I alway have Paris

Another month has passed and just how have I been spending it? Working, mainly. Working and recovering from work and then working again. Everyone keeps asking me where I'm going to next and honestly, I don't know.

Then I got this whirlwind assignment to Paris, which I could not say no to (say no to Paris?). Anyway, I had a lovely time, spent 24 hours hitting the streets and roaming about the most lovely urban space on the planet. Then I got stuck, for a LONG time. I dealt with three canceled flights and lots of bad airline inefficiency and all the rest of it--in the end, I coped by going back into the city for a few more hours and sitting in one of my favorite little corner parks in the 14th arrondissement.

So here I am, on a park bench, making excuses and just talking at the camera, explaining to all these imaginary readers how I'm sitting on a park bench in Paris, althought it looks as I could have been filming anywhere.

In the end I made it home, just in time to deliver my big lecture on Antarctica at the Smithsonian. It was a great crowd with lots of friends, old and new. Still, today, the day after, I'm still savoring the aftertaste of my too-short, too-crazy weekend in Paris.