london calling.

"sorry, i've got to run, but i'll email you and we can arrange a meeting. when are you leaving?" someone said to me today. "i'm not leaving...i'm here to stay..." i said calmly. "you're here to stay!?" his response was hardly as calm. "you are not going anywhere? you!? i can't believe it!" as he said that, all his credit cards fell out of the wallet he had just taken out to pay for lunch."i'm here to stay" i said again, reassuringly. who knew these four words had the ability to make plastic go boom. well, actually, after a day of thinking about it, i realize i did. if itunes could come up with some "top played words" for each person's vocabulary then my top two would be "i'm leaving." i can't wait for you to order that book for me, i'm leaving...can't you have that dry-cleaned any sooner? - i'm leaving...and my all-time favorite: i can't fall in love with you, i'm leaving..."since i was three, i've been leaving. leaving for the weekend, for the summer, for the year, for-maybe-ever...no, not forever, i doubt any place will have the pleasure of my eternal presence...but lets say, for minute eternities, small forevers, forevers-until-i-change-my-mind. when i was younger, my parents would buy my plane tickets months in advance, and no matter what happened between the date of purchase and the date of travel, we stuck to it. itineraries were set in stone and it was a cardinal sin (if not a painful one) to attempt to change them. but the more i traveled, and the older i got, i realized sometimes it may be worth that $50 change to hang around for just a moment longer...to get that book, pick-up your dry-cleaning, or...fall in love...just as you may want to change it to earlier if you fall out of it...so if my top played words are "i'm leaving," the ones of those who know me are "when are you coming back?" needless to say, the runner-up in my list is "i don't know." and yet, for the first time in my life today i inserted a little "not" in between my bread and my butter. i'm not leaving. ha! boom! stop trying to figure me out and pick those credit cards up.

yes. dear london, our love is here to stay. how long for? forever until i change my mind.