It was November 1999, in New Orleans. I had been on the road for almost a month, traveling on my own aboard Amtrak trains. I had a rail pass that allowed me to get on and off wherever I pleased. That freedom was great, but I became terribly lonely. Part of the deal was I had to make at least two stops in Canada. So, I went from New York City to Rochester to Niagara Falls and then up to Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, and Toronto. All the while reading crazy shit like Pauline Reage's <i>Story of O</i> or Henry Miller's <i>Quiet Days in Clichy</i>, meeting beautiful people, falling in love with perfect strangers a hundred times a day, discovering wonderful new places and then leaving almost as soon as some hint of a connection was made.

She had short brown hair, brown eyes, and wore a brown bomber and a blue and green checked ivy cap. Every ten minutes, we'd have to stop so she could take a picture of something.

She wrote your name down in my notebook and circled it and drew a bunch of funny pictures of cats.

Well, I wasn't able to attend Saturday's "Deep Listening" discussion at the Philoctetes Center. A plane to Mexico was missed and I wound up drinking exotic beers and helping newlyweds plan their honeymoon. Long story.

The new high gloss, high performance <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/turntables/708rega/">Rega P3-24 turntable</a> complete with TT-PSU power supply (sold as an option with standard finish P3s) is now available. The updated P3 was a big winner in our <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/features/1208poty/">Products of the Year</a> celebration, taking home awards for both <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/features/1208poty/index3.html">Analog Source of the Year</a> and <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/features/1208poty/index7.html">Budget Component of the Year</a>.