I did in fact arrive okay in Albi last night, and a very sweet young man behind the ticket desk at the train station called a taxi for me, and my taxi driver was a fairly sexy 40 year old Frenchman named Alain, who seemed very struck by me and told me I could sit up front. So that was fun. I was so tired (I had a regular cappuccino instead of a decaf one, and it kept me awake through my entire day of four trains), and I gave him bad instructions about how to get me home, but he was very nice about it and gave me several admiring glances, and wished me a happy birthday, so it was all good. It made the end of my very long day a little bit nicer. And then I walked in the door and burst into tears from sheer exhaustion. But then I slept about ten and a half hours, and everything was much better then.

Luckily I had left a few not extremely perishable groceries in the fridge, and I had a little bit of bread with me from Barcelona, so I was able to make do for breakfast and lunch. Everything was pretty much closed up here today because of the holiday. I spent the whole day, until about 7:30 pm, by myself. In other places, on other birthdays, that might have been lonely or sad, but for whatever reason, it was actually just fine. It was kind of nice to just drift around and not have to talk to anybody, actually. I read one of the two hideously expensive books I bought for myself at the Barcelona train station (novels in English, about 10€ each); I took a nap; I gave myself a pedicure.... it was good.

This evening I had dinner with Agnes and Laurent and Ariana and Agnes' nine year old nephew Hugo, who is visiting overnight, and then I read some birthday emails and sent out some replies, and then we went to the fireworks (and saw ten minutes of a really super ultra cheesy French and Spanish pop performance in the main plaza; thankfully Hugo was tired so we left), and now here I am! Agnes is going to take me back to her uncle's house in a bit, and hopefully I'll be able to sleep in again. I don't have any more food for breakfast tomorroz, but there's a supermarket not far, so I think I'll survive.

I'm ready to come home now. I know I'll enjoy my last week here (a couple more days in Albi, then three days in Paris), and I'm not freaking out or anything, but I'm ready to come home and be with the people I love.

Happy Bastille Day everybody!