I was chopping vegetables beside her when she brought up a cooking show I hadn't seen. I told her that I don't have cable.
"What!" she said. "Do you live in a bubble?"
I ignored the question for a minute or two and resumed chopping. I thought of the picture I have in my bedroom, the one depicting a group of people standing atop a bubble as it floats over a rocky beach and the sun sets behind it.
"Yes," I said after a while, "I guess I do sort of live in a bubble."
