Ciao, Ciao, New York City

I'm homeward bound after the final stop of a three-week trip, which bounced from Amsterdam to Belgium, London and Manhattan.

As usual, NYC whipped past in a blur of work schmoozing and the stink of hot trash. I'll forever be grateful that my mentor Susan Tifft offered me a place to crash-land here, after my 2004 divorce. But I shuddered at the thought of joining one the world's most intense rat races at 29, especially after those last four sweet, feral years freelancing in Europe. I had absorbed too much of the "work to live" ethos to "live to work" again...

So I moved back to Seattle. And the scent of saltwater and cedars signals "home" more clearly than any channel buoy.