Always the first to stay gone.

I have only been to six cities so this may not mean much, but right now my favourite city is Mumbai. One morning i woke up to the smell of it,; it got under my skin and into the crumby, gluey corners of my eyes, and i realised that i wouldn't be able to stay away for very long.

In Mumbai i bought a copy of a book i hadn't been able to find/buy for two or three years, Michael Chabon's 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay'. I thought i'd read it slowly and savour it but that is not going to happen. I grip the book a little too hard and have to remember to breathe.

Good news things in the family. I am happy and worried and in an unhurried, indulgent way know how awesome i will be as an aunt, when eventually i become an aunt that is.

Very out of the loop books-&-music-wise. Especially music. Crowded House and Nina Simone, that's about it. And i should start a Shakespeare paper, but i only feel like writing about Middleton. Huh.

This is going to be the first pujo away from home in very many years. And then the growing up embarrassingly late (not that, not that). And the cat, it is out of the bag, and it has left its paws behind. Or its wits. Who knows? I have a list in my head of things i want to paint. Except that they aren't things, exactly. Also embarrassing: yes, there is a playlist for the journey. Music made with instruments i can only identify half the time, if at all, so that i won't follow the words. (A perfectly serene double meaning emerged. Good?)

Things i am (probably) going to read: a biography of Charlie Chaplin, a book on travel in the ancient world, Shakespeare textual scholarship (a guy forges a bunch of plays, letters, etc. claiming them to be by Shakespeare; another guy lays the smackdown on this shameless villainy; the manuscript for the second edition for the second guy's book is owned for a time by a third guy who, you guessed it, is notorious for Shakespeare forgery. Is this not a thing of beauty?), the first twenty-six issues of the lovesome Blue Beetle III (one more time).

But not when i am away. When i am away... Painting, yes. Sleeping sound and early. Self-possession? Yes. Something still, something distilled.