Skipping Town

So, we’re still in California. Our best-laid plans were derailed on Friday, when our certainty that returning East was the right thing to do soon gave way to an equally firm decision that staying in California for a few more weeks was best. It came down to the idea of the simple solution being the best. Leaving today meant several flights (CA—FL—NYC), a flight back to CA for Andrew, several days of me and Lucia alone, my parents coming up for a weekend, an entire week alone, another cross-country flight for Andrew for the weekend, and possibly yet one more week alone. It just seemed…complex. Staying here involves just doing what we’ve been doing, with a flight back to NYC in mid-December. We can all stay together. Andrew has to be here for now, and so Lucia and I will be here too. Though we’re very sad to be missing Thanksgiving in Jacksonville, truth be told, it feels fine to be staying on. We’re going to buy some more clothes and toys. We’ll join Beth and Nate in Napa for Thanksgivin...

For anyone who hasn’t read Revolutionary Road , the story goes something like this: two bright young people, Frank and April, meet and fall in love in New York City; an accidental pregnancy sends them to the suburbs and traps Frank in a corporate job he scorns. As the years slip away and their seemingly destined great achievements remain out of reach, they decide to take matters into their own hands and move to Paris, where Frank can “find himself” while April supports him. Their planning rejuvenates them, but it ultimately goes awry because of yet another unplanned pregnancy. Frank is secretly relieved; April is devastated. Her death at the end is a tricky blend of accident and suicide. This bare-bones summary ignores pretty much everything that makes this book so brutally amazing: The self-consciousness of every word the Wheelers speak. The secret pride Frank feels in his work, which he is forced to continuously deny through bitter irony and distain lest he be just like everyone else...

Our trip to Japan is coming up in just 8 weeks. There’s still lots of time to make plans, etc., but it’s also time to start figuring out just how we’re going to structure this trip, start booking hotels and train tickets, and basically start getting our trip in order. I don’t think Japan is the place to make plans on the fly, calling hotels from the side of the road as we decide at the last minute what town to stay in overnight. This was easy enough to do in Spain, with Andrew’s language skills; not so easy, I’d imagine, in Japan. Along with studying guidebooks, we’ve begun reading books that are either set in Japan or written by Japanese authors. David Sedaris’s new book, If You Are Engulfed in Flames , was a good place to start—much of his quitting-smoking section takes place in Japan. I read a couple of light mysteries set in Japan, by a writer named Sujata Massey. Yesterday I finished a memoir, Learning to Bow , by Bruce Feiler, writing about his year spent teaching in rural Japan....