Team Saucebox Headquarters: Travels

With less than a month left here in Maine, time is moving both fast and slowly. Another week is gone by, and another, but each day I'm sitting in the house, chipping away at bits of work while the hours creep by. I once heard someone characterize academic life by saying "the days are long but the months are short." Or maybe it was weeks, or years. All true.

I headed to Philadelphia about a month ago, to find a place to live and meet my new colleagues. This is going to be my home:

Because I'm too lazy to figure out how to draw on the photo, you'll have to imagine an arrow pointing at that top window in the red building. My apartment is the top floor. It's nice, and even better, furnished. It's also walking distance to my office, which is on the Penn campus, but far enough away that I should be undisturbed by partying young folks.

The city is very walkable in general, though less so after I spent a lot of time getting lost in new boots on the first day there. I really liked it, anyway. As nice as Maine is, it felt good to be back in a city, especially at lunchtime.

Noodles! I've missed you!

Of course there's lots of historical Americana stuff, which I guess is kind of my thing, now. (At least professionally. And some of the furniture is pretty great.) In a lot of places the old and new are mixed together in cool ways, which keeps it from feeling too stuffy. At the Constitution Center building, for example:

Apparently it has something to do with sports?

The juxtaposition of the historical and the tasteless made me feel right at home. I was hoping that when I got back I could take a picture of the old-timey sign that says "Thomaston 1605" in front of the marquee of the Beverage Barn that advertises "More than 30 wines under $5!!!" but it turns out they're a little too far apart. (And the Beverage Barn is a pretty good source for wine, I have to admit.)

Another overlap: this is at Penn...

and this is down the block from us in Rockland.

Maybe the love of Robert Indiana (sorry, the Love of Robert Indiana) is just universal.

From Philly I went on to Ann Arbor. Jen and Kris's daughter (and Ben's sister) Eva was diagnosed with leukemia last fall, and I wanted to lend a hand. The situation is sad and scary, but Eva, who will be 2 in August, is still a happy, wonderful little girl.

When I arrived, Eva was recovering from a round of chemo, so she (and a parent) were stuck in the hospital. Fortunately Eva had no trouble finding fun things to do.

She could even hear the ocean.

But before too long, Eva was healthy enough to go home for a few weeks. It was great to be able to go outside, and for the whole family to be together.

Eva's just been readmitted for another--hopefully the last--round of inpatient treatment. If you want to help out, you can donate blood, and join the national bone marrow registry. Nora N-E has also been coordinating donations for take-out meals, for those of us who live too far away to drop food off in person. Contact Nora or me if you want to contribute. And send lots of positive thoughts Eva's way.

The last stop on my trip was Chicago. I didn't do such a good job of picture-taking there. But here's baby Alistair!

English '04 has been doing an excellent job of reproducing this spring. Good job, Tom and Elizabeth and Abigail (and Jeff, honorary cohort member). Sadly, I left town just before baby Lucius arrived, but I am going to steal a photo of him anyway.

This reduces me to blubbering idiocy. In a good way.

There really is no good segue from that...but on my last night there, I had a fabulous dinner with Annie and Grant. That night, Chicago was really showing off.