I realized that some of the highlights of my recent travels are starting to slip from memory, so I want to post a few of them here. So I won’t forget….

–arriving in NYC late-ish on a Saturday evening and surfacing for the first time (luggage in hand) from the subway stop at the corner of Times Square. What an intro to the city! And…what a way to be completely overwhelmed when one hasn’t eaten since breakfast in SoCal more than 8 hours earlier…(oh that NY pizza never tasted so good!)

–our charming hosts, Maria & Jay, and the several other fascinating European travelers that I met while staying in their charming historic home. I can’t wait to return and enjoy their hospitality again.

–the HopStop app for iPhone–getting me out of all kinds of ‘lost’ while wandering the city (thanks for the recommendation, Crystal!).

–eating Sri Lankan food (again), and realizing that I really need to learn how to cook it myself! And also finally meeting my blogfriend Erin that same night.

–sunshine in New York

–rain in New York

–overcast days in New York

–sleeping on a park bench when the jetlag hit so hard that first afternoon

–visiting the Tenement Museum, and learning about the ways that families have ‘made-do’ over many decades. Wishing I could peel away the stories of the spaces that I’ve lived in as handily as one might peel away the many layers of wallpaper and linoleum that are left behind.

—B&H Camera. Total camera porn, that.

–The New School campus–wishing I had attended a university so urban and hip (I especially enjoyed my interactions with the students that I met at the sessions there).

–being inspired by scholars who are working hard to make a difference in our broken educational system. Affirming to myself that I have my own work to do in this vein.

–sitting on sidewalk tables at night in the city, watching the traffic go by and realizing that I really could live in this place someday.

–the Lincoln tunnel crossing, twice daily.  With the Manhattan skyline view as we emerged on the New Jersey side, so pretty at any time of day.

–Giggling with a new French friend at Victoria’s Cafe, realizing that even though the ‘lounge singer’ style musical accompaniment wasn’t really our cup of tea, that it was still fun to compare the stories of our lives and realize how much we had in common (and how very rare it is for me to find someone who has a cancer experience anything akin to mine and can understand how that’s indelibly impacted my life).

–trains and planes and subways and a few long car rides.

–Fall color. New England.

–Seeing Walden Pond again.  Telling it a few stories and knowing that when I return I will have so many more important stories to share.

–Remembering Thoreau, Emerson, Hawthorne, and Louisa at Sleepy Hollow.  And Super-Sara, too.

–staying in the Forsythia Room at the Old Sea Pines on Cape Cod–my last stay there hardly seeming like two years ago, but also feeling a lifetime away.

–Eating fresh scallops in a coastal town that were so tasty, I’m almost teary-eyed just remembering them…

–sitting on the steps of a dock as the afternoon hours whiled away, watching the water levels rise and fall.  Realizing how much I’ve changed these past two years–huge, remarkable changes.  And also realizing that my past-self would not even recognize me now.

–driving up I-5 from one end of California to the other, my heart swelling with so much love for the land as the sun set over the golden hills around Fort Tejon.

–fraternizing with brilliant tech-minded scholars on the Google campus and realizing just how much I enjoy my vocation.  Knowing that I have so much to learn (i.e. coding), but that not feeling so daunted by that prospect anymore.

–celebrating a special anniversary with a fancy-pantsy steak dinner at a downtown restaurant.  Indulging.  Laughing.  Looking forward to the future.

–Singing in the car.  Yah, I do that on roadtrips and I’m awful.  And loud.

–Watching the sunrise from the window of a high-rise hotel and reflecting on everything that’s good in my life right now and knowing that life just can be that good sometimes.  It can and it is.