December 2014

My wifi is going to run out before I can finish the titles… but here it is: ONE WEEK IN MUMBAI I head to Pinjore tomorrow. Happy New Year, y’all!

There are a lot of great things about being in a foreign country. There are the glimpses of other cultures, through food, music, clothes, etc.—and the chance to connect that such glimpses offer. There is the way that foreignness, and one’s response to it, can provide insight into the ways Read more…

Today I went in search of critically endangered birds. The Asian White-backed vulture was once the most populous raptor in the world. Now less than 1% are left… All because of what amounts to a small aspirin taken for aches and pains. Many of you who know me already know Read more…

The first thing you should know is that few people care that it is Christmas Eve, and that’s okay. The drivers honk just as loudly and as often at one another, the lines move with the same frustrating slowness and corruption (SIR NO CUTTING OKAY PLEASE), and the odds are Read more…

In other news: what the hell was I thinking?! And also: omgomgogomgogo  That’s as eloquent as I can maybe be right now. I just wrote this whole post and lost it (thanks, terrible new squarespace app!)  I’m so weak and wobbled with exhaustion, I can’t recreate it.  Some thoughts: this Read more…

Taking advantage of a few moments of free wifi to send a dispatch from the gate. My last flight lasted 11 hours, but took almost exactly 24.  It brings to mind a terrible movie AND a poem by Dylan Thomas. Don’t worry, no spoilers here.  I slept a lot on Read more…

I love coming to New York City. I love seeing my friends and gushing and chattering and sharing—and I know some of the best, kindest, most generous souls on the planet. I’m rich with these people.  I also love walking past the bright windows full of everything—you need buttons? large Read more…

I’m watching the rusty blush of Hudson valley leaf cover and brush fly past the train window. I learned decades ago that sitting backwards is supposed to minimize motion sickness—is this even true?  The russet is punctuated by straw yellow reeds, at the water’s edge, with even paler pampas-looking feathery Read more…

Over on Brainpickings (one of only a few sites I subscribe to that aren’t run by friends), there is a great post on How to be Alone. Here’s the piece that struck me the hardest. “How have we arrived, in the relatively prosperous developed world, at least, at a cultural Read more…