09-III-2003.
The first trip to Cueblo. The Orion secretary booked the eight of us telecommuters into eight flights to converge on Albuquerque in two shifts with least amount of waiting there. This meant waiting a lot between the legs of the trip, in my case about three hours in Saint Louis. Luckily, the smoking lounge was not just usable, it was well ventilated (a rare case!) and the antisocial smoker paradigm smashed by a lady who broke the ice. Withing five minutes I was explaining what's pihtije and how to cook them.
Then the next flight got late so in Denver they waited for me to make an U-turn leaving one tunnel and entering the next one. They couldn't keep my designated seat but, eh, let me suffer the trip in the business class, quite alone. With a clean window! Made a lot of good shots, specially the circular fields and snowy mountains near Denver.
The flight to Albuquerque should have been boring, but I noticed that the lady sitting next to me was holding a heap of printed texts in english and slovenian, circling obvious mistranslations in red pencil, so I figured she must be of the latter persuasion, and started a chat. Within two minutes the deal was "you speak yours and I'll speak mine and if I don't understand something I'll ask" (which happened about twice in these three hours of flight).
From what she said I gathered she's a translator for slovenian already and just recently passed the exam for serbocroatian too, and instead of a diploma for it, she got three - her exam was valid for each of serbian, croatian and bošnjački. Lives in NYC with some guy from India. She seemed to enjoy wearing shalwars, so she could raise her feet or knees on the back of the seat in front. Strong slovenian bones, I recognized. Cute, though.
After five minutes one of us said "zrakomlat" (croatian newspeak for helicopter, literally "airbeater") and laughed our asses off. The liked the manly rock music of the Balkans (Leb & Sol, Dado, Smak, Dugme, the whole bosnian scene) while I also liked a few bands from Slovenia, of which she didn't think much, doesn't have that power.
Met with the guys at the airport and hastily waved goodbye to this lady, and she looked a bit confused that I'm leaving so abruptly - but within the same minute I was picking my luggage and getting acquainted with the gang. The rented car was already there (some Ford with, of course, automatic shift) and drove off to Cueblo. It was nearly freezing but no wind. The accommodations are luxurious - the place is called "Bachelor's pad" and is in (the mandatory) adobe style with round beams holding the ceiling. Went out for some beer (probably had some Heineken or Negra Modelo), no room inside but there's a standing table under a heated awning. The "Ser & Mo" joke spread around real fast (now that there's no FRY anymore, it's Serbia and Montenegro, and someone already printed a sticker with the ampersand, read as „ser i mo“ and „serimo“ means „let's crap“). Nice folks and I just had to ask Joanne in the car, on the way from the tavern to the pad, "this all looks too nice... what's the catch?" - "No catch, just takes lots of work." - "I'm used to that but this time it really pays and seems to be a pleasure... well, nice start."
In this regard, I wrote on UA yesterday
Dušan Radović, a great poet we had, once said "some people were lucky to be smart twice - when picking an occupation and when picking a spouse; the rest of us have to be smart all the time."
Seems to be that, despite everything, I'm having all the luck I need :).
Mentions: 10-IX-2022., Cueblo, Joanne Stunter, Orionware (Orion), pihtije, UbiquAgora (UA), in serbian