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Hi all. I wager a few of you might be curious as to how things have been going out here in the west. I will be brief for now, but must share at least that all has been quite lovely, and my first Christmas away from home was nevertheless filled with a familial warmth. I find myself with, courtesy of Summer and her family, ever more media to consume (having received quite a few books, as well as a CD and DVD for Christmas). A related note: since leaving Rhode Island, I have consumed the following: Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon, Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, Checkpoint by Nicholson Baker, March of the Penguins, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, The Ringer, Cinderella Man, and I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting some. I'm now reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Further commentary on many of these is pending.

In addition to all that, the household has been marking the development of Matthew's college essays, I've gone running with Marc, this afternoon Summer and I got to meet Sarah's boyfriend Brandon, and there have been various episodes of heading into town for Christmas shopping or just to get out in the fresh air. It is nice to see green again (although the weather has been somewhat...northwestern, if you catch my drift). Tomorrow I think we're going out with some of Summer's friends. I hope to also wander in the direction of either Mt. Hood or the shore before leaving the coast this time around.

Also before I hit the hay, here are a few travel notes:
PVD-MSP: Tree folks across the aisle from me and SEA got rather sloppily drunk and arguedloudly for a while about homosexuality. I was pleased to hear people engaged in potentially meaningful discussion, though the quality was a bit sub-par. "All I'm saying is I know it's wrong for guys to like guys. Like it's wrong to kill people." "Look at me--am I attractive? AM I ATTRACTIVE? What if I liked girls? I mean I happen to like [male genitalia]--but what if I didn't?" "Well it says in the Bible..." "[Expletive] your god! You're a [expletive] bigot you closed-minded [expletive]!" "I'm not a bigot, I just don't approve of those people trying to foist their lifestyle on me or on American children..." You get the idea--charming.
MSP: It was strange not recognizing anyone in MSP after years of running into fellow Carls. It was also strange to consider that SEA and I were but double-digit miles away from folks who are dear but not usually so near to us, and that we nevertheless had no way of seeing them. Sad.
MSP-PDX: A gentleman gets upset at being told to fasten his seatbelt and move his seat back to the upright position and begins angrily waving an erect middle finger at the flight attendant while pumping his arm. After a few serious words inaudible to us, the man apologizes to those around him and the tension eases a bit--but returns on land when our baggage is delayed due to a "power outage" of the [indecipherable static from overhead speakers].

Anyway, now here we are happy and healthy and growing ever more refreshed, looking forward to more time with the Allens as well as the upcoming Washington visit, and then my triumphal march to Delaware for Christmas II. Then it's back to class. There'll be more sometime before then, but for now I hope everyone had a quite extraordinarily happy holiday and is looking forward to the new year as excitedly as I.