Where I've Been Since March 24th

The problem with not updating a blog is that not-updating quickly becomes a vicious cycle, a pernicious habit.

I think my absence began with a week of mild depression when nobody commented on my brilliant post about doner kebab and the Reichstag. Also, I was starting to prepare final papers for two of my courses, and the research and drafting for those began to consume much of my time.

That weekend I went to the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology annual conference, which was an entirely new and exciting world. Thinking about what I'd heard there kept me busy through General Conference, which gave me plenty more to think about.

And there were still those papers. Before this year, I never thought I'd enjoy writing a twelve-page essay, but I enjoyed writing these (most of the time-- I didn't enjoy it when I was up until 6 in the morning attempting to string together two major sections of my argument, only to give it up for another day.)

Then came exams, and then the drive home to Ohio, and then after 4 days at home I headed off to meet N. for a small reprise of our travels. I stopped to visit friends of a friend near Philadelphia, and then met up with him in NYC. We spent three days there with my sister, a day in New Haven (primarily at Yale's Peabody Museum) and then two days at Brown (where N. goes to school) before he had exams and I went to Boston (stories from this trip to come.)

On the bus, I read Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.

These last two things (the East Coast trip and my reading of Calvino) may bring changes to this blog. I've decided to expand the scope from my trip last summer to all of my traveling, and I may start experimenting with the sort of view of a city offered by Calvino.

And hopefully there's not another two-month post drought.