ok, so tonight at trc, a family that i have known since scw was in preschool were eating supper...........the daughter was in town on spring break from a private school, and when i asked if she had called her friends from the montessori and danville systems while she was home, she blushed.....no i was riding horses in indiana with my friends......she did ask about scw....and then the conversation turned to travel.....where will you go next january, now that france and most of europe is anti-american.........even italy has had protests........thankfully, i also saw madame goodwin, one of my favorite people, also at supper...she and i commiserated about the state of world affairs, and decided that we could never write off france as a destination........

on a connecting note, i came home needing a book to read, now that seabiscuit has beaten war admiral after numerous preamble chapters.......i picked up a book i have read before.......Off the Road, by Jack Hill...a memoir of mr. hill's pilgrimage to santiago de compostela......this past january, i and my fellow pilgrims crossed the route.....we knew because we saw the sign.................we did not see any actual pilgrims, probably because it wa january, and the point of the pilgrimage was to arrive just before july 25, the feast of st james.....given this global insanity, i believe that i could take a pilgrimage walk across northen spain......even though i understand little of the language, share no fondness of the food nor wine, and lack the basic fanaticism about soccer...........however, the scenery is compelling........and the heritage is intriguing...........and the potential for self-reflection is ripe.........but then, can a pilgrimage be done in week-long bytes......how many 1st-week-of- januaries would it take me to walk across northern spain? i am not catholic by any stretch of the imagination. what would i say to the priest when i got to the end? hiya, don't mind me if i skip out on communion.........i was intrigued by the books beginning....in the cloisters in nyc.....i have never been there....maybe that is my first pilgrimage....to nyc to see the cloisters re-erected so generously by jd rockefller.........would i be safer in nyc than in paris? or rome?

ah well. meanmamma continues to keep the goodmamma of the l.o. in her prayers.......prayer is about all we have these days.........