This is what home looks like. A few dogs who are happy to see you and a cat who is demanding and would like more water and would like it now.

Outside the train station, I would not hug you goodbye. I just saw no reason for more touching after I was told I was aggressively romantic, though it wasn't my own shoulder I kissed this morning when we were tangled about. Plus, what was the point anyway. Hugging. Even the word sounds quite silly.

At the station, I had a nice chat with a kid going to somewhere in Tennessee. I felt compiled to speak with him because he had Sid tattoo on his hand and I wanted to know it was more than just a statement that he liked Sid Vicious. And, it was. It was his son's name and we bonded over that fact that we shared and when his girlfriend who looked maybe a bit junk sick asked him for some cash for  food,  I saw the look on his face after he handed her what I suspected was the last of his money,so I handed him all the cash in my wallet.

Then I had a nice chat with a man, who had amazing green eyes, about how people in the mid-west aren't as nice as people in some other places are, but how on the train most people were a bit friendlier and it was part of the reason that train travel was nice.

Outside of St. Louis, the train stopped for passengers and a nice kid wearing a hat that said "Dope" climbed abroad and asked to sit next to me, and his little sister ran besides the train waving as we went away. He was going to Dodge City for court this morning and I wondered what he had done and worried about his fate, because he seemed like a nice enough kid. He even bought me a bottle of water since I had given all my cash to that traveling couple and was thirsty. The kindness of strangers.

When the train had stopped again for passengers and there was enough time to smoke and my phone rang. It was the dean calling me in for an interview for a full time job that is just one semester. If I were to get it, I could move to Nashville after the New Year. Either way, I'm going. And, I'm going soon.

In KC, there was a smart couple overdressed in vintage. The man in a suit and the lady in a dress that wasn't vintage (the zipper gave it away) and gloves. Even their bags were period pieces.  I was wondering how they would travel all the way to California so over dressed, but they had a sleeper car.

The kids were late getting me, and as I sat at the train station watching the beast of the train pull away, a conductor yelled at me over the sound of train, "Did they forget ya?"

And, suddenly the trip was over. And, everything was back to normal.

No confessions tonight. I'm sleepy and not sad and I think I'll enjoy that for a moment.