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on the road

oh i had the best drive yesterday, from ny to pittsburgh. at a certain point it becomes breathless mountain scapes, framing valleys and rivers in a way that made me homesick for germany. i kept telling my passenger – see but there’d be a castle there!

it should have been 8 hours all things considered, but i know when to pick it up and lay it down so we did it in 6ish. twice, the cops creeped up beside us and pulled over the person right in front of us. its all about chillin in the cut.

but there’s little i love more than my bare foot on the pedal with nothing but road before me. celeste was in the passenger seat and we put in mariah carey’s number 1s and were witnessed by many shocked and innocent pennsylvania drivers singing ‘fantasy’ at the top of our lungs. AND ‘when you believe’ with whitney made us hunger for houston.

{side note: i am developing my whitney impression now based on watching ‘being bobby brown’; laughs abound} {side note to that side note, i am secretly really proud of my ability to do an impression.}

also finally gave a real proper listen to zap mama’s album ancestry in progress – we both LOVED it! really listening to an album in a car is probably the best way to judge its freshness.

pittsburgh is a beautiful city and the host committee here are all the sweetest most earnest folks. its going to be a good week.

in sad news, i was taking a shower late last night (that’s not the sad part! holiday inn has the nicest showerheads, ya heard?) and i was deliriously tired, seeing flashing lights, etc. and i go to wash my right leg and there is a massive fist sized bruise on the back of my knee. its black around the edges and bright red in the middle and terrifying to behold. and it hurts a little bit.

i swept through my mind – when could this have happened? i fell down really quite dramatically in ft. green park the other night, but in case you ain’t know i fall down a lot. but not on that part of my body! so i have no idea where it came from. like any good hypochondriac i went to web md and it basically said i was either just clumsy or dying of a horrific blood clotting complication.

i asked hallie to come look at it and she confirmed it looks horrific, and called her twin jenny, who had a book designed for folks with no access to a dr, who said to elevate it, ice it, heat it, and wait a few days. dare i go to the sauna and offend people with this sight? sigh – everybody pray!

now i have to go do the wonderful work i am paid for and make copies for this conference – oh but quickly, my muse has surfaced and left me a testimonial 🙂 hello darling esila!

and for those keeping tabs on the presence of my mother on this blog, she read it again and had quite a lot to say, including the words: "penguins" "space invaders" and "are you blushing yet?"

we are even closer now. her name is jane, and jane rocks.