Journal of a Sabbatical

April 4, 1999

happy Easter

Today's NATO Press Conference

The crocuses in Mom's back yard are right on schedule, all purple and white and springish. The ones under the dryer vent always come up earlier so they've already gone by. Siblings assembled within minutes of each other in the driveway.

I was a bit testy trying to hide candy while Andrea and Lizzy were already searching the living room. They tried to grab it out of my hands - umm, why would I hide it in my hands? Search was completed in record time. All candy found so none will turn up at Xmas like it did last year.

The ritual meal was consumed with ritual gusto after ritual prayers.

The ritual phone call with BiB took place as scheduled with the phone passed reverently from hand to hand so everybody got their chance to ask about that railroad in Bosnia that had to be blown up to keep the Serbs from using it to get to Montenegro, admonish BiB to get enough sleep, tell jokes, give weather reports and Red Sox predictions, and express concern about upcoming sojourn in Macedonia. Hmm, if Bobby is in Macedonia instead of Bosnia do we have to change his name to BiM?

The Easter Bunny brought plenty of pastel sidewalk chalk as usual so the ritual Hi Bob got chalked on the front walk for photo opportunities.

Andrea beat everybody at Bridge It (do they still make that? My Mom's set is about 40 years old). She is reading Fellowship of the Ring, having recently finished The Hobbit.

Lizzy and Andrea climbed the Japanese maple in the backyard and were astounded when I told them it was too small to climb when I was Lizzy's age. They wanted me to climb it now but I was afraid I'd break something - either myself or the tree.

The afternoon ended. We went home. In the words of Vikram Seth: "The months go by; the world goes on."