Let's get the kvetching out of the way early, shall we?

Someday I will have to vent my whole year-long finding-a-mattress saga. Mercifully, today is not that day.

The b-school cafe I normally pop into on my way to work for something to nosh is closed this week. I have trail mix with me, but I've been wary of eating it, since I had nasty gastrointestinal problems on Sunday and Tuesday and it's the only common factor I've been able to isolate (even though this brand never caused me a lick of trouble in the past). For the past hour, I've been fighting my low blood sugar to work up the enthusiasm to visit the candy machine upstairs; I may be losing.

Before I forget, I want to thank those of your who contributed to yesterday's half-formed "culture-bearer" question. The replies gave me much to think about and I hope to work out a clearer idea of what I'm wondering about as a result. Also, if you're like cuorefelice34 and dying to know the sources (and full texts) for those quotes on love from Tuesday, I've gone back and added them to the entry. Don't ask about his_regard's contribution, though; he totally stumped me. e. was quoting Indochine; the less you know about them, the better. However, everyone here could afford to be better acquainted with The Magnetic Fields' pop masterpiece 69 Love Songs.

On the road again

Just a few minutes more and I'm off to begin the first leg of my journey south. Sis was stuck for a gift for my stepmom, so she leapt at my offer to swing by Eastern Deco and see if they have anything suitable. Fortunately, bunj and e. were good enough to swing by my place after work last night and pick up most of the crap I'm bringing so I'll have only one overstuffed bag weighing me down as I try to manoeuvre whatever I end up purchasing from north Boul. Mich. to the parking garage on Washington where we're I'm meeting them. Then it's a five-hour or so (depending on how beastly traffic is) trek down to St. Louis, where there may or may not be an air mattress waiting to receive my tired and sore frame in an underheated open basement room.

What I'm looking forward to about the trip:

1. Seeing everyone, but especially my nephews. I plan another attempt to teach AWI yut.
2. Seeing signs of spring. Daffodils may be out, possibly forsythia; dogwood in bloom would utterly delight me, but that may be too much to hope.
3. Breaking open the Veuve-Clicquot I bought for the party.
4. 10+ hours of nonstop chatting about the Templars with bunj which e. heroically resist the urge to cut short by veering off the road and plunging the car into an icy, swollen prairie river.
5. Having some good thikin' time to myself.

Speaking of trips, I'll be coming up to NYC the third weekend in April. Who wants to meet me at Newark with leis of bialies and real bagels?