I'm in Austin, Texas at the moment. I'm at a conference for work and haven't been at my computer much. This trip follows a week in Boston that followed a week in Brooklyn. It's been fun, but I really want to just go home and relax at this point.

I've been doing a lot of reading. I finished The Trojan War: A New History by Barry Strauss shortly after Christmas. Tore through Steve Martin's hilarious and moving The Pleasure of My Company, a gift from Elton Pruitt, a writer whose own voice has been developing quite nicely recently. Now I'm devouring Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. It's such a smart book, a 900 page biography of our 16th President and his three rivals for the Republican nomination, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, and Edward Bates. I'm 160 pages into it and I haven't been able to put it down - I'm looking forward to my 6 hour trip back to DC on Friday so I can dig into a large chunk of it.

I read some comics as well. Persepolis, finally. Sleeper Volume II and a chunk of Absolute New Frontier. I haven't picked up a monthly in over a month, mainly because I haven't made it to a comic store in a while.

I've been desperately searching for a Wii. I'm obsessed. I realize it's more the thrill of the hunt than the desire to own yet another gaming system but it's been keeping me occupied during my three weeks of living out of a suitcase.

I'm also in love with slip-on sneakers now; I'm upset I haven't caught onto this sooner. I got a pair at the New Balance Factory Store in Boston and they're my new footwear of choice. Mainly because I'm still breaking in my new shoes, they actually made my feet bleed on New Years Eve.

I have a nephew. Shamus Rowe. He's a very cute kid. I spent a lot of time at the hospital while I was in Boston hanging with Robin and her family. Almost made me want a son of my own. Than I realized I'd have to stay home all the time and that urge went away real fast. I'm going to adopt a 16 year old Dominican with a wicked pitching arm, that's my plan. Low commitment, huge pay-off.

I realized that there'd be a huge problem with an eventual child Robin and I would have. She's a Red Sox fan, I'm a Mets fan. She's a Pats fan, I'm a Jets fan. You know how some families have to deal with one parent being Jewish and one being Christian? I think this is worse. I can never let a child of mine wear a Pats shirt. Ever. Anyway, watch the kid spite of us and be a Yankees and Dolphin fan.

Speaking of the Jets - my Jets, my Jets. Heartbroken. They weren't supposed to do anything this season and the final score of last Sunday's game made it look like a blowout, like they were a big joke that just got lucky. Always next season, I guess. At least I got to see the Jets spank the Pats this year live at Foxboro from the fifty yard line, thirty-or-so rows from the field. I'll always have that memory. I one hundred bucks on that game; I don't have that anymore, though, I basically drank it away after the game.

Anyway, that's that. We're basically caught up. I'm going to go read some and then fall asleep, I have 9 hours of conference to sleep through tomorrow. I wish Team of Rivals wasn't so fat, I'd sneak it in with me.

Labels: rambling