"I'm stuck." "Let go."

Heading out this morning to my friend Jim's parents' house somewhere in that vague, vast area known as upstate New York. Turns out their town is not all that far from Vermont, which struck me as odd when I first saw it on a map, almost like Finland being next to Russia. That's not the way I remember it. (Cut to Alex smacking his hand against his forehead - in Brazil they actually learn where things are.)

I tried my arm trick for my nieces at the playground yesterday. I got almost the whole way through until the last sort of untangling. I stood there with pretzel arms saying, "I'm stuck, I'm stuck." My nieces looked at me laughing. Finally the younger one shouted, "Let go" and I did. Tell people you can't meet at 5:30. Put a couch in the middle of the daycare so the kids can't sprint across the room.