Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote about my worries pertaining to my first transnational trip. I’ve come a long way since then. Some forms of mass transportation still frighten me. I worry about ever having to ride a train on my own, for example, because what if I miss my stop and have to do the whole circuit again and then am so embarrassed and feeling provincial enough that in my ducking and hiding away, I miss my stop again on the next circuit and eventually, I wind up riding for six or eight hours that I don’t have enough cash to pay for and I have to take a job as a ticket-puncher on the train to work off my debt and this exascerbates my feelings of stupidity and provinciality and I’m afraid to go back to my office when I finally work off my debt because after all I’ve missed most of a day of work doing something pretty dumb and so, well, that’s why I’m not taking the train into San Francisco any time soon.

But air travel I’ve pretty much got down pat by now.