Oh No, My Voice

Right now I am without voice. I've been travelling for the past 9 days and there's only so much airplane crackers and coke one can consume before one falls ill.... Sure I'm kidding. But the airline industry needs to take a serious look at what they've been calling "food" these days. In my humble opinion, it is only slightly better than hospital food. And the surprising thing is everywhere I look, people are wolfing it down like it's the cure to cancer. Of course, I'm well aware that it could be me that's crazy....

The Bethlehem, PA wedding of Ravi Howard. This is me with my date, April, and my college friends from New York.

Nonetheless, somewhere during those six flights, uninspiring meals, weather changes, and loss of sleep, my body fell out of balance. And as a result, my poor little voice has turned jumpy and raspy. It's kind of sexy actually. But I digress.

Where have I been, you may wonder? Well, first, I went to my college friend, Ravi's wedding in Bethlehem, PA (Pictured at the top). It was refreshing to return to the East Coast. And I also got to connect with some really good friends who came down from New York, and up from Alabama (Ravi and I also went to Sidney Lanier High School together in Montgomery). Then, I went down to Montgomery to visit my family, and specifically, my little neices and nephews, aged 5, 3 1/2, 2, and 10 months. When you ring the doorbell, they all come running, walking, shuffling or crawling from every corner of the house, very much like that opening scene in The Lion King. It's the cutest thing you will ever see.

After that, I took a quick trip home to regroup, then left for my older brother, Donald's wedding in Cancun (pictured below). That was great. It was held on the grounds of El Dorado Royale, an all-inclusive resort, about 30 miles from the city center. The resort was small enough to bump into friends and family from the 50+ wedding party in the restaurants or on the beach, yet large enough to lose yourself if you needed some quiet time. My whole immediate family came together for the first time since I don't know when. That was great to experience as well.

My brothers and I with my cousin in Cancun at the wedding reception. Donald, in the dark shirt, was the groom and I was his best man.

The highlights of my trip were reading my book---The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, by Thom Hartmann---on my airline flights, and the fact that my whole family started calling me 'Light'. That one happened unexpectantly. I didn't plan on mentioning that I'd changed my name unless I was asked worthily (only because it tends to be a big conversation piece and I wanted to keep the conversation directed on my brother and his bride-to-be). But once everyone got wind of it, thanks to my Mom (after about two cocktails mind you), they all started calling me 'Light'. At first, their tone was slightly sarcastic. Then, they started using it more casually. And finally, it just became my name---one of the benefits of spending so much time around one another in close quarters I imagine .

It's good to be back in LA now. Time to get back into my teaching, and to get caught up on some projects I've been sorely neglecting. Not to mention, getting back into my diet. I'm trying raw meat next, and I'll be giving the full report on that sooner than later.