Monday

Greetings from Greensboro's Battleground Inn. Several friends have indulged in luxurious, pre-planned "lost weekends" recently, holing-up in their houses for a few days of post-holiday, post-commitment, post-overtime decompression and relaxation. That sounded so nice that I thought I would try it myself. Now, I haven't been working hard or whatever; but at the same time, I have been going between engagements and houses while hanging-out with all of my wonderful people in a tag-team way that has made me feel like I'm awake all the time and talking constantly. I've showered in twelve different bathrooms since the morning we left México, slept on many beds, two air mattresses, and three couches in four hotels, four houses, and three apartments. The experience has taken me through twelve states in two countries, sleeping-over in seven different cities. From a living room floor to a full-attic futon to my bride's plush and creaky pre- and post-pubescent four-poster. Anyway, I decided I needed a weekend break, too. So now I'm here, in one more hotel room. Benefits include being free to sleep late without guilt, watch whatever TV I want to, as late as I please, and the free wireless internet that comes with every hotel room now. Last weekend I was staying somewhere without internet, so, ironically, that very active weekend is the one lost to this Update column. My true "lost weekend" will be over Wednesday. Sunshine will have joined me from Kentucky again (and before that, Chicago*), and we will get in the car and head to Charlotte. There will be more hotel rooms and hopefully more couches and attics and that girly four-poster, before we finally head up to Washington, DC to check into our next home: a furnished, corporate extended-stay domicile with yet another bed and shower. [Cavin]