Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder

02 Nov 2001, 8:04 a.m.

Cold and fog mark the weather this morning. Before…

Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2001 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.

Cold and fog mark the weather this morning. Before my parents drove away, I helped them wipe the condensation off the car windows with spare paper napkins from a fast-food joint. They handed the dirty, wet brown napkins to me to throw away when we were done.

Years back, when I had first moved into this apartment, I had a little ritual I performed when my parents drove away after visiting me. I would run on the sidewalk, on my side of the street, as though I were running after their car, and then when they accelerated away I stopped and I waved until they had far outdistanced me, and then I would go back to my apartment.

But today I just said goodbye and waited till the traffic slowed and crossed the street and threw away the napkins in the dumpster they emptied this morning and went back inside.