V Is for Vacant

This story made me cry tonight. Patti’s stories very often get under my skin, but this one went right inside of me.

And, unrelatedly, Blogger is speaking to me in German – I realize I have the the layout of the post page memorized to a degree, which is good, because I don’t know what on earth it’s trying to tell me. My very limited German goes about as far as “ja,” “nein,” “bitte,” “danke,” and “scheißen”. Specially that last. (Apparently “bearbeiten” means edit.)

I’m doing okay in Vienna. My hotel is gorgeous, my feet hurt, there’s lots to do, things have gone wrong, my boss is fine, my clients are sweet as anything. It’s not very different from the U.S. trips so far, actually.

But I guess I don’t have anybody to actually talk to. And being around people and having no one to talk to can be a lot more lonely than being by yourself.

The city is beautiful, though. It’s almost a stern sort of beautiful, but not in an unfriendly way. It’s deliberate and austere, even though there are some frayed edges to it, where you see the uninspired graffiti on the riverbanks or a solitary street person. I guess it really isn’t a city that is going to make you feel less lonesome.

But I do like it nonetheless. It’s lovely, and I got to walk around for a while tonight after dinner. I need to go back out, both for photos and for shopping. There is much to be done.

Unfortunately, there is much to be done for work, too, vacant though it may feel sometimes.

Now, let’s see which one of these buttons means “post.”