alone in seattle

well, not quite. actually, i’ve had quite a time trying to see all the beloveds we left behind when we moved to the village by the north sea. and all the while, a conference paper looms ahead.

i’ve not only seen, but spent bits of time with both jennifers, katie, nazia, jennifer’s mom, gloria, kim, kim’s son, gloria’s granddaughter, the tatoo’ed katie, and the new batch of graduate students and my own students. i’ve furnished my rented room, bought a quilt and a desk and a light and a clothes hamper and groceries and a new pair of jeans because this is america, land of perfect jeans. thanks to katie and her car cleaning husband, my car ‘roxy’ [thanks to aly], is clean and purring. all that’s left is a toner cartridge for my laser printer. which is more difficult to find than i ever thought possible.

but… i really need to study now. so today i’m hiding and i’ve left jen’s phone in my rented room for the day because i don’t want the distraction. yesterday when i ran into my no. 1 in the hallway and she asked if i was ready for the conference – the conference that is happening next monday thru wednesday in southampton – i had a very incoherent reply. and i went back to my office to get a move on. and then people came in the room and began to speak to me and expected me to reply. and so passed another day of not writing.

last night i dreamt that i was in london and taking the train to pick up my mom from the airport. but london was more like that little lake area of portland or venice and there was water everywhere. i took the wrong train and ended up in the water just when david cameron’s private sea plane landed. i was bobbing along comfortably next to him in my comfy life jacket. he signed his autograph in my notebook full of persian horse translations. just before i woke up, mom arrived and we took off our life jackets and swam to the london eye. i just thought i’d share.

so in the next eight hours, i will explain why the persian translation of the sanskrit horse treatise both illuminates the cultural preferences of ethnic and social groups in 17th century south asia and… um… i’ll get to it.

and aly’s taking the train to meet me in london! how excited am i to see my girl? beyond description. i thought about taking her back to seattle with me… but the ticket is ridiculously expensive. and i took a job grading papers for the quarter just in case neither of us can stand the separation.