Travels with Jessica

There was a time in my life when I was allowed to have some personal dignity. That time ended the day I went into labor and people started wandering into the delivery room and feeling me up with impunity. So Jessica and I are waiting for one of those damned D.C. subways, and it arrives,…

On our first day in D.C., I ask Jessica what she’d like to do and she immediately says she would like to see the White House, so we walk over to the concierge at our hotel and he gets out a colorful map and shows in very clear steps how to get there. “Maybe you…

We are getting on the plane to go home, our long weekend in DC over. Security is less obnoxious here than in Kansas City, and I suppose that’s because no one really expects the terrorists to head for the heartland. Jessica is being unusually attentive to me this morning. She got up when the alarm…

I am standing on a subway platform in Washington, D.C., and trying to figure out how, exactly, to get to the line I want to get to, and Jessica is vibrating with anxiety next to me. “Do you know what you’re doing?” “Does it look like I know what I’m doing?” “Are we lost?” She…

At home, Jessica sets the New York City book off to one side. “We must decide about Italy first,” she says, showing an excellent grasp of priority setting, and she opens the first book. A moment later, she announces, “There is a lot of Italy.” “Yes,” I agree. “It’s a big country. So maybe we should…