Wanderlust

I felt like playing hooky from work this morning. As I drove down 83, somewhere between Exits 31 and 27, Carbon Leaf’s “Blue Ridge Laughing” playing on the Beetle’s CD player (from a road trip mixtape I made a few weeks ago), the sun broke through the wispy clouds, and the fog and the mistContinue reading “Wanderlust”

Scenes from a Road Trip

For reasons I’m disinclined to share, I went on a somewhat unplanned road trip this weekend to Virginia. I use the word “somewhat” as I had a few hours to prepare for it, so I burned a few mix CDs for the drive and planned a trip that would take me through Richmond because IContinue reading “Scenes from a Road Trip”

Five Years After My Grandmother’s Funeral…

Facebook reminded me this morning that five years ago today was my grandmother’s funeral, just as on Saturday morning it reminded me that she passed away a hemidecade ago. I knew this was coming; a few weeks ago Facebook showed me pictures from Shore Leave 2011 (including John de Lancie and an experiment in makingContinue reading “Five Years After My Grandmother’s Funeral…”

An Irish Weekend

Over the weekend, I went to the Annapolis Irish Festival, an annual event held near Annapolis in mid-July. This year, the scheduling caused some agony as the festival coincided with Shore Leave‘s weekend, back in July for the first time in a hemidecade, and Carbon Leaf, who are taking a sabbatical year, were playing aContinue reading “An Irish Weekend”

When the World Overwhelms…

Several years ago, one afternoon at work, I was reading an article on The Guardian about the Arab Spring and the violent reprisals various Arab governments launched, especially in Syria. The specificity of the memory — where I was, what it was about — is striking. What followed has stayed with me. There was aContinue reading “When the World Overwhelms…”