Back from Hippieville

Had a fabulous weekend -- always get a mini-high after I travel for a reading. But don't worry Mom and Dad -- it's all natural!

Spent Friday night chatting on Betsy Wheeler's front porch. Reminded me how much I want a porch and how much I adore Betsy. She has a HUGE sleigh bed. Bucknell really knows how to treat its visiting poets. But I didn't sleep in the sleigh bed, I slept downstairs in her neighbor's guest room. That was nice too.

Aaron Tieger showed me all around Ithaca and the most amazing Kinkos I'd ever been in. Glue and staplers everywhere! Not at my local Kinkos. I don't think Reston has the same DIY spirit. We use our Kinkos for printing resumes and quarterly reports.

We were at Kinkos to trim my awesome broadside Aaron made for the reading. It was the first thing I showed Chris when I got home and his response was: "You wrote a poem with 'Necropolis' in the title?" Yes. Yes I did and it is a love poem.

Karl Parker and Ivy Kleinbart came to the reading as did David Lehman (to my surprise and delight). Lots of folks showed up. Julie Phillips Brown and I were fortunate to have such a gracious audience and I think our readings went well together. I was happy to have a chance to hear her work. If you're near Ithaca, you should really consider attending Soon -- it's a lovely reading venue.

After the reading, Karl, Ivy, Theo Hummer (the other fabulous Soon Production host -- Josh and Karen were out of town) and I went to David's house to see his etchings.

They were very impressive.

As were his Manhattans and homemade sodas.

Karl talks more than me. I believe I finally met my match. He'll be at my cousin's wedding at the end of the month. I will train these next two weeks and crush Karl with my m4d conversation sk1llz. He won't make it to the cake cutting.

Spent the night at Theo's. She has a clawfoot tub. You don't see those in Reston either.

Theo and I spent the whole morning talking about you and became so caught up in your affairs we were almost late for our brunch with Aaron (where we continued talking about you).