Profession

Travels

The next day was the Stark's, as Aunt Ann and Uncle Tony opened their own facility. They'd apologized unnecessarily for missing the grand openings of my buildings, but they'd been tied up on last minute details. Jon and I got a VIP tour before the ceremonies began; workers were already getting set up, and this facility had a substantial computer processing unit that was detailed to execute work designated by Aunt Ann, the computational biology stuff. That I didn't understand in the slightest, even after all these years. Their kids were here too, and Steve was going to oversee the operation of the facility for several years, learning how to make it all run, before going back to the States to start gradually taking control over the Stark empire from Uncle Tony. Uncle Tony had no plans to stop working--I honestly didn't think he would ever be capable of disengaging his giant brain and curiosity--but he'd be moving more into his lab spaces as the next generation came online. Cousin Chris was working with Grandpa Damian to eventually take over his position. It made me happy to see the family working together like that.

As expected, the new facility was loaded with bells and whistles designed to make the employees happy and productive, from a wonderful cafeteria that highlighted Persian cuisine as well as selections from other traditions, a massage center, a gym that included the advancing climbing wall that allowed climbers to cover 200 vertical feet without needing that high of a ceiling. The architecture was harmonious with my buildings, and two large courtyards were built in to allow people access to garden space--there was a luxuriant garden in one courtyard, and space was available in the second for those who would like to cultivate flowers and vegetables on their breaks. Additionally, there were fig and pomegranate trees there, so when the fruit was ripe, employees could just come out and pick a snack. It was impressive, as I'd expected.

Following the grand openings, Jon and I went home and prepared for Arielle's arrival. Her new status as an independent person was signified by the location of her room at the other end of the hall, by the main staircase (Jon and I used the smaller back stairs that were right by the master suite), and Jon had obligingly carried in a small refrigerator for snacks as she studied. She had full rights to the kitchen and house in general, of course, but it was kind of a pain to have to go downstairs just to get a soda when you were concentrating. Jon was going to go over house rules (fairly non-existent, but he also wanted to work out reasonable ground rules for overnight guests when she started dating.) We were sure that she'd done planning on how to get to campus and familiarize herself with the city, but Jon had left her a folder with transit schedules, a rider payment card loaded with enough money for fares to and from campus every day during the semester and a good chunk for fun and exploring, as well as brochures to places he thought she'd enjoy seeing. I put a bouquet of fresh summer flowers from the garden in the room the day she arrived. Lois and Clark came up with her and helped move her in. We all went over to her college for a look around and she proudly showed us the buildings where she'd have classes this semester. The proud parents went home to the empty nest the next day, wistful that their last chick had left home, but excited for her to begin the next stage of her life and reassured that she had a safety net close by if she needed one.

We quickly fell into a routine; she wasn't always home for dinner, but if she was out with new friends, John just wrapped her meal and she took it to school for lunch the next day. It was fun to have her in the house, although she was so busy we didn't see her much. As it should be. When she was home, though, she had stories about her classes, organizations she was interested in joining, new friends and experiences. It made me nostalgic for my own college days, and I enjoyed hearing about daily American college life.

Derinoe took a couple days of personal time at the end of a week and we flew to Greece for four days. I thought that this would be an optimal time period; after all, she hadn't been there for a long time and she needed to make it a somewhat longer stay in order to... I don't know, put things right? Get to know her relatives on an adult basis? But not so long that everybody started to chafe on each other. Grandma and Aunt Antiope had their apologies to make as well, they all needed to hash things out between them. I hoped that they could find common ground; I'd come to value this part of my heritage and the opportunity to get counsel and other perspectives. They didn't have opinions on the world of man, but they had a lot to offer in terms of personal development and relationships, self-esteem. And they were family.