> > 18 hour drive between states? We have to cross Canada or lots and lots of water. Nearest is, like, an several-hour *flight.*
>
> The point being 18 hours would still be too long to go to a wedding of people I've never met in person, I think. But of course I was being completely facetious in that letter.

Ack! Don't do that unless you're more obvious about it. Remember, it's me! I'm a few bricks short of the sharpest cookie in the world, if you know what I mean.

> New York isn't tiny, though I'm sure there are more states larger than it than smaller. New Hampshire and Massachusetts are among the smallest in the union.

> You're correct that New Hampshire and Vermont (and tsk, tsk -- you should know the states by heart!) are adjacent to each other. Vermont is just west of New Hampshire, and one is shaped roughly like the other one upside down. New York is just west of Vermont (and extending further south). Massachusetts is south of New Hampshire.

Vermont is the V, right? I think I knew that. I can get them, all... or, rather, could-- in sixth grade, with all the capitals, too...but I need a map. See, when I memorized them, I had nothing to relate them to. California was where my relatives live, Utah was what I did a report on, Colorado was where my friend was from. I didn't have anything to associate most of the eastern states with. Heck, I didn't even know people there talked funny! :-) Now, Rhode Island is not only the Home of the Otherwise Minded and my favorite state to represent at staged Continental; Congresses (congri?) but Rogue's Island. New Hampshire is the home of some guys who put out this really awesome website. I don't associate them with "the little box" and "the one to the right of the one that looks like it" and so it's rather a bit hard to make the leap.

Show you to tsk in my general direction!

> From where we are in the state, we've only got about a 50 minute drive to get to Mass, and we can get to New York in two or three hours. The western end of New York would take some time to get to, but it would be quite manageable.

See, you were messing with my mind there. It's already mesed up enough. More than enough.
But I get it now, don't worry. I'm sure all [most] of the other USers to whom time has *some* meaning understood.