With a Bang

I am back in California. For good. For very good. Lots of reasons for coming home, some reasons for coming home so abruptly and they were all about me. Love Eric. Love Cindy and her family. Love Virginia. Loved working at Booz Allen. And overjoyed to be home.

My last day on the East Coast was the trip to New York. Now, why didn't I do that earlier? Took the bus both ways. Very pleasant. Listened to books and podcasts on my new iPod Touch all the way there and back. I like the size of my old iPod better. It fit in my bra so I didn't have to always have pockets. This one is the size of an iPhone. My bra is not that big. Still, the books play just the same. Did I mention that I washed the old iPod the day before the trip? It was in the pocket of my pants. Damn.

Got to the theater in plenty of time. Eric, Cindy and I were meeting at the theater to see A Steady Rain. Oh my, it was wonderful. Just Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, sitting and roaming around the stage. There was minimal scenery, just a scrim behind them on which some scenes of the city were displayed. It was all about them, these two Chicago cops. So good. The British and Aussie accents were gone. Jackman turned into a clueless racist and Craig was his cop best friend. So good. One of the best parts was that Eric could understand almost every word. It's hard for him to hear most plays we've been to. Sometimes that isn't so bad. I'm glad this is the one he could hear.

Afterwards we said our final goodbyes and I went around the huge mob waiting for the stars to leave the stage door and found Tom. He forgot that our proposed meeting spot was right next to the stage door. That just added to the fun. He's so tall it was easy to see him. We had a pitcher of beer at his favorite NY bar. I'm not sure if they serve any food there. It was a perfect NY dive. Then we went to have dinner close to the bus stop and talked endlessly about The Times and the Book Awards and fun times we'd had in the past.

What a perfect day.

Then I threw my final couple of things into the car and started a four day drive. Piece of cake. Like a mantra. 66 to 81 to 40 to 15 to 210. And to my door. Still putting stuff away and cleaning. This will take a while. In the interim, I'm getting paperwork together so I can get Reg's Social Security. But that's another story.