Passage of Time

I've lost twenty pounds since I moved to Atlanta.

I've shrank from a 40 inch waist to a 36 inch waist. I haven't been that small since October of 2005. I was a 34 inch waist after my ill-fated trip to Boston in March of that year, nearly two years ago.

It's been a while since I revisited that excursion. I was in grad school then--Spring Break, in a crisis. No jobs. A good thesis, but no jobs. I knew this. I was troubled.

I was not in a good frame of mind and I ended up walking thirteen miles one day, all the way from Allston to Brookline to Southie (remembering not to make eye contact), to the banks of the Charles-- zigzagging back and forth, in some dazed circle. I flagged a cabbie down right before the evening, who took me to Somerville and then to Arlington.

I slept that night on a hard wooden floorboard and then took the train to Worcester.