Tying up loose ends

The funniest thing I overheard last week was the following exchange between two secondary-school-aged boys on the bus:

Boy 1:... so you know that Mamma Mia ---
Boy 2: "Not the movie, lah, the songs. They've been around a long time --- like, since the late '80s.

The most random thing today was learning via SMS that my mother was in Chinatown at the same time I was, so I called her and we met at the bus stop outside Chinatown Point. This kind of serendipitous technology-assisted encounter happens with friends all the time, but it's the first time it's happened with a parent.

The strangest feeling this past week is saying goodbye to family and friends and knowing I won't see them again for about two months --- which isn't a long time, but isn't a short one, either. I feel like the farewells ought to be either more protracted or more casual, not farewells at all. And I find myself neither sad nor un-sad.