begin to understand.)

I took a journal with me on my trip (I am the worst at writing things down) and it turned out to be more of a calendar log with dates, times, places, people, plants, animals, food, stuff, I'm good at lists. None of the above made it into the journal nor did all sorts of other important happenings. I believe here will be where the bulk of the last three weeks will end up. I type faster than I write. It's neater too. And... I can post my photos.

Here are my Christmas lights