Today I Am A Small, Beige Thing
I am loving this photograph by Charles Gullung today.
I leave tomorrow for the Conference on the Americas in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where I'll be delivering my first-ever keynote lecture. True, I'm excited about and grateful for the opportunity to meet and learn from interesting people--scholars of immigration, primarily, and students in Latino/a studies. I'm grateful for the chance to share my nascent thoughts about the topic with a captive audience. :)
But ambivalence, thy name is Joy. (What was I thinking when I said yes? Why did I want to spend my few days of spring break flying to a cold place and sitting in fluorescent-lit rooms?) I love travel and meeting new people, but I equally love being home and wandering around in my pajamas with unbrushed hair, listening to the sentences that take shape in my inner ear, eating the good dinners that James cooks, and hanging out with him in a completely quiet, delicious, quotidian way.
"There is nothing like staying at home," wrote Jane Austen, "for real comfort." If you love home--and the people in your home--then you understand.
It's always with great reluctance that I pack and leave.
I leave tomorrow for the Conference on the Americas in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where I'll be delivering my first-ever keynote lecture. True, I'm excited about and grateful for the opportunity to meet and learn from interesting people--scholars of immigration, primarily, and students in Latino/a studies. I'm grateful for the chance to share my nascent thoughts about the topic with a captive audience. :)
But ambivalence, thy name is Joy. (What was I thinking when I said yes? Why did I want to spend my few days of spring break flying to a cold place and sitting in fluorescent-lit rooms?) I love travel and meeting new people, but I equally love being home and wandering around in my pajamas with unbrushed hair, listening to the sentences that take shape in my inner ear, eating the good dinners that James cooks, and hanging out with him in a completely quiet, delicious, quotidian way.
"There is nothing like staying at home," wrote Jane Austen, "for real comfort." If you love home--and the people in your home--then you understand.
It's always with great reluctance that I pack and leave.
Faye said:
Come home soon.
March 20, 2009 12:55 AM