In passing . . .

I was gone.  Now I'm back.  (But, as far as being gone and back go, there's a lot in between.)

A quick summary:

• Airport food. We will not speak of it.
• Eating alone and enjoying it, even with a pitying waiter.
• Opulence and excess and their contradictions of focus and presence.
• No coffee at an 8:00 panel at an academic conference.  Really?!
• Mall food court food (even at a really posh mall).  We will not speak of that, either.
• Loud restaurants and the (im)possibilities of conversation.
• The delight of a good Thai green curry and a catch-up with a friend.
• Old cobblestones and glass skyscrapers.
• A farmer's market on Copley Square.
• Old people eating lunch at Symphony Hall.
• Chilled sunshine over water.  (As opposed to the chilled sunshine over plains at home.)
• A sunset in the sky over Chicago that made me recall the narrator of Wise Blood who said, "No one was paying any attention to the sky."
• Jo's sticky fingers in my hair at home.

There's much more to say, obviously, but this is a start.  I was only gone four days, but time stretches, especially in these busy days.