Today, after a hard day of Ph.D. work, I strapped Max into the baby Bjoern and walked to the local stripmall. It was a perfect fall day. It was even warm. I kept thinking about what Kurt Vunnegut had said at a reading I saw him at a few years ago (actually, it was on the day I turned 30, so I remember the day vividly). He was talking about the "writers process" and how stepping out into the world say, to the post office or the Office max, and mingling with the rest of the world is just as important as sitting down to write. Anyway, thinking about what Vonnegut said made me feel quite "literary" on my errands (just as cooking sometimes makes me feel the same after having washed lettuce with Galaway Kinnell -- but that's another story).