A Glimpse, via Email

After the fair, I hopped over to Belgium, and from there hopped over to Holland. The best way to describe them is to simply copy and paste a few emails I wrote while there, and upon my return.

Bridget!
Frankfurt reminds me of some sort of space/ futuristic city that hasn't even begun to exist yet. The city was so bombed up in WW2 that they literally had to rebuild it from the ground up. So everything is supermodern and very crisp and clean. The men are of strong stock and the women all look like school headmistresses. I have a big presentation tonight to all of our territories, and then wed-fri I'm in back to back meetings at the fair. I'm loving it. Books+foreigners+great food=happy me.

Miss Christine,
Renee picked me an apple from a tree in her beautiful backyard garden, and I took a big, juicy bite as she pointed me in the direction of the park here in Schilde. The leaves are a crisp yellow-orange and the white swans are showing off for one another on the winding pond. Peace. Blue sky. I can't begin to thank you for this paradise. Renee and I sat over tea and tarts yesterday, chatting about books and the changing seasons of life, I went for a run and napped in my overly-comfortable bed, and then Macko, Eleanora (21) and Mattias (22 I think), Renee and I tasted a variety of beers, munched on walnuts from the yard, and ate a dinner fit for royalty. The two youngens then took me out to a smoky bar in Antwerpen, where we drank Stella and I waxed poetic about New York, and you. Today we're off to a professional field hockey match, and tomorrow will tour the city. What an immensely beautiful family.

My dearest Robbi,
When the work was done, I wiped my hands of the ink from my scribbling pens, brushed off my cheeks of the crusty lipstick from all the triple-cheeked kisses, and boarded a train to Belgium. I stayed with some extended family of Christine's. Nothing could have compared to the love and loveliness that they possessed. Arguably a family of angels, showering me with light that danced through their gazebo'd windows during afternoon tea, with raspberry tarts, with a curled up kitten on the ottoman in my enormous bedroom, with the fresh scent of home, with juicy steak and glass after glass of beer to taste and turn away at my leisure. I took long runs through their canopied neighborhood, the yawning lawns bright with lazy flowers, the roofs thatched and the license plates shined with care. A smoky bar, a men's field hockey game, a load of laundry, and a scarved stroll through Antwerp later, I hopped onto a train to Den Haag in Holland. I've met James twice: once in Thailand for a dinner with his best friend David (whom you know... cough... from the Sun and Moon in Chachoengsao), and then in New York, when he and David came through on a convertible road trip in search of Avett Brother's concerts. James picked me up in a high-collared black jacket. We went to a shop and ate sandwiches with no top piece of bread, and he took out his mini-laptop and explained Google Wave to me. I don't remember what we laughed really hard at, but we laughed really hard, a lot. He walked me to where the prime minister of Holland lives, and took a video of me in a brick-laden square. I thought he was snapping photos and I screamed at him, covering my face with my long hair and flicking off the camera. We fought like brother and sister. We drank two beers each, on the top of a spiral staircase in a bar in the corner of a plaza, which played "Fix You" and also Frank Sinatra. It's not important what we talked about. He walked me back to the train station, where I bought a white orchid for my Belgian family. He stood outside the train's awaiting door, and gave me three long kisses on my leftrightleft cheek, his lips grazing the corners of mine. His whiskers left a lingering smell of yesterday's aftershave on my skin, and I sat on the train, my heart in my throat and my ears, and my lungs attempted to shut down, but I wouldn't let them.

Maren,
Hi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m here, though my head is not… I’ll come by soon-I have a lil gifty for you.
Did you handle this Skeleton Creek issue already?
L