Typically I update sporadically from the States but, having already lost a week to the snow, I decided to shelve writing or posting photographs until my return so that I could maximise time with people there.
Returning from holiday is always a slightly unsettling experience, captured beautifully by Dido’s Sand in my Shoes. The USA in particular leaves my head in a slightly weird space: happy to have seen my family over there and yet distressed by the gaping chasm of their absence, which naturally feels more immediate than before the holiday. This time has been particularly bad, however, and I think I know why.
Although we moved back and forth between Baton Rouge and Natchez, this was no travelling holiday. Essentially I just moved in with Jenna and her family, in a city that I know well from having lived there for several months (at least half a year in total). Rather than doing the typical holiday things we just lived together: cooked food, had friends over and mixed cocktails, watched DVDs, listened to music, watched British TV shows, looked after the kids, took them to bookstores, picked them up from school, read bedtime stories when they couldn’t sleep. Recovering from a holiday can be a little hard. Recovering from briefly living another life can be gut-wrenchingly painful. And yet, if the many-worlds interpretation is correct, I can at least take a little solace in the fact that — somewhere out there — there are other versions of ourselves who all live much, much closer. I certainly hope so.
The new camera got plenty of use and the results will be up as soon as I can get through them. I am slightly delayed by the fact I only got halfway through reading The Graveyard Book to Karleigh and need to finish it off. Unfortunately the time difference means Skype isn’t ideal, so I’m open to recommendations (both for recording and sharing).
12 January 2011 at 3:57 am
You have a webcam, right? And even better, a sweet camera. Take videos of you reading one chapter at a time, and then Jenna can play them for Karleigh in the evenings.
I think it’s an excellent plan. Also, I adore that picture of Jenna. A lot. :)
12 January 2011 at 4:02 am
Also, “Sand in my Shoes” always makes me think of you, mostly because the first time I really listened to it was after you said it described how you felt upon leaving the US. And it makes me an odd mixture of happy and sad, as I’m sure it does you.
12 January 2011 at 10:07 am
That’s broadly the plan. Unfortunately the sweet camera produces its HD clips at around 100MB a minute, so isn’t ideal for a half hour reading. The first webcam recording I did came to about 500MB, which I uploaded to my webserver, but I’m hoping people may have recommendations for more efficient recording software and/or sharing.