Re-adjusting more slowly than normal to life in Minnesota

A photo of the deserted carriage of a train near the end of the line of a Central Line train bound for Epping outside London.

Ever return from a trip and feel you'd left yourself behind? I go to Europe every summer, but this year, even more than usual, I am having a bit of trouble re-adjusting to my "normal" life here in America. Maybe it has something to do with the events in London in recent weeks, or the fact that I felt more at home in Europe this summer than perhaps ever before. But I have found myself reluctant to re-emerge into the Minneapolis arts and music scene, though I have taken to paying close attention to the media again. Friends have left voice mails wondering if I'm even home yet.

I am back. And tonight I even plan to go out, to the Varsity Theater to see the stellar Idle Hands / Martin Devaney / Friends Like These / Annie Rossi / Robotboy lineup. Then maybe even a party afterwards. And of course the Mark Mallman 7 night marathon starts Sunday at the Hexagon, and howwasheshow has plans to cover as much of it as possible (details soon.)

Anyone lucky (or unlucky) enough to have seen me in the past week and a half at the two times I emerged from my house (briefly after the Peavey Plaza Polara show, and briefly at the Bastille Day Block Party at Barbette) may have noted I'm not quite my usual sociable self yet. But I am hoping this is a temporary affliction, and that howwastheshow will be back full force soon.