Toward the Rising Sun: "adieu, adieu, remember me"

Dear friends,

It is about that time. Shortly the music will stop playing and the light will surrender as night descends on Vancouver for the last time. (For me.) The next time you hear from me I'll have been eastward-bound.

Early tomorrow, about 6 o'clock, we'll be leaving here for the airport. Putter around for a while until the 8 o'clock flight. If the headwinds are all right and the organisation proficient I'll be in Toronto in under 4.5 hours. There's a too-brief stop here, a little more than an hour and a half, to get my way to the next terminal and through customs (and get myself that F visa). Then another flight, under 1.5 hours, to Newark airport. I have a ticket for a bus to Princeton which will be leaving at 8:15 (Eastern), somewhat after I arrive, so there's a bit of room here.

Then a little over an hour to Princeton, call it a twenty-five minute walk to the Graduate College complex where I'll be living -- it is not actually that long but I will have two rather heavy bags with me -- and a few minutes longer -- navigate the complex, trudge up the stairs -- those first timid steps into the hallway I'll come to know very well -- and there, on the left, third from the back: Room 2716, my 11 by 10 dwelling. Key in door. Opens. Musty air escapes. There's no light streaming through the window. I scan for a light switch -- there. The incandescent bulb lights again, but it's still dark-like, it's not the soft and familiar glow of the bulb behind and above my head right now, halo-like. Still, there's a bed; and I'll hobble to it, leaving my bags on the ground, and sit down. Take stock. The mattress is slightly too hard. I'm slightly hungry. It's not quite home. But that's all right: it will be. So I open the larger suitcase -- where are my pillows? -- that chair looks uncomfortable, and I have some work to do. The music starts playing again, an ancient baroque canon I sometimes listened to in the dark.

I bet it won't take half an hour to get the internet connection up.

I'll see you on the other side. Good night, everyone. Triumphant dreams.