A quick solo trip
If there is such a thing as reading too many webtoons, I may have reached it: I dreamt E was a swordmaster and his aura skill manifested as a blue mist enshrouding his blade, enhancing it with extra sharpness. When I shared the dream, he was amused by such a silly skill. It reminded him of a friend's father who was once obsessed with sharpening stones; he'd turn even the most innocuous household tools unexpectedly deadly. (Apparently his family was very annoyed with overly sharp cheese knives and the like.)
Home has been the kind of warm that leaves me sluggish and sticky 🐌, so I welcomed the rain that greeted me when I arrived in DC. It was a quick solo trip, just one night's stay. I bumbled through the immigration interview... (I don't do well with super open-ended questions. "What do you do?" I work, I sleep, I eat. What do you want to know? "Why are you here?" How does one even begin to answer this question?) Then I spent the afternoon amongst middle school students at the Lincoln Memorial. I've always liked this excerpt from Lincoln's second inaugural address:
Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other.
The flight back was full of suffering. I did not pay attention to my seat while booking or I would have avoided the last row, right next to the loud flight attendants and toilet. Unfortunately the rumble of the plane did not manage to drown out the five hours of non-stop chatter, so I learned that one of the flight attendants is a stomach sleeper and another once dated a passenger because her colleague slipped him her number. I plugged my ears with my fingers and covered my nose with my coat's collar. (I don't have a habit of carrying earbuds for flights, but will remember to do so next time.)
(A quick snap at the airport, while waiting to board. I adore this little chicken cup noodle charm. I traveled light with a 17L backpack.)
The next morning, I asked E to make me strawberries & crème pancakes1 (I bought it because the packaging is cute and pink) and he said, "This is the most violently American thing I've ever cooked." It is sweet, but I like sweet. 🍰 I also picked up a box of the ube pancake mix2 and I'm looking forward to trying this next.
