August 21, 1998
Growing up on Long Island, it never occurred to me I'd live outside the northeast. I moved from ghetto to ghetto- Merrick, NY to Brandeis University to the University of Judaism, to Jerusalem to the Jewish Theological Seminary- ghetto to ghetto to ghetto to ghetto. I always believed that to live fulfilled as a Jew one must live in a community, for that one needs a Jewish center, even a small one.
It had been Sean's plan to enter the chaplaincy from the very start. Still, places like Okinawa [I guess this was prophecy] and Pearl Harbor seemed unreal. Throughout rabbinical school I joked that I would only follow Sean into the Navy if our duty station was exotic or had good kosher Chinese food available. Remembering this, my parents took us to Cho-Sen Island just hours before we left. I carried the left overs into our new life.
I kept thinking, "One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn't belong"- Merrick, NY, Brandeis University, Jersalem, Israel, JTS, and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In the days before our move so many friends and family members came to say goodbye. Hawaii was so far and seemed so foreign. "Are you excited? Nervous?" They all asked. But after a two month hiatus from having our own home, the answer was neither. We just couldn't wait to have our own things back and to be in our own place. Unfortunately, we simply didn't know where that place would be.
Once in Hawaii we'd be staying in a hotel chosen for its proximity to the zoo and aquarium for Jesse. Our thoughts actually focused on the disaster a flight with a 17 month old baby can turn into. The day of our flight we kept Jesse awake and active hoping for some quiet time on the plane. In the hours before our fears mounted as, instead of a nice family dinner, we each took a turn walking in the rain with him outside the restaurant. We arrived at Kennedy Airport only 20 minutes before our flight [wow- see what you could do pre- 9/11]. A blur of quick diaper changes and checking the stroller followed, but Jesse sat quietly almost two and a half hours as our plane sat on the tarmac awaiting the take off. Once in the air he walked from New York to Los Angeles, falling asleep only fifteen minutes before landing.
