Not packed yet. Don’t even ask. March 9 is rushing at us like a freight train…
… but oh, I want to go home so badly I can just taste it. Things I’m looking forward to (work things intentionally omitted), in no particular order:
- The sight of Madison from the air, coming in for a landing. The lakes mean I can pick out landmarks all over the place, and know right down in my soul I’m coming home. DC is so horribly anonymous from aloft.
- A library system with librarians who make great graphic-novel selection decisions. Fairfax County’s collection is unbelievably lame. (Free clue: Manga is not the only game in town.)
- Vegetable-tempura rolls at Wasabi. I’ve never seen them anywhere else, and they’re ridiculously excellent. (I hope they’ll keep those “Autumn Rolls” too. Yummers. And let us not forget the asparagus rolls in spring.)
- Paul’s Books, and Avol’s/Canterbury’s, and A Room of One’s Own, and other bookstores I can actually get to.
- Michael’s Frozen Custard. Nothing more need be said.
- Ice-skating in the open air. (Once I dare to do it; I’m still scared I’ll hurt my knee again. Maybe not ’till next winter.)
- Flowering trees in spring.
- Friends. Lots of them. People I’ve missed a horrible great deal.
- Magic Mill. And Penzey’s.
- The Lake Mendota view from the SLIS Library comfy-chairs. Who needs the Terrace, I ask you?
- Sa-Bai Thong’s pad thai. And the m’hamara at King of Falafel. And the black-bean feta-avocado pizza at Ian’s. And Thai squash curry, which seems to be a Midwest thing as I can’t find it in this area and I’ve been craving it. And the fattee at LuLu’s. And anything from the little chocolate place on University Avenue. And the kebabs at Chautara. And do they still have that awesome stuffed-potato entree at the Indian place on Odana (not Maharaja, the other one)? Wow, that was amazing.
- Wildflower gardens in near-west neighborhoods.
- Maxwell Street Days, and the Art Fairs. Gosh, it’ll be nice to have those back.
- Farmer’s markets. More than insanely fresh vegetables—flowers, cheese, bakery stuff, honey (gosh, buckwheat honey again! I love that stuff), apples apples apples.
- Real cheese. Y’all easterners, you just do not get it.
- The peacocks at the zoo, and the immense tortoises, and Buckminster Badger, and the water-monsters a-thrashing about in the lake.
- A public-transit system that caters to a bit more than commuting.
Two-and-a-bit weeks to go. Must pack…
