Time is really an illusion, but sometimes the past seems more real to me than the present, because it was lived and it is there, yet the present could be lived in so many different ways, that it seems to me more illusionary. Melba I. Juez-Perrone, in an email to me..

Just got back from the family vacation in Naples, Florida to celebrate Grammy's 86th birthday. Some other day I will attempt to describe the incredibly complicated dynamics of my family, sometimes it feels like I do more work on vacation with the family than I do while I am at work... I have over 300 emails to wade through, my friend Jamil Said invites me to Greece for his wedding in June, my old friend from Ecuador's Colegio Aleman Humboldt, Melba I. Juez-Perrone, (married in August to Jan Mueller-Szeraws of Chile) invites me to a get together in Ecuador next year!! And my furloughed airline stewardess friend , Kelly Wallace, invites me in February to Buenos Aires, Argentina for a American Airlines special package ($400 for airfare and hotel!!)...