The Letter I Would Have Blogged, Had the Weather Won

During one of the more than 18 or so hours over two days that I spent earlier this week in LaGuardia airport waiting for a flight to depart for Burlington, VT and this year's CAJE conference, I had a lot of time to think and write, mostly fueled by coffee and channeling my frustration into words. I was frustrated for the time spent/wasted there, of course, but I was mostly frustrated about missing the classes I had planned to teach: "People of the Blog" (in two sessions, one for beginners, the other for advanced) and "What a Shayne Facebook."

And so I wrote the below letter of apology to my would-be students, assuming that all flights would be canceled and that I wasn't getting to Burlington. Within an hour or two of my saving it to drafts, I snagged a seat on an outgoing flight. Within two hours, I was in Vermont, on my way to the campus. I missed two out of the three classes, but the students came back today, hoping I'd made it and raring to go. I compressed People of the Blog 1 and 2 into one supersized class, trying to address all levels and needs, and doing a decent job, considering. So sometimes, things just work out. But because the letter captures a moment, I thought I'd still share.

Dear people who were interested in the classes I was supposed to teach at CAJE this year,

Hi, how are you?

I'm writing to apologize for the weather that was brought down upon us, lo, like a mighty arm of precipitation-based judgment which precluded my successful arrival in Burlington for this year's CAJE conference.

It would have been great--we would have talked blogging, and Jewish blogs, and Facebook and other social media, and we would have frolicked educationally among the copious and fragrant gardenias of the field. I would have metaphorically run across the metaphorical field toward you, accelerating until I had propelled myself into your metaphorical embrace, metaphorically speaking. [Cue the music, spin the camera in a dizzying spiral, indicating the depth of our connection.]

But alas, such floral frolicking will not come to pass. Instead, I shall remain here, on the floor in the USAir building at LaGuardia, where I am redefining the word "terminal." If I rise from the worn carpet, it shall be for one of two noble tasks: the purchase of re"jew"venating coffee, or to try to locate the bag I checked yesterday and which has perhaps vanished into LGA's storage facility somewhere like the Ark of the Covenant.

All my bloggy love and sincere apologies,

Esther

BTW, gentle readers, my bag awaited me in Burlington. How it got here before me, I'll never know.

Big shoutout to my new blogging friends, the students from my class who found themselves abandoned on Monday, but came back Tuesday, hoping that things would be different and being rewarded for their optimism. Feel free to visit anytime and leave me comments whenever the mood strikes you.

Here's hoping that tomorrow's flight home provides considerably less grist for the blogmill. And next week, I'm going back to a country where you never have to worry about rain in the summertime. Catch y'all in Gotham or Jerusalem.

Comments

[caren]

Esther,

You are truly the best - thank you for your perseverance, your amazing ability to find the humorous in frustrating situations, and for being such a gifted teacher and writer.

Here's to frolicking in the field...Safe travels,

Caren

[Tova]

Esther,
You seriously need to get someone to pay for you to come to a writing institute at Teachers College (my new wmploment BTW) You are a gifted writer who would love to be amongst the other gifted writersm Google Lester Laminack even visit his webite
www.LesterLaminack.com. He's a teacher, professor, amazing sense of homor and gifted writer. Talk soon! Have a great time in Israel.
-Tova

[VJ]

Wow. I'm impressed. Groupies. New ones! Cheers & Good Luck in all your travels & travails! 'VJ'