Interstitial

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In New York for a few days, and as usual, it’s sensory and emotional overload. Friends I think of every day—but see only once or twice a year—are here in the flesh. We go to amazing restaurants and wander around museums. We gossip and catch up and sit in loving companionable silence. The kids are taller, smarter.

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Outside, the wind is cold and whippy as I trace the perimeter of the park, the campus where I used to teach, the route to the Mud Truck (the best coffee in the city…or anywhere, really).

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The neighborhood has changed so much since I lived here almost ten years ago, but memories still linger on every corner. There’s simply too much to take in, and no time to contemplate any of it. Living life and making sense of it are often mutually exclusive, it seems.

Have you read that book? Have you heard this album? Have you seen this film? No, no, and no. But I file away the information for later.

We all have trips and projects and hopes lined up for the year. We speak with the uncommon optimism of a new decade. Anything is possible, just as it seemed in 2000. Someday we’ll look back on 2010 in wonder, too.

Later today I head up to my folks’ house in New England for a short visit before returning to the Midwest, my job, and everyday life. At noon it’s over to Canal Street and the Fung Wah Chinatown bus. Fifteen dollars buys, along with convenient passage to Boston, four hours of uninterrupted time to read, listen to music, or simply process everything that’s happened. That’s happening right now.

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Travel used to seem like dead time, a colossal waste. Now, though, with a highly programmed life and ten thousand things at any one time that could and should be done, I secretly treasure these interstitial hours between destinations. Nowhere else to be. No house to clean. No work stress—or, at least, nothing to be done about it. Just moving through time and space, feeling the new experiences settle, catching up with myself until the next whirlwind begins.

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9 responses to “Interstitial”

  1. LP says:

    I grew to love the stretch of road between DC and New York, for just the reasons you suggest. Many happy memories not only of spending the hours in transit contemplating, but also of playing car games with Stella and sometimes Dave. Good stuff.

  2. Tim Wager says:

    Rachel, I didn’t know you used to teach in NYC. There are many things about you I still need to learn!

    I love the Chinatown bus system. So cheap and convenient! If you miss your bus, too, there’s another one in 15 minutes.

  3. Rachel Berkowitz says:

    Oh, Tim, you are an enigma to me, as well. Maybe I need to make another trip to CA!

    While ABD I adjuncted at a lot of places, including NYU and Hunter College-CUNY. Ah, those were the days. Where were you ten years ago?

    LP, what is your favorite car game? I like the Name Game.

  4. LP says:

    As I recall, our all-time favorite on those trips, good for many hours of fun, was “Who Would You Rather Shtup?”

  5. Stella says:

    And we would have to choose between friend a or b, or c or d. LIke at the opticians, but more fascinating.

    There’s also crambo….i defy LP to describe it concisely.

  6. Tim says:

    10 years ago right now I was in Minneapolis, adjuncting at UMn. Strangely, I don’t miss a 3-3 load of composition.

    You’ll just have to come visit again, Rachel, and then we can sit down and work out our timelines.

    I like the idea of Who Would You Rather Shtup?, but I think I’d rather play it with famous people as the choices.

    Crambo *needs* an explanation.

  7. Rachel says:

    Didn’t we get a crambo explanation from Stella a while back?

    http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/2437

    Sounds fun. The English really know how to party!

  8. Tim Wager says:

    Every day provides a new world when you’ve got a memory like mine.

    What is this beverage you call “coffee”? It’s delicious!

  9. Stella says:

    Thank you for remembering Rachel!