Amy Currioman

The months of September and October are filled with a large number of family birthdays and I try to organize one large family gathering to celebrate all of the autumn birthdays at once. Doing it that way seems like a big deal but in reality I think it is a lot easier to pull out all of the birthday party supplies one time and and one great big party than it is to have eight different parties space down over a period of six weeks.

Having one large party like that is reminiscent of a Christmas party because so many people are celebrating and exchanging presents. Having a large family gathering and party in the early autumn is another good way to keep in touch with the extended family. After all most family gathering events run from Thanksgiving through Easter with very little family contact through the summer time.

The biggest hurdle with any family gathering is trying to make certain that any family squabbles will be left out of the party. That can be a big challenge when a big family is involved.

Last night I watched the new television show called Pan Am. One of the reasons that sparked my interest to watch the show was because when I was a young girl in the nineteen sixties and I tried to write a story about the life of a stewardess. I was certain that the life was full of adventure and romance and would be a bestseller.

The with that was since I was only about twelve years old at the time and had never set foot on an airplane or met a stewardess I had no words to write on that blank white sheet of paper that stared back at me. Based on the television show that I watched last night it reminded me of how I wanted to write that story so many years ago.

What I did enjoy about my trip to Monhegan Island was when we took a walk through the woods along a trail and we looked off into the woods.  We could  see where other people had gone into the woods and had made tiny little fairy houses of twigs and pieces of bark and moss, pebbles and acorns.  They were very whimsical and very cute. I like to think that maybe one day I’ll have a granddaughter to play with and we can go out into the woods behind our house and use found materials to make our own little fairy houses. I think that would be fun.

I frequently wonder what’s going to happen with the travel industry. I get the distinct impression that more people are struggling financially and are therefore less likely to travel simply because of that one factor. In addition to their financial struggles I am frequently exposed to news articles about how many people are feeling that the extra security measures taken by TSA are overzealous and inappropriate. Passengers are asked to walk through the special screening machine that basically lets the TSA agent see what you look like naked and a lot of people are unhappy with that. Others feel that there negative health consequences to be exposed to whatever radiation is used to create those images.

And I’m pretty frequently seeing/hearing news articles about particular passengers that have been upset over measures taken by TSA.  For example one woman was really upset that she was forced to remove her Breast Prosthesis; another woman was upset that her five year old child was patted down by an agent. I can understand all of these people being upset; I would be upset too.In But the fact is that the terrorists are crazy people and they will use children and women as suicide bombers and I think that’s going to hurt the travel industry for many years to come.

We were warned before we went to Monhegan Island that there was no electricity on the island anywhere and that included the hotel room.  We were told that was part of the romance of the island.  Well I thought it was charming at first but when we finally were shown our bedrooms and was not particularly happy to discover that we had a communal bathroom that we had to share with about ten other couples.

 Once it got dark at night there was nothing to do but go to bed and go to sleep.  Sure we were given oil lanterns to see by but they did not give off very much light and pretty much the only thing they’re good for is to help you find your way to the bathroom.  And although we slept with the windows open to let in the fresh air, it was a hot night and I did not sleep very well.