I'm feeling very peaceful. Jed picked me up at the airport yesterday, and we had Thai food with his friend Kam, which was lovely. He's at work today, and I'm theoretically working too, though I'm only committing to grading two papers a day over this break. That should catch me up on all the papers which came in late, and when I get back to Salt Lake Saturday night, I can start on the group projects (well, okay, perhaps Sunday). I am going to try to have a week without stress, without running myself ragged trying to get from one place to another. I love what I do, but the pace is a bit much at times.
There are various stressful things that I could angst over, but I'm just not going to. Instead I will enjoy all the different color faces around me (I enjoyed a moment of culture shock on landing in Oakland; every direction I turned I faced another ethnicity, and it was fabulous). There is still bougainvillea blooming red and lovely outside Jed's apartment. I wonder if the Bay Area will continue to feel like home after I've been away longer. I suspect so...but I'm not quite ready to settle down yet. And who knows -- if I follow the academic path, I may have little choice about where I end up.
Too heavy thoughts for the way I feel today. The music playing in this cafe is pulsing through me, and the flowers are bright outside. Tomorrow I'll have Thanksgiving with Sherman and his folks and see Ingrid again, which will be lovely. And then I'll spend the night at the House and see Ian and El again, and then spend some time Friday packing up hopefully the very last of my stuff (they keep finding boxes of books in the garage...)
If I don't talk to you again in the next day or two, please, have a wonderful Thanksgiving! And thank you, for reading.