Yesterday, I finalized a sublet in Chicago, and as if jealous, Los Angeles has become distinctly unpalatable. Traffic has started to turn against me. The weather seems less charming. Cracks appear in the dirt. A plant which I have been diligently watering for six weeks dies one morning, its leaves blackening in the sun. And the city, like a vulture throwing its baby vultures out of the nest, is kicking me out. It’s either that or the Joker. And I label a post “travel” again.

Here are other new ills that have come
just now, of evil doom,
from the blind stranger–
unless Fate is somehow at work.
For I cannot call any decision of God
a vain thing.
Time watches constantly those decisions;
Some fortunes it destroys, and others,
on the day following lifts up again.
-Chorus, OEDIPUS @ COLONUS (Sophocles)