Tidbits

After the heavy world-ending sensations of the last few blogs, it’s a welcome relief to report about the small things. Heading home from Portland after two days with my grandchildren and simple little moments of appreciation.

• "Home" is a guitar and a rug full of four-year olds. Or a piano and a floor full of wheelchaired 94- year olds.

• Turkey art projects (not the hand kind) work well at 4-year old birthday parties.

• So does singing songs about turkeys with hand motions and dancing.

• The old Yiddish tale, "It Could Always Be Worse" can serve double duty as comfort for hard times and entertainment for preschoolers. Especially if they get to squeeze a rubber chicken.

• All of the above plus cake and candles and present opening make for a great party for our darling Zadie. And comforting that all the kids (not just Zadie) melted down from excitement, exhaustion and sugar rush at the same moment—end of party!

• Zadie's 4 ½ month-old brother Malik, aka "Mr. Mellow" observed it all with Buddha-like equanimity.  

• Portland Airport’s food prices are reasonable. $7 for a hefty veggie omelet and potatoes. (Washington Dulles charged $4 for a tiny bag of potato chips.)

• Virgin America has the most entertaining dance/ music/ rap video delivering the same old flight info.—buckling your seatbelt and putting on your oxygen mask has never been so fun!

• Terminal 2 at SF Airport offers Farm to Market shops, massage chairs, a yoga room. (Maybe I should offer ten-minute Orff classes in airports?)

• Tidbits means “tender (tid) morsels (small)” of tasty food. It then came to also mean a small, interesting piece of gossip. Don’t know if any of the above qualifies, but that’s it for today.