Laughing Hysterically, in your Dreams

So you go ahead and break a whole host of resolutions in a single night. Herbert was wise to advise: "Drink not the third glass, which thou canst not tame, when once it is within thee." Perhaps the text message I received from the roommate at 3:28AM that says, curtly and simply - "Go to Bed" sums it up better than other words.

I think all was well as I nursed a few free Rum and Cokes at the annual firm celebration of "International Womens Day" (a scheme imagined by one of the younger females a few years ago to get some of the senior partners to buy her drinks). Curling was on, and I was ready to depart. Then two things happened. A partner who is also quite a drinking man arrived with a credit card to continue the charades. And I also just happened to look up at the television and see that ad that has been running. You may have seen it - it is beautifully simple, a pint of Guinness cascading and at the flourish it states simply: "Two weeks to go". It was then that I could see, that I knew there would be no end. And worse, continuing with the Guinness on to a new bar I swore not to re-enter in 2007, I look up and see the arrowed sign that points to Cork and states "4059 km". I don't think the barmaid believed me when I pointed to it and told her I was there last Thursday. Truth is, it's hard to believe myself.

Must get back. I'd promise a fuller report on the trip if I was confident it would be delivered. The world can be content that it was dutifully recorded in a notebook that was not lost. If I have poor luck with the digital cameras, I always seem to guard my words close. It was magical though, and I now find myself speaking in French to whoever can listen, and spending time I don't have attempting to find a May 2-4 flight à Paris. Oh, to be the constant traveler.

T.F.I. Friday, and I forget that Shakespeare has been the custom. Let me restore a bit of order with the scene that touched me most of the Tempest:

MIRANDA
Do you love me?

FERDINAND
O heaven, O earth, bear witness to this sound
And crown what I profess with kind event
If I speak true! if hollowly, invert
What best is boded me to mischief! I
Beyond all limit of what else i' the world
Do love, prize, honour you.

MIRANDA
I am a fool
To weep at what I am glad of.

Does that not capture the human condition in a line? I am a fool to weep at what I am glad of.

That, and this as well: This is the dream club.

We have 7 nights. This time next week, I've landed in Chicago. Ladies and Gentlemen, charge your glasses. It cannot, repeat cannot, be anything but...