Who starts a fire just to let it go out?

[sovay]

"I'm like you," my godchild said gravely to me over dinner at Max's, "I don't sleep when I'm supposed to."

In my defense, neither selkie nor I realized we had talked past half past one in the morning.

The hell o'clock train was uneventful. I slept through most of Connecticut and at least dozed through some of Pennsylvania. I think we were still in New Jersey when the tracks ran close to the water so that I could read all the Maersk labels but not the name on the fire-engine-red Hamburg Süd container ship, but we were definitely outside Philadelphia when I spotted an amazing ruined factory stack for "Blumenthal Bros. Chocolate & Cocoa." The woman next to me was reading an e-book of A Tale of Two Cities (1859); I glanced over half-asleep and caught the old Sydney Carton of old Shrewsbury School and knew exactly where in the story she was. I have decided that the grey flannel, red umbrella man who boarded in Boston must have known the woman on the platform at Penn Station who was wearing an olive-green silk boiler suit. We arrived in D.C. just in time to skip the tornado warning, although not the impressive monsoon that hammered the train's windows with rain for about half an hour while the sky turned a sulfurous overcast. I read my ARC of Ruthanna Emrys' Imperfect Commentaries (2019) on the Metro and thought again how much I like, conceptually as well as character-wise, Ron Spector from "The Litany of Earth" and its novel-sequels, because usually when a morally ambiguous government man is Jewish, there's a twinge lurking somewhere, and here he's just morally ambiguous and Jewish and would be a shoo-in for my favorite character except that I really like Aphra Marsh. A dragonfly alighted on my shoulder as I waited on the bench at White Flint and clung there for half an hour, green-bronze and its wings shining. Selkie met me, Rami picked us up, I got to watch my godchild practice figure skating and then we all ate a lot of very good shawarma. (I don't think I had ever had amba before. I believe I described it as mango garum. On shawarma in a pita with pickled turnips, hummus, tahini, and tomato-and-cucumber chopped salad, it goes great.) I gave my godchild the copy of Ursula Vernon's Castle Hangnail (2015) I had brought them. My hosts shared with me the saga of "The Little Table," because they both work at synagogues. And then there was a lot of talking. My plans tomorrow will depend entirely on how much sleep I get tonight. Right now is probably when I'm supposed to be getting it, so I might as well give it a try. I have even been lent the household's weighted blanket and an actual bed.

So far, this trip, so good.

Comments

[wpadmirer]

I hope the trip continues to be good.

[asakiyume]

I like the idea of connecting people you see in different places and times--maybe your sense of connection is enough to effect their eventual meeting. It wouldn't surprise me!

That dragonfly friend! What a treat!

And hurray for spending time with godchild, Selkie, and Rami.

[selkie]

I'm not sorry I nattered on about nothing because it is, in this day and age, so good to talk about nothing. It means metaphorically talking about what we're not talking about, viz., fascism and the degradation of our democracy as an institution and the feeling that we're going to end up walled in a tomb alive for observing the basic human decencies; but I am so glad you're here.

Don't eat the baby carrots, either. /fyi ETA: not because you can't have them, because I think they're actually the bag of baby carrots before the last bag of baby carrots and so need to be consigned to the depths.

[sovay]

I hope the trip continues to be good.

Thank you! Today will either involve seeing friends I don't see often or staying put because I am too tired to catch more trains and I have the chance to rest. Either will be good. I'm just trying to wake up enough to see which.

[sovay]

I like the idea of connecting people you see in different places and times--maybe your sense of connection is enough to effect their eventual meeting. It wouldn't surprise me!

I'll never find out if so, but I can hope. They looked like they came from the same story.

That dragonfly friend! What a treat!

It was huge! And totally unafraid: I kept expecting it to skitter off every time I moved my shoulders, but it clung steadily until right before selkie arrived, when I assume it had to catch its train.

And hurray for spending time with godchild, Selkie, and Rami.

It's wonderful to see them.

[sovay]

I'm not sorry I nattered on about nothing because it is, in this day and age, so good to talk about nothing.

Talking about nothing is an important part of being human! I have no regrets. And a lot more information about synagogue politics and friend groups.

*hugs*

ETA: not because you can't have them, because I think they're actually the bag of baby carrots before the last bag of baby carrots and so need to be consigned to the depths.

I will avoid the sentient symbiotic penicillin.

[pameladean]

OH WOW THE DRAGONFLY. I surmise that it was a teneral green darner -- that is, it had just emerged and was considering its situation.

[sovay]

I surmise that it was a teneral green darner -- that is, it had just emerged and was considering its situation.

I am honored it considered me a safe place to review its options!