This morning I was flipping through old notebooks as part of a writing exercise, and came across this snippet of dialogue:

-Where has she moved to?
-Guatemala.
-Oh, what a pity. I mean, good for her, but I’ll miss seeing her around. But I’m not sure that’s safe?
-Oh, I think where she is is pretty okay. Right by the lake. And besides, what’s safe nowadays?
-I know! My friends say, as I plan my trips, do you want to travel? At a time like this? And I say, I’m probably safer in Italy than I am here in the states—
-Isn’t that true.
-What with these terror alerts.

I probably overheard this exchange at a coffee shop. The dates on the surrounding pages suggest that it was sometime in February, 2002.

What an unsettling decade it’s been.