In the middle of a sentence when the bus stops, I can dodge legs and small suitcases; push my way off the bus; cross a busy street; hold a door for a mentally ill woman, a four-year-old and her mother, and a newspaper editor wearing a Detroit Tigers cap; follow them all inside the door; stand in line to buy a cup of coffee or zucchini bread; return to the atrium of the Old Capitol Mall; open my book; and continue reading exactly where I left off.
I used to could not do that.
I know you’re impressed. Your speechlessness, however, is taking it a bit too far.
by greg—Dec 19, 10:17 AM
My silence is due to the shock of finding out they have buses, busy streets, women and children, newspaper editors, malls, and books in Iowa.
by JH—Dec 19, 12:33 PM
my silence, as you know, is because i’ve been absent… and will probably continue to be so until we return from the keys, sometime after the new year.
oh, it’s not that we are going there now… that would be heaven!
before we go to the keyes, we must first we go to my parents (a 10 hour drive); then, drive back the day after xmas; only to fly out to philadelphia the day after our ten hour return; where i will read a paper the evening of our arriva, and spend the next few days interviewing candidates for a job in our department, while my wife works from her hotel room; in the evening we hope to meet a cousin of my mom who lives in philly and teaches colonial latin american literature; once that gaunlet has been run, we will head to the keys to celebrate a decade of marriage, where i will pick up a 1,6000 page novel that i’ve been reading since this summer.
and that sentence is a candle in the wind of greg’s
by Jeremy—Dec 19, 05:56 PM
you must be hating life, what with celebrating your anniv on the beach and all. we wish you both much happiness, anyway.
we, too, begin our travels tomorrow.
by greg—Dec 19, 09:41 PM
so, then, you will get our christmas card after the holidays, then.
your loss.
by Jeremy—Dec 20, 04:51 PM
That was to be the case anyway, since you just asked us for our address today. We will console ourselves with photos of Evie on flickr, instead.
by greg—Dec 20, 04:53 PM
Or is there more even goodness than photos in the card? Do we get an Xmas newsletter, too?
(Can I just add, too, though there’s already a post re:travel and Xmas, that I am really hating life today?)
by greg—Dec 20, 07:19 PM
no, no newsletter. this holiday season and fall semester have just been too hectic to try to write a letter telling everybody how wonderful we are and that Evie’s already been accepted to yale.
no doubt for very different reasons, i, too, am hating life.
by Jeremy—Dec 20, 07:24 PM
I wish we could hate on it together, but we’re packing the car. Merry Holiday to you, and truly, peace.
by greg—Dec 20, 07:29 PM
Happy holidays to all Hermits and assorted hangers-on. I won’t even try to replicate Greg’s syntactical prowess—I’ll just wish you all safe travels and general goodness instead.
by Laura—Dec 21, 10:28 PM