Cold wind today and yesterday makes it seem like Wyoming again. It is unseasonably cool, people assure me, so I won't whine too much.

Returned late Friday from a trip to Chicago, which went like clockwork. I'm inordinately pleased with my efforts to travel by myself and make it work - for the first time ever I was able to download a boarding pass ahead of time, which made checking in a breeze. Probably because I'd only flown commercially once before high school, then once on a band trip, and never again until we went to Seattle after Simon was born, the whole process seemed mysterious to me. I also have an innate desire to see the overview of a place - which makes me good at reading maps, but it is useless when navigating an airport. Just follow the signs. Know where the shuttle bus picks you up and make sure you're on the right one, and that's pretty much it. Other things I've adopted that makes travel much, much easier ... carrying only a purse; reading a novel, not trying to study or prepare for a meeting (except at the gate, where I usually buy a newspaper and enjoy a leisurely time reading); once past security, always carry bottled water; eat before boarding. Transatlantic flights: Pack makeup and toothpaste (don't know what I'll do with the new restrictions); eye shades to help with sleeping on board; always carry water and snacks.

Maybe I have a future as a travel writer :) Paul and I have been reading Bill Bryson (I edit out the adult parts for him) so maybe that's why I'm thinking about travel writing. We read Bryson because I want Paul to know the rhythm and pacing of truly good writing. Also, a sense of adventure isn't a bad thing for a kid to have, either.

I'm really beginning to feel more comfortable here - in the initial weeks after we moved, I felt very alienated and in shock; but now I've learned to ignore the things that used to really bother me - the ghetto, the indifferent store clerks - and move along.

The weather is so much more mild - I was fall planting shrubs this weekend, where in Wyoming by now, you can't get a shovel in the ground - and the impatients haven't even died back yet, although you can really tell Fall is in the air! I'm surprised when people complain about the weather - its the only thing Frank likes about being here.



woman at the well