Wa-hooooooo!
Where am I?
Sometimes I wonder…
Actually, I’m in PA again. The great part about this trip is that I am able to see two of my daughters while on the road. Hung out w/ Stef last week, have been bugging Mer and her friends all weekend. The weather was cruddy yesterday, so I dragged Mer to a fabric store. I have decided it is time to get a hobby for the first time in a very long time. We fondled the fabric and contemplated cloth. I fantasized about quilting. When we went back to her dorm, she – being a practical child – handed me her pants that were in need of repair.
Being away from home so much makes you random. Random thoughts:
My computer is still in critical condition. In fact, they had to airlift it to a trauma center in Texas. The tech guy muttered something about a motherboard. My computer had a major stroke. Thank goodness I bought the warranty. If the surgery goes well and there are no complications from the anesthesia, I’ll have my baby back in my arms in two weeks.
Warranties = health insurance
Maybe I should buy a typewriter.
I want to write poetry about frustration for forty-eight hours. I want to be very, very quiet for a decade or so and let all of my words come out my fingertips. I want the perfect croissant and the perfect cup on black coffee on a street in Paris that smells like flowers. I want to go back to waking up at 3:30 am and going to bed at sunset. I want to talk to my grandparents, but they passed over long, long ago.
I wish I could be three years old for five minutes so I could have the mother of all temper tantrums on the floor of the hotel lobby.
A student at Agnes Irwin asked me which superpower I’d like to have. First thing out of my mouth? Being invisible. My inner introvert really is ready to melt down.
OK, randomness over.
Bensalem Middle Schools tomorrow, Newtown Friends School Tuesday…. driving home (no speeding ticket no speeding ticket no speeding ticket) Tuesday night. Driving to Rochester for three more days of not writing on Wednesday.
What super power do you want?
Wind-up Author Doll
A rather busy week. In fact, it’s been a blur. I am writing this from a library computer… I’m afraid if I wait too long to update, I’ll forget everything.
It’s already beginning to fade…….
Thanks to everyone who came to Moravian College Tuesday night. It was my good fortune to sit on a panel with David Lubar (one of the funniest guys on the planet) and new author (also a great guy), Paul Acampora. The highlight, of course, was hanging out with my daughter, Stef.
A couple of packed days and nights of school and library visits have followed. Today I am at the Agnes Irwin School just outside Philly. I spoke here a couple years ago, and it has been a delight coming back. When I’m done, it’s back on the road to Lancaster, PA, where tomorrow’s school awaits, as well as daughter Meredith and her friends at Millersville.
I’m still anxiously awaiting word on the condition of my computer. Maybe I should start a vigil. Oh, and there is a case of bubonic plague in Los Angeles. This is the kind of thing that freaks me out.
In honor of National Poetry Month, a quick haiku:
The bubonic plague
infecting with tendrils gray
Powerbook weeping
Not great, but it’s a start.
Happy Easter/sick computer
Happy Easter to all who celebrate!!!
(end of happy part of post)
So the good news about my computer getting sick? It didn’t happen until after my last presentation in Ohio. And it’s an Apple Powerbook, so we just drove to the store straight from the airport and the EMTs took my poor baby out of my arms, started CPR, and promised they would do their best.
More good news – all it needs is a new power port, the thingie where you plug in the electric cord. Given how many thousands and thousands of miles the computer has logged this past year, it’s amazing it lasted this far. Even more good news – I should be able to pick it up on Wednesday.
Bad news – I leave Monday for a week-long speaking tour in PA. Without my computer. Without my computer that has most of my notes and emails pertaining to this trip.
So Easter Day for me is being spent pulling together the fragments of info I have (hotel reservations, contracts, etc.) to figure out what I don’t know yet and writing lots of pleading emails on the computer I am using right now (which belongs to BH, who is busy cooking Easter dinner so I can do all of this scrambling. Yes, he is the best husband on the planet. No, you can’t have him. I have a lifelong warranty on him. Mine. Mine!)
And before you yell at me, yes, I have everything backed up. Of course I do. But there is no way to access the backed-up info because it is all Mac OS X based and BH’s computer is a Microyuck Windows-based operating system. And I couldn’t afford to buy a new Apple just to access those emails.
So I probably won’t be posting much here this week. I look forward to seeing whoever can come to the Moravian College gig on Tuesday (call their library for details). Also, I’ll be speaking at the Northeast branch of the Philly library on Wednesday night – call them for the time, too. The rest of the trip will be at schools, plus I get to hang out with daughters Stephanie and Meredith!!!!
::dances wildly across the floor, causing rabbits to flee in all directions::
I’ll be home a week from Tuesday night, leave Wednesday for Rochester.
(I can’t wait until I grow up because then I’ll be an author and I will stay home and write every day.)
But really, Happy Easter.
The SPEAK house
I’m back in Columbus, OH, where they filmed SPEAK. The librarian at Columbus School for Girls, Beth Abramovitz, generously drove me to the street where the House of Speak is so I could see it.
Ta-da! (Yeah, I think they’ve painted it.)
Thanks to the young women at CSG for being so sweet and energetic yesterday. The day flew by. But (for a change) I remembered to take some photos.
I am the one not wearing a cute plaid skirt. (I’m not sure I could ever wear a uniform… too rebellious.)
I was lucky enough to be invited to a cool Seder dinner for Passover last night, too. Many thanks to the family that opened their home and their celebration to me, and to Beth for arranging a great day and evening.
As I was being driven back to my hotel, the moon was full and fat, and the spring wind was blowing and I was exhausted, but feeling content and grateful.
I’m off to one more day of Columbus (why do so many of the big cities of Ohio start with “C”?). Home tomorrow!!