I've been hanging out in Brooklyn for a lot of this week. My apologies if I didn't get in touch with you, I didn't get in touch with anyone except my friends who were getting married [the occasion for this trip] and my friends who had a baby on the 28th, the excuse for staying longer. My friends who had a baby also had friends who were out of town (yes, in the Hamptons) leaving their house empty and free for all the baby well-wishers to camp out in, leaving the parents a little more free to sit around in their underwear for more of the day. This suited me perfectly and I also got to meet my friend's Mom.

As another result, I've also spent an incredible amount of time alone, though I'm not sure if you're ever alone when you've got the Internet and books about bees to keep you company. I got out to see the fireworks, and to deliver some sidewalk chalk to the new big sister and play hopscotch, and to take my car to a mechanic to see why it seemed to be having brake fluid issues (uncertain, but it only cost me $25 to have someone look it over and assure me that there was nothing obvious wrong with my car). I got caught in a massive rainstorm. I wrote a few postcards. I listened to that thing my voice does when I haven't been talking to people in a long time, when I've been relatively relaxed and well-rested. There's an absence of something, bite, edge, attack, I don't know. It seems like it's a good way to start a long drive, a long drive home.