Since Wednesday I’ve been in Palo Alto at the Computers and Writing 2005 conference, and tomorrow I’ll be heading back to Boston. The conference has been good–I feel like I got what I came for–but now I’m ready to get back to Boston and finish this rather taxing trip.

On Friday night we had a banquet at Stanford’s Rodin Garden, and I took a particular liking to his sculpture “Spirit of Eternal Repose,” coming back two more times during the week to look at it. I guess I could identify with it–the perpetual sense of being off balance. And yet the figure doesn’t fall, which is important for me to remember, amidst all the anxiety produced by “networking” and talking to folks about the job market for the last few weeks.

I’ve been staying with Andy and Rebecca in Menlo Park, and one of the perks of this has been having a bike to use to get to Stanford every day. Today Andy and I brunched at Jony’s and then Rebecca joined us for a late afternoon hike El Corte Del Madre (to get my Redwook fix). It’s been good to catch up with both of them, and get a taste of their life here.