Graffiti I did not photograph.

In a bathroom stall at Smith College's Neilson Library, on the bottom of the pull-down purse shelf, someone had scrawled, "All those who ship Hermione/Snape will be crucified." Someone else had scrawled, "Are you seriously vandalizing to complain about Harry Potter?" A third person had scrawled, "Are you seriously vandalizing to complain about vandalism?"

Farther down, in an apparently unrelated development, someone had written in larger letters, "Take your pleasure seriously."

I did not have my camera with me.

Hither and thither.

I drove my car to an airport hotel, parked it and caught a few hours sleep, then boarded one of the first flights out the next morning, bound for the Southwest. Six days later, I reversed the trip with a pile of pages in my computer. I went there to see what there was to say, and I found that there's a lot.

Ledoux door, Taos.

I drove my car back from the airport, parked it in my garage and caught a few hours of sleep, then got up and finished the laundry and repacked my suitcase and drove eleven hours into the Northeast to see my friend and attend a conference. It turns out that I'm only half-attending the conference, skipping a range of formally organized things in order to attend to my own informally organized requirements, which include booking more travel. I tell myself that next year, I'll do better.

The road toward the Pueblo, Taos. 

I turn out to need so much more quiet than even I knew. 

Back to it.

As you might suspect, things have kept on happening in my world while I haven't been writing and posting images here. I returned to the U.S.; I moved into a residence hall for a year and resumed teaching; I bought a house; I moved into that house. And now, at last, I might be ready to reappear here. I've gestured in that direction before, though, so I'm going to play it by ear.

But it's starting to feel like it's time to write.

Beings and Doings.

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It was this kind of day today.

This fast quiet spring.

I can barely say all the places I've been and things I've done since February, and how much of it all has been beautiful and how much has seemed to happen at top speed, and how I've suddenly reached my penultimate full month in this latest year of life abroad.