Home again, home again.

So, vacation is over now. It was a good run while it lasted, I tell you. This was my favorite trip to England (of the three total I've taken here), and I bet it always will be, no matter how many more times I happen to drift this way, because of getting to see how my friends do here. Annie, Chris, and Jonathan, in their separate ways, of course. I bet if I came back and they weren't here, it would only be so so.

That said, there are lots of things I wouldn't mind doing more of: the seaside, the markets, the country villages. Those things are so English, and so lovely. The more I think about it, the more I'm starting to realize I may not be a city kid after all, which doesn't make a ton of sense, as that's where I've spent the bulk of my life. But I'm starting to realize that I like a little more space, and growing things, and room for myself. Wonder if they'd take me in Wales...

Today Chris and I puttered around Greenwich Market and the Victoria neighborhood again, getting last minute gifts. I truly hope nobody opens my suitcase, as it's stuffed to the gills with food-based souveniers. My favorite things being the Cadbury mini-eggs. I think the Sainsbury's clerk thought I was an enormous pig, but I felt compelled to tell her that it wasn't all for me, so she didn't think I was a binger. Anyhow, if a remotely hungry security person cracks that suitcase open, he's going to have a sweets buffet. After we got Annie from the embassy (she's been interning at the American Embassy -- it's good to know all of these lawyers who will be able to get me out of trouble some day), we went to Richmond, which is such an elegant and full little part of London that it sort of makes you swoon. Not so many crowds, and lots of pretty little spots. It was big for the Tudors, I believe. I had one last set of scones with slightly sub-par clotted cream. I soldiered through them anyway. We walked through the big public park there, and knocked back a few in The White Swan. We came home and completely pigged out on Indian food at Nouvelle Spice (we've been there three times since I've been in London). The food there is exemplary, I tell you. We made the most of it. The third plate of nan might have been a mistake.

It was strange coming here. I felt like it crept up on me, and sort of like I wasn't at a good leaving point in life and work. Believe me, I got over that quickly once I got here. It's been great. I haven't been thinking about the crappy bad stuff at work, or in life in general. (I wasn't thinking about work, but it still infected my dreams -- I dreamt the women in my department were trying to gather me up and get me to Temple. Weird part? Nobody there is Jewish, but the dreams give me what they give me.) I wasn't thinking about dumb stuff all the time. I know that I don't think or worry about dumb stuff as much as some might, and so I'm better off there than a lot of people. But on this trip, I really got thinking about the nature of happiness.

Traveling and being out in the world makes me really happy. I tried to think about why, and I guess it's twofold. It's that life is a lot simpler because you only take what you absolutely need. The other is that everything's new and interesting. And engaging. I want to do more to make it like that all of the time. Get it nice and simple at home, and then just keep engaged in some way. And travel as much as I can, of course, in the mean time.

It was just nice not feeling like a part of the petty crap that has become a part of my life lately. It was nice to pretend that those things didn't matter, because of course they do in some ways. They wouldn't really bug me if they were all silly and trifling, but unfortunately, all of the things that bother me aren't silly and trifling. But i have to do a better job of deciding what to let go of, because I want to retain this sensation for as long as I can. Unhappiness can go suck a lemon.

So, last night here. It's late, and it'll be a pill getting to the aiport with my suitcase loaded down with Cadbury products, and I'll need some rest. I'll miss this version of England, but the good news is that these things stay with you for a while. Maybe I'll come back affecting a Madonna accent, just for funsies?

See you all soon!