Carry me back
My fellow merkins, here I am back in the US and finally on a holiday after several long, slow weeks of work which left me brain-frazzled and hopeless and, as you'll have noticed, incapable of writing even the briefest of updates.
I am sitting in an air-conditioned internet place, while outside the rest of northern Virginia - Nova, as the cool kids call it - is sweltering in 30-degree breezeless sunshine. Herndon itself is a tiny one-stoplight town, just a few furniture stores, mom-and-pop places, a soda fountain, an antique shop, and a 24-hour diner where I asked what kinds of cheese they had and the waiter said, "We have both kinds - white and yellow". True.
We are staying here because Hannah's cousin had her wedding just up the road, in a big old farm estate on a little rise looking out towards the Shenadoah valley. It was a nice summer wedding, in the open air, lots of butterflies, a slightly bonkers minister who dedicated his homily to explaining some weird theory about how "God our father and mother" was a form of "conscious energy" which "infuses the atoms of matter". God only knows what he says at funerals. After the reception when the sun set we all sat around the little pool in our posh outfits watching fireflies flare under the trees and families of groundhogs snuffling around the grain silo.
Hannah and I are here for two weeks, so we have a little roadtrip planned, looping down south through wine country to Charlottesville, then over to the coast and Chesapeake Bay, and eventually heading back up for a few days in Washington DC at the end. I am super excited. I've only been here 36 hours and already I've eaten far too much; those of you who remember my fondness for American food will appreciate my giddy joy at the prospect of diner breakfasts every morning, where you pick a random item from the menu and whatever you choose they end up bringing you enough food to feed a rugby team, all of it covered in whipped butter and pancake syrup and blueberries. Sadly I haven't seen any grits yet, but I'm hoping Virginia is still far enough south to get some.
Today we went out for lunch in Middleburg, where they are very proud of an inn called the Red Fox, apparently the second-oldest tavern in the US. It is not as old as the bedside table my gran keeps her old copies of the TV Times in, but still, I must say there is a lot of beautiful colonial architecture here that is very different from anything we saw in Tennessee. They had a sidewalk sale on in town, and when I sneezed in the street three passers-by said "bless you", one of them shouting it from the other side of the road. I just love this country. When we reach DC I'm going for lunch with the woman who hired me at AFP - she's come out here and is now running our North America bureau - and I think Hannah wants me to angle for a job this side of the Atlantic. GIVE ME A CHANCE HANNAH WE'VE BARELY SETTLED IN PARIS.
Here's hoping all of you have a summer break to enjoy or look forward to too.