(no subject)
My last day in Seattle and my first day in San Diego have been kind of strange.
First off, it took me 12 hours to get from Seattle to San Diego when it should have taken me three at most. I flew United and for some reason they don't offer direct flights. So I had to transfer in San Francisco and my second flight was delayed by four hours. I was supposed to arrive home at eight in the evening but ended up leaving San Francisco at nine thirty.
Second, I went to opening day of the fair with Collette. I hadn't been there in two years but normally the first thing I do is go to the woodworking section to find whatever piece my old dentist/orthodontist had entered that year.
That was the best piece he made a few years ago. It won first place and made its way into a woodworking magazine and was estimated to be worth $30,000. So this year there was so much stuff that I went to the directory booth and asked them if they knew some of the people who entered their pieces.
Man: "What is the name of the person you're looking for?"
Me: "Barry Gruer"
Man: "Barry Gruer from Palomar College?"
Me: "Yes!"
Man: "I'm sorry to tell you that Barry passed away from diabetes last year."
And then I just started crying at the Del Mar Fair.
Man: "I know it's hard and tough, he was a great guy and I found this out the same way when I went up to the school last year."
They have a scholarship there: the Barry Gruer Memorial Scholarship.
I know it sounds strange to know your dentist outside of the office or actually look foward to going to your appointments every month to get your braces tightened. But his wife was the receptionist and we would bring our family vacation photos and go through each one with her. Or we'd play with their giant rubberband ball that they had been growing for years. Or maybe it was the pacman table that Ellen said she would have given to us if she had known we liked it so much. We went to In-n-out with them once. We taught them the trick of putting ketchup on the lids and they told us that they liked that so much that they passed the trick down to their friends. Sometimes we'd run into them and their two Irish waterdogs at the La Jolla Farmer's Market. And sometimes we'd just go over to their house and he'd give us a tour of his workshop, their newly remodeled house, his Harley Davidsons and she'd show us all the flowers she had been growing. We still have plumerias that keep blooming from the one root they gave us a few years ago.
I wonder why we didn't visit him for so long.
First off, it took me 12 hours to get from Seattle to San Diego when it should have taken me three at most. I flew United and for some reason they don't offer direct flights. So I had to transfer in San Francisco and my second flight was delayed by four hours. I was supposed to arrive home at eight in the evening but ended up leaving San Francisco at nine thirty.
Second, I went to opening day of the fair with Collette. I hadn't been there in two years but normally the first thing I do is go to the woodworking section to find whatever piece my old dentist/orthodontist had entered that year.
That was the best piece he made a few years ago. It won first place and made its way into a woodworking magazine and was estimated to be worth $30,000. So this year there was so much stuff that I went to the directory booth and asked them if they knew some of the people who entered their pieces.
Man: "What is the name of the person you're looking for?"
Me: "Barry Gruer"
Man: "Barry Gruer from Palomar College?"
Me: "Yes!"
Man: "I'm sorry to tell you that Barry passed away from diabetes last year."
And then I just started crying at the Del Mar Fair.
Man: "I know it's hard and tough, he was a great guy and I found this out the same way when I went up to the school last year."
They have a scholarship there: the Barry Gruer Memorial Scholarship.
I know it sounds strange to know your dentist outside of the office or actually look foward to going to your appointments every month to get your braces tightened. But his wife was the receptionist and we would bring our family vacation photos and go through each one with her. Or we'd play with their giant rubberband ball that they had been growing for years. Or maybe it was the pacman table that Ellen said she would have given to us if she had known we liked it so much. We went to In-n-out with them once. We taught them the trick of putting ketchup on the lids and they told us that they liked that so much that they passed the trick down to their friends. Sometimes we'd run into them and their two Irish waterdogs at the La Jolla Farmer's Market. And sometimes we'd just go over to their house and he'd give us a tour of his workshop, their newly remodeled house, his Harley Davidsons and she'd show us all the flowers she had been growing. We still have plumerias that keep blooming from the one root they gave us a few years ago.
I wonder why we didn't visit him for so long.