An open letter or "Bye bye, so long love."

(Newark, N.J., USA) – Dear Friend, Sorry I’ve been out of touch recently. It’s been that ‘life’ thing again, getting in the way of ’life’. I wake up every morning in a panic thinking that I probably have (at most) 60 years left on the planet, and there is a lot to do before my number gets called. So it is rush-rush-rush buzz-buzz-buzz all day long, but sometimes I don’t get it all in. It is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, and since you don’t usually squeak I don’t usually get around to making space for it. Anyway. There are some things you should know. You are (likely) a good person. And I (likely) miss you. Anyway.

I will be back in the US for almost a month, on account of family-visiting, holiday-thing-ing, conference-going, etc. It is a while away for the current gig, but I was constrained by my flight today being my return leg of my Sept. flight and a conference in Colorado in mid. January. And so my itinerary - roughly:

Geneva-NYC-Nashville : Dec. 14

Nashville-San Antonio : Dec. 24

San-Antonio-Phoenix-Aspen: January 6

Aspen-Denver : January 15

Denver – Geneva : January 16

So it is a full month, and the weight of my bags reflect that. Conference clothes, Life clothes, Ski clothes, Books, Papers, Computer, etc. It is such a full months, I had to check 2 bags - like a girl. First time in my life. Seriously.

And so I sit now in the Newark airport. My flight leaves in an hour or so for Nashville and so I take it all in and revel in the New Jersey-ness of it all. Man alive, these people are funny looking ...and talking! I can't decide if I love them or hate them. I saw the town where I grew up on the approach into Newark. My high school. The streets where we lived. The downtown. I was looking for it and looking for it and then… BLAM! There it was. Madison, NJ, is still there.

30 seconds after takeoff this morning we were in blinding sunlight. Seriously blinding. I think it was the first time I'd seen the sun in weeks and weeks. The whole top of the Saleve was covered in radiant yellow, so the cloud level was really low. It really is true that you just need to get 'up' a little bit to get out of the Geneva fog. I didn’t see much else, as my seatmate, closed the window almost immediately, and missed the Alps, Normandy, Ireland, and the south coast of Greenland. I had to get up and walk the cabin to see the view.

A few more hours and I will be in Nashville. It was a funny flight out of CH. Like mayflies, this couple in the row behind seemed to have lived through the whole life cycle of their relationship in the 9 hours on the plane. Apparently, they met when they sat... and started loudly exchanging life stories almost immediately and seemed to really hit it off....there was giggling, and then cuddling and cooing sometime after lunch... as we hit the Canadian coast they were taking a cute little nap together...but somehow, in the midlife of their mayfly day, I could feel relations were a little strained through dinner as we flew over the Gaspe and into Maine….circumstantial unhappiness then turned to searing freak-out when her boarding card for the next flight wasn’t to be found and that was that...he was out of there as soon as we landed..."Bye bye, so long love."

Or rather…

" 'What did you think when you first saw me?' The information is always the same. Your partners always decide in the first five minutes. After that, the only change can be in the negative direction. After you win, you can only lose. Married. Killer. Kenny G. Smells bad. Kisses badly. Democrat. Bye, bye love."
-Penn Jillette, from SOCK.

Take care,
Your friend,

-P