The Snack Basket

To the 33,000 miles flown this year, the countless Biscoff cookies, even more lost baggage reports:

• I love the sound of a roller-board suitcase on an airport’s terrazzo floor.
• I have woven the words “stow” and “placard” into regular conversation.
• I won’t buy anything at the Hudson News, but I love looking.
• Absinthe ain’t got nothing on the feeling of liftoff.

This thing we call travel, that which I seem to at once romanticize and bemoan, has connected me to wonderful people and places over the year, and as the sun sets on 2009, I’m happy to have connected with each, but some deserve special mention:

• In Chicago and Tennessee, I met talented artists, creative, witty, passionate souls, Lauren Zettler, Allison Weiss, Cameron Mizell. In that way that great music can, I’m finding their rhymes and melodies a soothing narration to the chaos around me, wondering where I was before I heard the strains of their guitars.
• In Cincinnati, I met St. Vincent and ate Gold Star Chili. One was beautiful and one was disgusting. I’ll let you figure out which is which.
• In Oslo, I caught the sunset and watched a Swedish film with wayward travelers and kindred spirits Carla and Julio.
• In Baltimore, Clifford sent me packing with Old Bay seasoning. I keep this on my desk as a reminder that, in his words, “everything tastes better with Old Bay.”
• In Chicago, Miles, Marjie, and I chowed on serious burgers, and I watched my friend Tom lead a community out of its emotional and economic stupor.
• In Manchester in January, I was stuck in the airport wondering if I’d be admitted to grad school, bumped to a flight…18 hours later. In October, I was back to cheer on my team.
• In Naples, Florida, I canoed the backwaters with my dad, and celebrated holidays with my nephews.
• In Washington, D.C. I welcomed the new president to town, but never got a chance to remind him of our days back in Hyde Park.
• In Urbana, I spent time with my best friends, muddling through life, and the challenges it serves up to med students. Oh, and I met Neko Case.
• There was a good deal of mini-golf along the way. Never underestimate how much fun you can have with a purple ball and a fake waterfall thingy.

Thanks to all for a busy, if not incredibly heady, 2009. Tomorrow morning the mileage clocks reset to zero, and we begin again, with a 6:15am flight. See you all soon, up in the air.