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December 26, 2005
Some Sad News
Welcome, since it is officially not Christmas anymore… I feel as though I should share some recently learned terrible news that lately has consumed my thoughts. My father is a pilot, in his spare time. For as long as I have been alive, he has co-owned a fantastic little blue Beechcraft 36 Bonanza airplane. His partners in the plane and him, share its use and the costs of upkeep etc. and for the last twenty years or so it was wonderful fun and convenience to use it to fly all over California for vacations and visits to see family.
This past Friday, December 23rd at 3:20pm one of my dad’s partners was flying the plane into Livermore Airport and had a terrible accident that took his life along with his wife who was flying with him. This, is a shock of course. It is such a terrible thing to happen, especially before Christmas. My thoughts are with the Mack family this holiday. I don’t know what else to say. Just terrible. I found this article online with photo & video.
I grew up in that plane. Like any old artifact of your childhood, nothing about it changed. The seats were always scratchy wool, the color blue, and the smell faintly of engine oil. That plane held so many memories from my youth. After sitting in the back seat my whole life, staring out the window at the ground below. Always looking at this big red bar that said OPEN IN CASE OF EMERGENCY ONLY. There was this pin and lever also that I was never aloud to touch. You can see where this is going… but you can’t put a hyperactive child in a plane for hours with the equivalent of a BIG RED BUTTON that says DO NOT PUSH. One day, (I think I was about 6 or so) I guess I wanted to test the waters.
So I had never opened this window before and I didn’t know that you could open it WITHOUT pulling the red pin out of the lever. So that day, at about 9,000 ft. I learned that you could open it easily just by pulling up! Instantly, the cockpit filled with tons of air and papers and all sorts of things went flying everywhere. My mom reached behind her and somehow managed to close it (from what I recall). It was only open for a few seconds, but boy was that classic young Jenny. I’m sure I scared the crap out of everyone that day. Leave it to me, never boring.
Also, I hate spearmint gum. Forever and always it reminds me of taking off in the plane. I guess my mom must prefer it. She used to buy us gum and a drink for the plane (often the kind of gum with the oozing gel center) and she always got spearmint. When you takeoff in a small plane the forces at work often make your stomach swoon with displeasure. So chewing spearmint just makes me nauseous.
Every time we took off, the propeller blasting, noise and wind blowing in the cabin she would reach behind her from the front seat and hand me gum by yelling at the top of her lungs, “DO YOU WANT SOME GUM? ITS FOR YOUR EARS!!!” Then she would make this motion that looked like exaggerated chewing while pointing to her ears, I assume, to highlight the benefits of chewing to clear the pressure that builds in your ears during takeoff and landing. Sometimes, when I got older the routine was so classic that I would say “WHAT???” a few extra times just so she’d keep gesturing back to us. It was always hilarious.
I wanted to share those two stories, because they are my fondest memories associated with my relationship to that plane. I sat up front with dad, helped navigate, pushed buttons and listened to tower communications. I am so sad that it crashed, and even sadder that two wonderful people lost their lives in the process. It’s the kind of news you hope you never hear.
R.I.P Bonanza 5942 Sierra
In other not so depressing news:
My father Dan Secord is running for Second District Supervisor for Santa Barbara County. I am going to be helping on the campaign remotely, from Plymouth. Specifically, Ryan and I have been collaborating on his campaign website: www.dansecord.com
Ryan is doing a fantastic job of it, and it is really fun to actually be doing work with him. Hopefully this is the beginning of more future webby fun.
Posted by jenredstar at 12:55 AM | Comments (4)
December 25, 2005
Merry Christmas everyone
Merry Christmas to all my friends and passers by. I'm here with the fantastic Gantz family, in Plymouth. The Secords are celebrating in Santa Barbara and I will be joining them on tuesday for more clebrations for the new year (my birthday).
I hope everyone has a happy, safe and plentiful holiday.
Posted by jenredstar at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)
December 19, 2005
Holiday festivities in Plymouth
This past weekend, we had a nice day of family festivities. At home, we trimmed the tree that Ryan put up in the living room. Nancy heated up some cider and put out crackers and cheese. Almost all of their ornaments are handmade by Ryan's grandmother on his father's side. Some of the family favorites are ornaments that the kids made over the years, Alyssa's classic "bisnse" ornament, Jeremy got a cute one too (see flickr).
After tree trimming, we all went to Edaville. Down the road about 10 minutes is essentially a mini theme park. Little rides, little animatronic people and animals, ferris wheels, merry go rounds, and a huge train that circles the property that is covered with lights. They have light shapes of all sorts of creatures in the woods, Christmas themed and otherwise. Upstairs in one of the old factory buildings on the property they have a wonderful little cranberry museum. Harvesting cranberries is a pretty interesting thing and definitely part of the local history. Ryan and I rode the Ferris wheel and we saw the most amazing moon rising in the sky. Just on the horizon, it was deep red with small dark grey clouds passing in front. It was a magical evening. We capped it off with a fancy dinner at a place called Boca Tu in Kingston. Excellent food, if you ever get in that area.
I'll be missing our tree trimming this year in Santa Barbara. I will miss the sights and smells that go along with carefully unwrapping each ornament. Peeling off the ancient tissue paper from grandma's ornaments, Lara's delicate collection of glass ones and my collection of horses (that in the last 5 years changed to collection of star themed ornaments).
Yesterday Ryan, Josh and I went walking on the golf course. We had a whole lot of fun doing something that is completely new to me and an old standard for them. Ice puddle smashing! Playing on shallow formed ice is a satisfying in the weirdest way. As Ryan says, "all of the thrill of falling through cracking ice with none of the danger"
The average temperature here is about 25 degrees right now, but currently there is no snow. I hope it snows soon because when I walk down the street all bundled up with no snow or ice in sight it makes me feel like I'm overdressed. I enjoy being surprised by things freezing in the car.
I think I am beginning to understand how weather humbles you in a way. You cannot control it at all. The California lifestyle (beachside) is generally used to getting what it wants when it wants. Some type of immediate gratification is available all the time. But here, there is a flow that you have to roll with.
Posted by jenredstar at 9:38 AM | Comments (0)
December 12, 2005
More Miles Photos
Hey, for those of you looking for more photos of Miles... try going here! I helped Lara to learn how to post photos of her own online while I am away so please check out her flickr page for new photos! yay! He is so cute! (just click on the link in the text above)
Posted by jenredstar at 10:02 PM | Comments (0)
New York City 2005
See, it is so late in the year that adding 2005 is reasonable since it was my first and last trip to New York for the whole year. I'm definitely not going back to NYC before Jan 1st. Huzzah!
Moving on.
Ryan and I took the Fung Wah bus from Boston to New York last Wednesday Dec 7th. We arrived early in the afternoon, just enough time to find Brendan's apartment and start getting ready to go see Depeche Mode at Maddison Square Garden. We shopped, ate falafel and got ready in time for Carlos to arrive downstairs with a car to take us to the show. Carlos's brother Ricardo met us there and he started off his birthday evening well with a nice Depeche Mode show.
Before the lights went down I was looking into the audience and somehow managed to see my friend Leah aka "Neen" or "Neener". I had no idea she was going to be at this show but there she was! It was a nice surprise and a nice treat to meet her lovely boyfriend during the after party. Kristin and Garry (look I spelled it right!) were sitting a few sections away and we had a quick chat before the show. I had not seen Garry for almost five years (exciter tour) and Kristin and I hung out only a few weeks ago at the LA show.
The seats were far stage left (it was my first time on this side) so we got to see a lot of Dave coming out on to the walkway and Andy shaking his bootie. It was a great show as usual but the crowd was not entirely inspiring (not such loud singing this time). Dave had to encourage them a bit and even then I think the people in Los Angeles still did it better.
After the show, Carlos, Ricardo, Ryan and I took a cab downtown to the meat-packing district where we went to a bar or "night" called sway. I can't remember the actual name of the bar, but I guess on Wednesday nights its called sway. Carlos's friend was the DJ and he set us up with a fantastic spread of vodka and various accoutrements. Other friends, Paul and Jason joined us part of the way through and we ended up going to yet another bar for some pool before last call, which is in fact... at 4am. So I was toast by the time it was all over, and still we went over to Jason's pad for a quick sit on the couch as everyone awaited more beer and watched Liquid Sky for a while.
It was a great night, and hopefully an excellent way for Ricardo to spend his birthday with his big brother and some new friends. Yay!
Next night, we did it all over again, but with different people! I called my friend Ramona to invite her to the show and she zipped over to MSG (only a few songs in to their set). Ramona and I are old high school friends, and although we don't see each other too often, or even keep in touch all the time I always love seeing her. Its nice to have such spontaneous casual "always good" hangout time with her. Brendan showed up after coming in from JFK where he flew in from the Dominican Republic for photo assisting on a Victoria's Secret catalog shoot. Brendan has a rough life! Well, he sure does travel a lot and I definitely envy that, he also works his ass off and was kind enough to let us crash at his place while in town. Thanks Brendan!
After the show, this time we all went over to a bar near the hotel DM were staying at (their local haunt) and just hung out for awhile. It was a nice night, not too late either thank god. I was kind of pooped from the night before. It was really good to finally have a bit of a chat with Andy and Martin, they have been in their usual tour mode... busy, lots of people, distractions etc. It was a more mellow place and I'm now very much looking forward to meeting up with them in Europe especially now that Andy has pledged to "take better care of me" while we're there. Apparently it is easier in Europe. I guess that means perhaps he'll give me a tour? I dunno, but it sounds good. Perhaps I'll start in Spain.
The rest of the weekend was spent with friends, Ryan's friends met us for dinner friday at Cafe Charbon. I got to have my steak and fries. Aimee and Bryan took us all out to a karaoke bar where Aimee and I sang Bohemian Rhapsody for everyone.
Santacon was Saturday and I will be posting photos soon from that. We met up with Oscar and he joined us for dinner with Jonah and Cristina. Afterwhich I nearly passed out from being so tired from all the walking and that martini.
Later we went to Brooklyn for a few beers with Lisa and Todd, and finally on Sunday afternoon we took the bus home. Ryan has a wicked case of Poison Ivy and has since spread it to me in a few small places. Yikes. Now we're home, working on design stuff, cooking fancy meals and enjoying the winter so far. I miss my family back in Santa Barbara, and I miss seeing Miles's little face in particular. I will be home from Dec 27 - Jan 3. So if you're in Santa Barbara or Los Angeles and you want to see me... let me know. I'm getting a crowd of people together for New years somewhere in Santa Barbara. So far, Robert, Lara, Alex, Tina, Terry and I are set to hang out... anyone else want to get in on it?
Posted by sixfoot6 at 7:05 PM | Comments (0)