i can't really sing, so

I drove to Chicago and back for the AWP conference in late February through to earlier this month. Here are some notes on the states that I drove through. Pennsylvania is full of old dilapidated barns. People can actually drive in PA as long as you are not near a major city (Philly/Pittsburgh); if you are near a major city, they don't understand the "keep to the right/pass on the left" thing that makes highway driving amazing. I drove through four mountains, one back to back. I don't think I had ever driven through a mountain before.  On the road again! in PA Ohio has the best rest stops. They are clean and bright and very modern and make you feel welcome. I stayed overnight in Ohio and went through a drive-through for the first time in, like, forever? Since high school maybe? The food was actually good. Then I took a bath. That was nice. Red Roof Inn, mofos! Free wi-fi! Indiana was very windy on the way there, and not as windy on the way back. But it...

I am currently annoyed that I am awake, sitting in my room at the Red Roof Inn. If I would have known before I woke up that the radio was already pre-set to the Toldeo NPR, I would have had it on all night. Instead, I let a short iTunes mix sing me to sleep and then woke up at various occasions in a panic throughout the night. My curtain is drawn, but I'm sure it's raining. But let's back track a bit. I am AWP-bound currently, but last weekend I was in Boston. Gigantic Sequins had a 3.1 Celebration at Trident Books and Cafe on Thursday night. Four great writers whose fiction has been published in Gigantic Sequins read. I was pleased to meet Meg Cameron and Kelli Trapnell and also glad to make this celebration an opportunity to catch up with LaTanya McQueen and Olivia Kate Cerrone . Olivia closed out the night reading most of her piece in our 3.1 issue, "Dirty", leaving the audience with some closure, but curious to figure out what happens. Kelli came before...

I've driven to Boston, stayed for less than 24 hours, and driven back. I've driven home from the Bay State leaving after midnight, pulling over to sleep in front of a rest stop parking lot outside of a Starbucks, and made it on time to work at a Barnes and Noble in New Jersey by 7:30am. I've been through more states in a weekend than some people have been to in their lives. Once, I drove north for 6 hours with no radio in my car. I sang most of the time and cursed the annoyingly catchy song (by the Barenaked Ladies that they used to play at work at least once every ten minutes) that I couldn't drive from my head or remember all of the words to. But I've never done what I'm doing over the next two weeks . On Thursday, immediately following the Poetry & Drama Quiz I'm administering to my Experiencing Lit students,  I will be driving to Boston. Gigantic Sequins has an event celebrating the winter release of our 3.1 issue , featuring four great fiction wr...