Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Going to Carolina...

Last week, I made a whirlwind trip down to North Carolina. Normally, it's the kind of travel that I hate, and I'm glad I don't have the kind of job or life that involves constant business travel. But, of course, after 10 months with Thing One and Thing Two, sitting in the airport for four hours feels like liberation.

On Thursday, I picked up Jen from her class at MIT, and then walked to a nearby T station to get to the airport. I was three hours early for my flight. But no matter, I sat at the gate, reading the paper and listening to my iPod. Weeeee! I arrived at Raleigh around midnight, picked up a rental car and drove to Jen's parents house in Chapel Hill.

In the morning, I had a bunch of appointments at Duke for a project I'm working on for The Chronicle, the student newspaper. (More on this later). It was a glorious North Carolina day. The kind of mild spring day, when the sun is shining, and everything is just blooming, that makes me miss that area terribly.

I was back at the airport at 4 p.m., back on a plane, and back home just before midnight. Within about 30 seconds of walking in the door, Kalian was awake, screaming. I dropped my backpack, laid down in bed with her, and fell asleep. Back to my real job, as it were.

Go West, young man...?

Recently overheard in our car:

Liam: "Kalian, do you want to go back to Oakland?"

Kalian: "Yeah."

Liam: "Well, Kalian, we are never going back to Oakland. We have to stay in Cabridge. Okay?"

Kalian: "Otay."

Me: "Liam, are you trying to say that you're going to miss Cambridge?"

Liam: "Yeah."

Me: "What are you going to miss about Cambridge?"

Liam: "Nothing."

Me: "Are you excited to go back to Oakland?"

Liam: "Well...I don't know."