Just in case you thought people being weird about food when you have them over to dinner was new

'Cole was still full of the diet question.  He now lives chiefly on rhubarb tops--they have such a "foody" taste, his son thinks.  "Dear me! Poor fellow!" Whistler told him, "it sounds as if once long, long ago he had really eaten, and still has a dim memory of what food is!"  "And spinach," Cole added, "it's fine. We eat it raw.  It's wonderful, the things it does for you!" "But what does it do for you?" Whistler asked.  And Cole began a dissertation on the juices of the stomach. . . . . As he talked Cole was eating meat and drinking wine quite heartily.  The evening was not over successful.'

-- Diary entry, June 10, 1900, of Elizabeth & Joseph Pennell
ETA:   ALSO  posted this   on my Tumblr, if you are that way inclined, for easy   Reblogging

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Packing for our drive down to Hollins University to teach for 6 weeks.  Great program: summer MFA/MA in Children's Lit!  Can't wait to get there - and cannot beliiiiiiieve how disruptive it's been to plan & pack for our absence.  We are just like that.  Probably has something to do with the fact that we live in state of constant chaos, so trying to live our regular lives and trying to get everything under control that we failed to do in the past 6 months while trying to anticipate anything we might wish we had done here or hope to get done there is a bit . . . . deep breath . . . . much.

Nonetheless, we will be in a car tonight.  I go to La Guardia to pick up the rental, which I absolutely hate doing, but I hate paying an extra $200 or so just for the chance to pick it 2 blocks from my house even more. (See?  New York isn't all Fun & Subways!) We will then pack it up, drive for a couple of hours, and then hit a roadside hotel.  This is because we are incapable of getting out of the house on a road trip before 3 or so. We've tried. It's hilarious.  And then we hit rush hour traffic, and are very demoralized.  So since we're both Night people, we thought Why not just give in?  And we wake up the next morning in a dingy hotel we can't wait to get out of, and are on the road right away!

Wish us luck.

The only thing I can't figure out is how to do Priceline when you don't really know where you'll be stopping.  Even with iPhones, it seems the 21st century penalizes for some kinds of spontaneity.