I’m on spring break now. My classes have adjourned for a week, so like all the college students, I’m off to Florida for a few days. Truth is I don’t much like Florida; I’m going to visit my sister-in-law. We have spent a lot of time on the phone since my brother died, and I want to spend some face time with her. I’ve had four sisters-in-law; she is the only one I’ve had a real relationship with. So we’ll spend lots of time talking, we’ll go to visit one of my cousins and some friends of mine from high school, and I will not come back with a suntan.

I spend a lot of time thinking about traveling. I have been fortunate to be able to go to most of the United States, Western Europe, parts of Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Egypt and Israel. I would love to go back to China and Japan, particularly after taking my Japanese art class. I think about it and talk about it. Somehow, I can’t bring myself to make actual travel plans. Even this trip to Florida seems problematic. I was able to make the arrangements, but I wasn’t able to think about packing until about an hour ago. I think my brain and my body are not working together on this.