The downside of taking ten days off of work is that when you return your desk is overflowing with one million three hundred and seventy eight things that need doing YESTERDAY! My to-do list just keeps getting longer even as I multitask through many immediate threats. I will not be caught up for several days I imagine. Deby handed me a folder when she walked in the door and we haven’t stopped adding to it – job security is evidenced by how much work is considered your province and yours alone. It will be a bit I am sure before I work up the notes that I took while traveling into something to post here, as we have rejoined a life that was already in progress. We also have to wait for the film to get developed as I did not take the digital camera with me – it belongs to work so I only get to play with it when they don’t need it – I was of course disappointed to see that it hadn’t moved from where I left it ten days ago, but there you have it, not my toy.

Since I got back I’ve hardly been home, doing dinner last night at Angela’s and then making it over to the kids for Six Feet Under. I will henceforth refer to Brad Beth and Erica as “the kids” when I need to refer to them as a group, though soon Erica will be moving in with her friend Sarah when Brad and Beth move to their new place in the city, so kids minus one.

I just got a call from one of my college roommates, Jed, poorly timed as he lives in San Francisco and I was just there. It would have been great to get into the city and hang out. He must have felt the psychic force of my nearby presence and thought to get in touch. Jed’s life update in brief for those of you that know him: still a lawyer working and living in the Marina area of San Francisco, younger siblings in Thailand teaching English – Jed just visited them – personal trainer who tattooed Jed’s name on her foot (The meaning anyway – beloved of the lord) is still in the picture though they no longer live together – Jed is after a girl he went to law school with, she owns a house with someone else, but is still returning Jed’s calls so this is viewed as a challenge not an impossibility. Jed continues to destroy his body through the cunning use of a mountain bike, shattering several vertebrae over the past few years and later today he is buying a motorcycle which I would also like to do, but can’t due to complications with my lottery winnings – there aren’t any. I am insanely contemplating the purchase of a KIA, which is apparently not a product of Korea, but a GM vehicle in disguise. Thoughts?