I am tired.

I was out for nearly eight hours today and fully half of that time was spent navigating Chicago’s El lines, many of which are undergoing confusing renovations that cause certain stations to entirely disappear and certain trains to be rerouted onto the tracks of other trains (different reroutings on different days, different reroutings for travel in different directions, and all of this announced on astonishingly densely worded little pieces of paper that are stuck up onto the ad-space inside the cars, as well as—somewhat inaudibly and not particularly comprehensively—by the train drivers). Anyway, it all turned out fine, mostly because I had my trusty Not For Tourists book with me. I never leave the house without that thing and with it in my bag I am never lost. For someone with a negative sense of direction, that is an incredibly empowering feeling (thanks again, E.!).

So as I say, I am very tired. Even though I am full of freshly made cappuccino and dal, even though I watched a neat movie this afternoon and have the entire Beatles repertoire in my head as a result (surely an energizing prospect). Perhaps it’s because in addition to walking miles and miles, I lost a hat today. I know it doesn’t seem plausible that such a thing could be making a person tired, but it was a very cute hat. It was brown and round with a pert little brim, and I put it on my knee when I got on a bus—because my knee was the perfect round-hat-holding shape—and it wasn’t until I was waiting for a train, five minutes later, that I realized it was not (strangely enough) still on my knee. And so that was emotionally exhausting.

Okay, the truth is that besides all that, it’s tiring to get emails about work on a Sunday night. Schoo!