Off again, soon

I've been home for a few days now, after a wonderful, if very short, trip to Boston, and I've been busy packing in earnest again to spend a large part of the summer in Puerto Rico with my parents.

I've already mailed one box with books and another one with clothes (mostly T-shirts, etc.) and have a full bag to be checked tomorrow when my husband takes me to the airport. In my sturdy backpack, I'm also taking more books, my laptop and anything else I can think of (including a favorite mug and drinking glass!) since I'm going to be away for a while.

I'll get there tomorrow afternoon, Gw, and on Saturday my dad and I are participating in a panel on cultural and postcolonial studies at the university where all three of us (my father, mother and myself) have taught. I'm very excited to share a panel with my dad (I'm talking about teaching postcolonial studies). I hope to have pictures and a post to show you this weekend.

Meanwhile, at our small apartment by the woods we've had wonderfully warm (finally!) days and some rain, and a parade of creatures that have decided our recycling bin is their salad bar. The night before last, my husband saw a huge opposum going through the empty cans of cat and dog food, and last night we both heard the familiar clanking that notifies us of the rumaging and turned on the outside light to see a pretty good-size raccoon scurry away. My husband also had to evict three wasps from our bedroom, one each on three separate days, although they now seem to have desisted of coming in there.

After the conference, I've been enjoying the feel of truly free time (the time that you can actually decide what to do with), which has allowed me to watch TV and movies (saw "Frost/Nixon" finally) without guilt. I've also been taking naps, not because I needed them so I could get a second wind to finish my daily work (as happened almost every day during the school year), but just because I wanted to. Those 100 days of summer already seem so short.

The school year is, thankfully, well behind me and now it's time to look forward to spending time with my parents, to enjoying the perpetual warmth and colors of my tierra borincana, and to make the most of this precious time with no deadlines and nothing that absolutely needs to get accomplished right this very minute. I'm breathing a long sigh of relief.

While I look forward to being at home with my parents so I can be of help there, I will miss my husband, Magellan (playing her favorite game of The Devil's Cat in a Box), Darwin, and Geni. Other than my husband and Darwin, who I know will miss me back, I don't think Magellan and Geni will realize (or maybe even care too much) that I'm gone. Magellan's a Daddy's Girl and Geni is a blissful spirit, who's not aware of much anyway. But my husband usually gives me near-daily updates on his and their antics so at least I'll be able to keep up with all their lives from afar.