Brief, justified quasi-public whining

It's Columbus Day. It used to be a holiday at my company.

It's not anymore.

Upside: no traffic.

Downside: irresistible urge to run away.* Escaping would be efficient with no traffic.

This would make a good getaway car. I saw it parked in Cambridge not too long ago, walked right up, and just pretended I was a tourist taking pictures of anything a little unusual. It's conspicuous for a getaway car--but go big or go home, right?

Ah, going home. Don't mind if I do...

I feel some book recommendations coming on. If one can't actually run away or escape, a book's the next best thing--and why not a book that sort of deals with escaping or running away? It's stretching the thematic connection, but not by much: Columbus sort of ran away.

Here are a few that come to mind:
Plainsong, Kent Haruf
Away, Amy Bloom
Hotel du Lac, Anita Brookner
The Big Rock Candy Mountain, Wallace Stegner

Yeah, so. Happy Columbus Day.


*When I'd run away as a kid, it would be to the far end of the street--an unpaved part we cleverly called the "dirt road"--with my leggy best friend, who liked to lie benignly and steal my toys. I'd tie an orange and a book up in a bandanna, then string that on a big stick and sling it over my shoulder like a cartoon hobo. We'd walk down the dirt road, sit in the woods, hiss at each other to be quiet, and share the orange. I'd read. Eventually my friend would get bored and lie a little. I'd believe her--there were trolls and hobos in the woods, you'd die if you ate the seeds from the orange by accident--and we'd creep home, the urge to escape out of our systems.

I'm not sure how to apply this lesson/memory to my current situation. I blame a lack of imagination and a hissing grown-up voice telling me to be happy that I'm gainfully employed. Ah, adulthood. Upsides: now broccoli isn't creepy, NPR isn't boring, and boys aren't gross. Downsides...well, to pull from my bag of manuscript editing tricks: [3 WOLs].