Greetings from Albany

New York is the 9th state in which I've spent the night in the last two weeks. Tonight I'm in Albany, at the Hampton Inn, where I'm burning some hard-earned Hilton points. I had a nice time visiting Christina's writing conference. She goes to many conferences I attend -- I think both of us enjoyed turning the tables so she could share with me some of her professional life.

The Matter with Kansas

After thinking about it, Ben and I definitely stayed in Kansas in '92. We drove through Kansas to get to Colorado. We ended up at Boulder in the afternoon. In the days of 55 miles/hour speed limits, there's no way we made it all the way across Kansas to Boulder before 4 in the afternoon.

Greetings from Vermont

It just doesn't feel like a normal day if I don't drive hundreds of miles in one direction or another, so yesterday I loaded up the car and headed up to Vermont to visit Christina at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. This time, however, I dropped Teddy off at the kennel.

I got in at 7:30 last night. I was delayed somewhat by a 9/11 motorcycle ride taking place from DC to New York the same day. I hope this isn't callous, but is disrupting the nation's transportation system really the right way to commemorate September 11th? Then again, I'm not sure the wet T-shirt contest is the right way, either -- though in a strange way, maybe it is.


Anyway, after checking in to the Blue Spruce Motel, we went to the staff reading, where members of this year's conference staff, including Christina, read 4-minute selections. Christina read a selection from her novel in progress and a poem. Both were well-received.