In two days I am off to Seattle to see Tessie graduate with her Masters degree. This is astonishing to me, as it seems only two weeks ago she was a shy little thing hiding behind her mother's skirts when being introduced. I'm so proud of her. She's dealt with the loss of her mother to cancer and the trauma of being basically kidnapped up to Washington state. She lost her grandfather and the love of her aunt and yet leapt over all these hurdles to become her own self, smart, sensible, confident and (seemingly) at peace. She's forgiven me for my lapses and will be welcoming me to her home on Wednesday night. And I can hardly wait.

I'm taking the train up on Tuesday night, and am looking forward to a day of reading and rest while seeing the gorgeous landscape whizzing by on the trip. Thursday is also my name day - the anniversary of the death of Saint Kevin. Doubtless I will celebrate that in some sense once Tessie's celebrations are

She once found a handwritten note, inside of a shoe

sitting in a box in an antique shop 

 smudged blue ink,  written in a language she did not know 

She threw away the shoe, but kept the note for years,  until finally 

Curosity led her to a library, who sent her to a translator 

The first person deferred,  recommending a retired college

It has been over two months since I came back to the United States, and if you are wondering how long it took between my plane touching down, and casing a Dollar Tree for ironic Young Adult novels, the answer is about 30 hours. Having a never-ending supply of free-to-cheap books is one of the highlights of being back.

Speaking of timelines: 12 years ago, while writing about a Nancy Drew book, I mentioned that the series was 82 years old. Meaning it is currently 94