I wasn't kidding when I said this was going to be an interesting trip.

Nothing horrible happened. It actually came down to the DOING part!

I had not wanted to waste a day. So, I figured, just do it -ala Reebok style.

So get up early, go to the damn city, teach the little buggers, who, by the way, are all thirty and forty year olds, hop back on the train after going up and down the steep stairways half a dozen times with the luggage, take the train to Jersey, fight for space on the air train.

I started in the day in a frenzy because for the first time in my traveling history, which is quite extensive, I was not allowed to check in on line.

Your documents must be verified by the authorities.

I guess being born an Italian Catholic created the ensuring hysteria. Surely this must happen everyday!

And, yea, when I got to the airport, they just ran my passport through a machine and voila'.

Then all I had to do was get to the gate. Any one out there know gate 133 at Liberty International Airport?

It is in ALASKA AND YOU CAN SEE RUSSIA, that's how far the thing is from the rest of the airport!

Yet, it was by far the most peaceful and comfortable flight I have ever had.

I lugged that carry on all day which was filled with pajamas and a couple of sundry things. When my beloved, picked up my bag she mocked me for my complaints because according to her brute- strength it was weightless.

So, here I am instead of my neighbor's barking dog I am looking at tiny baby lambs across the street on the hill.

Not a bad exchange.

I am with Wolf who did up homemade lentil and dumpling soup for me-all from scratch!

And did other tasty things too!

together again

We have probably spent many lifetimes together.

We both agree on old Russia and Colonial times.

So here we are back together again.

We are both rather mouthy and quite bossy: Cut out of the same stone in many ways and totally dissimilar in others.

She arrived on October 30. For an hour and a half we stood thirty feet apart, back to back.

When we finally greeted each other she said that there must have been some reason. "Perhaps we missed an accident, something like that."

It didn't matter.

We have been together since. We do not do much. There is the cooking, we like to cook for each other, and the cleaning, she likes it, I don't.

Then there is all the wonderful stuff like silence and holding and a smile of recognition that we are sleeping in the same bed. And, the renewal of passion that is only real when we are together.

I am always amazed that she is actually in the house with me.

When she is across the pond, I envision her doing the things I presently witness like her sneaking out of bed in the middle of the night for a smoke, petting the cats, and pacing while that wonderful brain of hers is churning.

We flow so calmly together. We fit in so many beautiful ways!

There is nothing comparable to being with her in the simple day to day.