Unfortunately, I’m back in the USA. Did you miss me?

Much to the chagrin of some of my history-buff friends and relatives, I wish I’d been able to apply for political asylum in France last week and just stay there. Paris was amazing — I drank tiny thimblefuls of the best coffee ever, trotted along the Seine holding hands with Chad, gobbled croissants and baguettes like nobody’s business, and stumbled home to the hotel wine-soaked at the end of most evenings. To say that I wished I was still there would be an understatement. Traveling home all day Thursday, we were surrounded by President Bush dubbed in several languages, the airports nearly empty. During the car ride home, the driver jovially turned to us and said, “So, you didn’t miss much. While you were gone a war broke out — that’s all.”