Layers
I. Spring is here, revealing the layers of things lost and forgotten: paint cans, colored pencils, an empty chip container you don't remember ever buying, a small shovel, dog shit, a moldy pumpkin top--and the list goes on. The dogs are pure joy, sniffing the grass again and again. My son, too, is pure joy, speeding down a muddy, sometimes-icy sidewalk on his scooter, shouting whooooo-hooooo! II. On Wednesday I had supper with colleagues at a Mexican restaurant about halfway between my home and the site of a conference where we were presenting. After work, we'd boarded two vans and driven until we were too hungry to go on. There was a plastic donkey outside that somehow reminded me of the donkeys in Greece, and two of my friends took a silly photo of me pretending to ride it. (I didn't have any drinks--though my stomach was full and I was happy to be getting away from m regular life for 24 hours after a particularly hard month). We drove the rest of the way, deb...