away

A lot of people have been writing to me saying they haven't really been following the protests in Egypt all the way through and are overwhelmed by the amount of coverage now and want an insider's view on what's going down over there - just trying to get a grasp of what this all means.

I've been busy writing and re-writing a short radio commentary that I find myself having to constantly update each day, being unsatisfied when it isn't fully present. I will publish the piece to this blog when it is finished, or maybe a longer version of it. I recorded it tonight at KPFA, but it still needs to be edited. It does not include anything from my interviews with Owen - that will probably turn into something different.

But getting off the phone with Owen in Luxor for the 3rd time now I do miss it. California is sunny and easy for the most part. I know I'm ready for this year or two in America, but I suppose I realized today that I will always be drawn out of my shell during such dynamic times, I will always want to be over there, where the world is still very much in an embryonic, mercural state. America will never keep me here for the long run, I suppose. I suppose I'll always be running off and coming back. Settling, and re-settling. For now I am happy where I am, I love the chicken coop we are building in the backyard, the garden beds ready with soil and compost to be planted with flowers, I love this bike that takes me to the radio station where I am learning to be a radio producer. I love my friends, as we beat on empty buckets and strum guitars and make up songs in my kitchen as the night comes to an end. But I know it will not hold me forever. That I will crave the foreign worlds again.

Today I worked out in the park and told my friend about how slow I've been this week. Usually I get up in the morning with nervous energy - I go for a run just to sit still. These days I am crawling to the park, I am moving slowly about the house. It is a kind of reverse PTSD, I was telling her - a post-quotidian bored disorder. In any case, it will not last forever, but this week, as I watch the events unfold in Egypt, I can't help but feel like my time in America is not permanent. That I will make it my home for a few years, but find myself abroad again in the near future.