These quotes are gleaned from the scraps of paper and tiny notebooks that adorn my desk like a lesser version of “A Beautiful Mind.” There are no strings, if you were wondering. Hey look, here’s a picture. Scraps of paper on the coffee table for sorting (not pictured)

1. Buenos Aires, Ezeiza airport (EZE), 2009, security line (one Argentine to another, taking off his belt): Te juro que me compro una hebilla de cartón (I swear I’m going to buy a belt buckle made of cardboard).

2. San Francisco, SFO, two blonde girls, about 6 and 8. I had overheard the parents say that they lived in Cuzco, Peru, and this was their first trip back to SF in a while. Girl one, being led to the restroom by her mom, as dad stayed behind with the luggage. Points towards the center of the corridor and says, “Mom, what’s that?” “A moving walkway,” mom responds, and then whisks the two girls into a bathroom. I’m tempted to follow to see how they respond to the hand dryers.

3. Shared ride quote from a woman who by her voice I’d assumed was in her teens, xport within Buenos Aires to my accommodation.
“Yeah, so the hostel, is like, really great, plus I like, stayed there before, but it’s near the um bakery which so so good, but it also put like two kilos on me the last time I was here.” And then, “I’m dying to see Tron, that’s like my main goal this week. Maybe you’re not that excited about it, because I’m like 37 and I remember when it was big the first time, you know?” At this I had to turn around and see that in fact, she was a grown-up, adult woman. I hoped her run-in with the bakery turned out okay and got out of the car.

There’s probably more deep in the depths of paper scrappage and notebookage (notebookkage?), but these are some of the kinds of things you see me writing down when I pull out a tiny notebook and a pen, or my phone. I don’t know how the rest of you walk around and never anotar (write down) anything. It would make me insane.

But luckily I have these pretty unremarkable pictures I took of some really remarkable places with probably my first digital camera in around 2000. Top, Gulfoss, Iceland, Middle, near the national Mall in Washington, DC, Bottom, Jokulsarlon, Iceland. They keep me smiling, most days.