n. the otherworldly atmosphere just before 5 a.m., when the bleary melodrama of an extremely late night becomes awkwardly conflated with the industrious fluorescence of a very early morning.
French aubade, an ode to the morning + abattoir, slaughterhouse. Pronounced "oh-bah-dwahr."
n. the amniotic tranquility of being indoors during a thunderstorm.
Latin chrysalis, the pupa of a butterfly. Pronounced "kris-uh-liz-uhm."
adj. feeling grateful to be stranded in a place where you can't do much of anything-sitting for hours at an airport gate, the sleeper car of a train, or the backseat of a van on a long road trip-which temporarily alleviates the burden of being able to do anything at any time and frees up your brain to do whatever it wants to do, even if it's just to flicker your eyes across the passing landscape.
From Idlewild, the original name of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.
adj. feeling a sense of loss upon finishing a good book, sensing the weight of the back cover locking away the lives of characters you've gotten to know so well.
From looseleaf, a removable sheet of paper + left, departed.
n. the feeling of returning from an immersive trip only to notice it fading rapidly from your awareness, as if your brain had automatically assumed it was all just a dream and already went to work scrubbing it from your memory.
German rückkehren, coming back + Unruhe, restlessness. Compare Zugunruhe, "migration restlessness," the fidgety behavior observed in birds approaching migration. Pronounced "rook-kair-oon-roo-uh."
n. the moment you wake up from an immersive dream and have to abruptly recalibrate to the real world-unquitting your job, falling right back out of love, reburying your lost loved ones.
In American football, the drop kick is when a player drops the ball and kicks it as it bounces off the ground, used as a method of restarting play.