Yesterday I actually made it into the city in order to do some research. Every time I do this, I feel like an expat returning home. It's always a little disorienting, but in a good way.

On the North Avenue bus on my way back to the el, I overheard one of the best attempts to start a conversation with a total stranger. Two guys who looked like they could not meet anywhere but on a bus or at the DMV were sitting next to each other. The slender, frail looking one was reading an enormous, well-thumbed paperback book. His muscle-bound seatmate started reading over his shoulder and said, "Wow, there's a lot of adjectives!" Believe it or not, this actually began a conversation about literature that lasted until Mr. Muscles and I both debarked at the Damen el.

Otherwise, yesterday was uneventful. Lots of dusty manuscripts and helpful librarians. A trainload of giggly girls returning from a matinee of Mamma Mia! and singing Abba songs. Husband was grumpy when I got home as AJ had been repeating everything he said for hours on end. If the government wishes to extract confessions from suspected terrorists, perhaps they should try to sic a bunch of 2-year-olds on them.

No links today. Time to get to work.

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