melodyssister

eumelia had her 30th birthday yesterday. It was a very funfilled and busy day, in which I was barely in front of a screen, unless I was actively working at something else, hence the lateness of today's post.

Yesterday began with two meetings at TAU, with MS (my co-editor of a special issue on Islamic medicine), which greatly calmed my mind as to how three people would edit a volume together, and my best friend KA; of course we didn't have enough time together, but it was good to see her. I then continued to

eumelia's place, which is very her, and we had lunch together in a very pleassant neighbourhood café. Once we got back to KS, she took the three boys to see Avengers: Age of Ultron and I did a bit of shopping. The day almost ended with a lovely family meal. It completely ended with an e-mail from Amtrak saying that the Philadelphia-Washington leg of the journey home had been cancelled. That sent me into a complete tizzy, and I spent a lot of today sorting that out (or at least thinking about it).

Let me begin, of course, by saying that I hope I am not completely selfish and my first reaction when I heard about the terrible crash on the Northeast Regional - the only Amtrak route I've ever travelled, I think - was sorrow and concern for the families of the dead and wounded. My impression, until last night, was that I might have to take a convoluted route to Philly, but from there it would be OK. Obviously, this was now not the case. Long story short (and half an hour on the phone to United in the US), we will fly back from Newark to Baltimore and ADC will collect us from there.