This picture is actually me on a bus (not a train), somewhere between Geneva, Switzerland and Lyon, France. I was supposed to have been on a train then though. We ended up on this bus instead. Long story.
That year in France, I did a lot of what you see here: sitting against a big window, writing big ideas, wearing big scarves. I still wear big scarves and write big ideas, but I miss those big train windows a lot. It gave me the anxious adrenaline rush of going somewhere and the freedom and serenity to record all my imaginings as life passed me by at 280 km per hour. That’s something driving a car can never match.
It’s hard to find anything that gives such a combination of anticipation, freedom, and serenity. Most things will give way to one extreme and just end in stress, uncertainty, or boredom. Not a fan of any of those. I’m so used to extreme multitasking from school that large blocks of free time are seriously unnerving. When I’m in motion like that, something in me just calms and settles.
Here’s to a lot of that in just a few months.
And here’s to today:
Fat Tuesday. Shrove Tuesday. Pancake Day. Mardi Gras. Fastnacht. Whatever terminology you use for this festival of pre-Lenten indulgence, at least agree with me that the Brits are wrong, and Pancakes are breakfast, not “pudding”.
-Katie
