conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the first three paragraphs for a story with the title 'Without Reservations'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Without Reservations
  This work was originally published in hardcover by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, in 2000.
  I write this sitting in my cozy kitchen on a wintry morning, my old cat dozing beside me on the warm, hissing radiator. An ice storm passed through Baltimore last night, and I can hear the evergreen trees outside my window creaking under the weight of their glazed branches.
  This morning I got out a box containing some reminders of where that decision took me. Although I've been searching for a particular item, it's fun seeing whatever turns up.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Add another sentence about Six, I'd, decided, fashioned.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Without Reservations
  This work was originally published in hardcover by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, in 2000. 
  I write this sitting in my cozy kitchen on a wintry morning, my old cat dozing beside me on the warm, hissing radiator. An ice storm passed through Baltimore last night, and I can hear the evergreen trees outside my window creaking under the weight of their glazed branches. Six years ago, on a winter's day not unlike this one, I sat at the same table and made a decision that, for me, was quite daring: I decided to take a chance and temporarily jump ship, so to speak, from the life I'd fashioned for myself. 
  This morning I got out a box containing some reminders of where that decision took me. Although I've been searching for a particular item, it's fun seeing whatever turns up.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me three more paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Just before saying good-bye, Jean mentioned a party her hosts were giving the following weekend. She asked if I'd like to come.
  My trip to the Freud Museum had left me with a strong urge to visit our old house near Sloane Square, the place where I'd lived as a young wife and mother. So after breakfast the next morning, I set out on a pilgrimage. As I walked toward the row of houses on Sloane Gardens, I imagined my husband and elder son as they were twenty-five years ago: a studious-looking man, slender and blue-eyed, with the high forehead of an intellectual, and a blond, blue-eyed two-year-old, running from one end of the square to the other, chasing pigeons.
  If I looked hard enough I could see, off to the side, a dark-haired woman in a pink silk coat buying flowers—big bunches of pale apricot roses—from the vendor in front of the Underground stop. It was my mother. She'd made it a habit, while in London, to fill up her apartment and ours with fresh flowers.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the last four paragraphs.. End with the sentence ' The real adjustment upon returning was learning to meet again the responsibilities of a demanding job.'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: One of the best things is that it's easier to meet people. Part of that has to do with the need to reach out more when you're a solo traveler; otherwise, you'll be spending most of your time alone. And part of it has to do with the willingness of locals and those not traveling alone to reach out to you. Sometimes they'll reach out because they're interested in what you're doing alone in some small hill town in Italy, and sometimes it's out of pity. Also, people traveling as couples or in groups sometimes get bored with one another and like to meet outsiders who bring a breath of fresh air to their travels.
  Well, it happened at lunch one day. I knew from previous visits to London that a wonderful shop on Sloane Street—the General Trading Company—had a small lunchroom in its basement. I'd eaten there and the food was quite good. But the thing that drew me there was I knew that they often placed singles—who were agreeable—at a table together. It was there that I met an Englishwoman down from Scotland to visit her daughter. We really clicked, and through her I met two other women, one from London, the other from Kent. Over the course of my month in London we did many things together and, I believe, formed a bond. Now, I don't know if this could happen if one were in a city for two days or a week, but on the other hand, anyone who's traveled—particularly alone—knows that friendships formed on the road can be quite intense. Whether they last beyond the trip is another matter.
  So many things, it's hard to pin down the most important. Probably, though—in addition to learning to listen more and talk less—I learned that to be a truly independent person, you must first allow yourself to be dependent. If you're going to travel alone, you have to allow other people to help you. This has always been hard for me. I like to think of myself as an "independent" woman, someone who can get the job done without help. But when you don't speak the language or if you get sick while traveling, you don't have your usual fail-safe system to fall back on. You have to trust that other people will want to help you. And they usually do! When I was ill in London, my new friends took care of me in a way that I would never have allowed at home. But I had no choice. It was a very important lesson—and a very belated one—in my development. And, I am happy to say, it has lasted beyond this trip.
  At first it was very hard to readjust to the rigidity of "normal" life. Not so much with my family; my grown sons were both living away from home, pursuing graduate degrees, one in law, the other in physics. Still, having said that, I do believe that my "sabbatical" did change the way in which my sons and I related. I could be imagining this, but it seemed as though we all respected each other even more than we had before. Our lives had separated a little bit during that year, and it was as though we had each learned how to see one another standing whole, as individuals. The real adjustment upon returning was learning to meet again the responsibilities of a demanding job.