Exit Strategy

Stalling late at night, until the last minute, not content with the last "goodbye," I hung around the soon-to-be expats making unnecessary small talk and waiting. Such acts led to male-pattern awkwardness, just filling in the empty silence with the first thing that came to my head; this time we discussed the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping. Nonsensical, incomprehensible, but that is exactly the point. This was a case that happened over a year ago and maybe because we hadn't discussed it before, maybe because there were small tidbits in the recent news, I spent ten-plus minutes wondering about kidnapping and how it happened and what its like and why. It was totally out of place, but it didn't matter. I wasn't going home yet.

Earlier in the week I had begun to operate under the auspice that I had already said goodbye, that my life must now go on as if they are already gone, and, if I happen to run into them before they actually leave, all the better for me. Two later-than-usual weeknights later and a surprise doughnut morning beyond, the time had come to officially leave for six months. And it wasn't that difficult. No offense to those two, but I see it for the moment as more like a vacation, and for the next few weeks it'll be that. After that point, the use of this communication technology we all utilize will continue to take the sting out. I think that the time will fly by, peppered on my end by random stories and name-dropping and other-continent idiosyncracies exposed, all fragments until the rest of the story comes back with them in August. Hopefully I'll be an antipodean in May and I imagine that will be here before I know it. I can't wait.

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A lot has been posted on other blogs about politics in general and current events such as the inauguration in particular. I will try to refrain from commenting much through this forum, because I dislike the sterile and ambiguous nature that is often not conducive to opinions. But occasionally I plan to link some articles I find interesting.

I agree with Peggy Noonan's appraisal of the second-inaugural and while I take issue with some of the points of this article she links, I think it puts into perspective much of rhetoric flying around. I also especially like this column by Thomas Friedman and this one also, who only writes on things he is intimately knowledgable of.

Jeff, I am able now to link and edit, etc., but only from home. There must be something wrong with my laptop at work. Thanks for the help.

That's it for now, I'll be back later.