I’ve done a bunch of unusual stuff but the most memorable thing was that I talked to a woman at the playground. It was a very normal, easy conversation that cost me zero effort. And guess what? The woman wasn’t an immigrant and didn’t speak a word of Spanish. She was very American. But she wasn’t from here. And that’s why it was possible to have a very normal conversation that didn’t feel like pushing a boulder up a hill. She had zero trouble understanding my accent either.

This made me sad because I’m very tired of living in this land of socially challenged folks. Nowhere else I’ve been in the country is like this. Why I had to end up here is a mystery.