"God, I hate traveling." Chloe sighed and bit the end of her index finger. "I hate arriving even more--I get real arrival angst. After I've been away for a while, I always think something terrible has happened: all my friends have come together and decided they hate me or my cacti have died."

"You keep cacti?"

"Several. I went through a cactus phase a while back. Phallic, I know, but I spent a winter in Arizona and sort of got fascinated by them. Do you have any interesting plants?"

"Only an aspidistra, but I do regularly think all my friends might hate me."

--Alain de Botton, On Love