Category Archives: Travel

safe and sound

Childhood memories are rarely indifferent. If we remember something at all, we either truly love it or it fills us with hate, rage, shame, fear, regret. The childhoods of our memories are hybrids of blurry nostalgia and dark monsters under … Continue reading

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i’m good at spin

It always confuses me when I realize someone is envious. Why would anyone envy this? I wake up and I work and I feel the crushing weight of not being able to stop and it’s lonely and it’s relentless and … Continue reading

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tidings of comfort and joy

We think that we’re locked into a life. But we’re not. We think we have to do things a particular way, go down a particular path, go through particular motions. But we don’t. I see the absolute joy and surprise … Continue reading

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this isn’t one of my good qualities

I step outside and stand in the tedious cab line. Normally, this goes quickly, but today, no cabs are in sight. The air is hot and sticky. My phone chimes with incoming mail. The cabs start arriving and the guy … Continue reading

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beautiful and dirty rich

Sometimes I wonder how I got here. I can’t say that I should have planned my life better, because of course, I did plan. I planned and planned and it was all wrong and came crashing down and I was … Continue reading

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new driver perspectives

Car service to the Miami airport, headed for my flight to Sao Paulo, Brazil, the conversation began as always: you travel so much — surely you don’t have a husband or children. But then, a departure: not a prediction of … Continue reading

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tired

I should have lots to write about. I’ve been traveling for weeks: Atlanta, New Orleans, San Francisco, a convoluted route through London and Istanbul to Israel, then Jordan, and now Cairo. Another day and then I’m off for a day … Continue reading

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all this and your fortune too

I seem to spend a lot of my time these days being driven some place or waiting to be driven someplace or waiting after I’ve been driven some place. I started writing this while waiting in the lobby of a … Continue reading

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solitaire

Business travel is built around the idea of the solitary. When you check into business hotels, you’re given a single room key and there’s only enough of that awful hotel room coffee for one. You’ll often get a king size … Continue reading

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it’s not really as bad as all this

I was sitting in a deserted corner of the Pittsburgh airport a few nights ago, waiting for a flight that would take me to Minneapolis, where I could in turn catch a flight that would get me back to Seattle. … Continue reading

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not all those who wander are lost

Quote seen on a wall of the Salt Lake City airport. Fucking Tolkien. Summing up in seven words what I’ve been trying to say in hundreds of journal entries. Two nights ago, I was at a dinner for an event … Continue reading

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life within movement

I live within movement. The cabs, the trains, the airplanes, the airport lounges, even the security checkpoints are my living room, my office, my route to work. The other day, someone was driving me to an event and asked if … Continue reading

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lebanon in layers

I don’t quite know what to say yet about visiting Lebanon. I’ve always had this tendency to see multiple sides of an issue (even when I’m on one of the sides) and I generally don’t believe in the notion of … Continue reading

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i will drink as much lemoncello as i can

True story. A couple of weeks ago, I started an entry with this title and saved it as a draft. But then I never actually wrote the entry. I had been planning to write about how I have this tendency … Continue reading

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lost in translation

They don’t know what to make of me. Yes? They look at me quizzically, not sure what I’m doing there. Once it took three people to figure out what I wanted. The first thought he didn’t understand me and sent … Continue reading

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midwestern thunderstorms in croatia

A storm came through today. Heavy rain and cracks of lightning splitting the sky and booming thunder. We could have been in the midwest — Arkansas or Missouri or Oklahoma. The power flickered and then was out. When the rain … Continue reading

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settled in heaven

I walked up to the cab and hoisted my bag up into the trunk. The cab driver said he would pay me $100 if I could get his wife to carry a bag that heavy just a few steps. She … Continue reading

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ways mcdonald’s in berlin is different than in the us

They put cucumbers on their burgers instead of pickles. You can have one packet of ketchup or one packet of mayo for your fries. You can have one of each for an extra charge. Happy meals have chocolate milk in … Continue reading

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Scenes at an airport

Overhead, a woman on her cell phone. Her flight was on time. Could the person on the phone still pick her up? Yes? Who all was coming, then? Were they coming in to the airport or parking? What time was … Continue reading

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if you’re looking for a car, go see cal

I just drove twelve hundred miles in a 77 MGB. It even nearly made it, only running out of oil once and requiring just one push start. Driving an old rattley car that you really have to concentrate on to … Continue reading

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you’ll never see the end of the road while you’re traveling with me

What choice do I have but to keep going? I may fail, I may make mistakes. I’m only human. But why dwell there, on that, on my imperfectness. Why live in frozen imperfection? I sometimes see this glimmer beyond “I … Continue reading

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even dandelion seeds find solid ground eventually

Right at this moment, I’m on a train, visiting states by looking out the window. We just made a stop in Delaware. Delaware! Now Maryland. I’ve never been either of these places before. They seem pretty, as far as I … Continue reading

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attack the fire if possible

I should be working right now. Lord knows I have a lot to do. Too much to do. A crushing avalanche of todoness that threatens to bury me beneath its suffocating, all-encompassing grip. But instead, I’m wondering at the sign … Continue reading

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what’s this internet addiction of which you speak?

In another airport. I’m starting to like the airports, really. Maybe it’s like that thing that happens with kidnapping victims when they fall in love with their kidnappers and they fight against all odds, the police, and a world that … Continue reading

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for all the time we have to spend here, you’d think the airport terminal would play better music

I had a very odd feeling this morning. I stepped into a cab, and something seemed wrong. Like the cab was off-kilter or something. And then I had the following three thoughts in rapid succession: The driver is sitting on … Continue reading

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travel lessons

I curiously continue to lose weight. This despite a diet that has variously consisted of the following: potatoes (in many forms)  and pints (Dublin), room service, more pints, and tequila (London), vodka, cheese, and a bit of chocolate (Zurich), mashed … Continue reading

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to the place i belong

I got to Dublin on Friday. I had heard a rumor about the potatoes, but you generally don’t expect rumors to be so true. I love to travel and see new things and try new foods, especially if they’re potatoes … Continue reading

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