Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

Did you hear about the newly opened American Writers Museum ?! I am super excited to go check this place out! I like their mission statement, short and sweet: "The mission of the American Writers Museum is to engage the public in celebrating American writers and exploring their influence on our history, our identity, our culture, and our daily lives." So, who's coming with me?! 

Excited for my crazy, busy weekend that includes meals shared: dinner with my old high school teacher and his wife; brunch with an old college friend; a party at my bestie L's. A whirlwind weekend. I'm sure my head will be spinning when I get back to Sticks on Sunday, but I am so excited for the weekend away! 5pm can't get here fast enough! Getting ready to get away makes me think of this song; I love this cover, and I love the Beatles original too. The Beatles: Two of Us cover Aimee Mann, Michael Penn

Not to the wild west. The midwest. The place of my birth. The mindset which still steers the way I think. Home, not so home anymore. Every time I go home I can't help but feel a little like Jane Austen's Fanny Price in Mansfield Park , sans the Sir Thomas-sending-me-away part. I leave behind a place of comfort and familiarity for the place from whence I came, but which increasingly holds little connection, save familial. I was thinking about this today as I walked home from lunch and enjoyed the cool air on my skin; the cloudy, foreboding sky promising rain; the smell of the apples--fallen from the trees and crushed under foot. I was thinking too that today is a perfect day for a roadtrip. I leave this afternoon, making the 10.5 hour drive to Michigan. To family. To dearest friends. I only wish that, like Fanny Price, I could make my trip in a carriage. Let somebody else do the driving.

Written on Wednesday 10/15 Days like today remind of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. TSO arrived last night, flying in from Lopez Island, WA. After a late dinner and a movie we went to bed; me like a kid trying to sleep the night before going to Disney World. I never sleep well the night before I set off on a road trip. I am always too excited. So, it was a very sleepy me that climbed out of bed this morning at 4:30am to get ready. And a still sleepy me who climbed behind the wheel as TSO and I left for Pennsylvania at 5:30am. Today was a glorious day to take in the fall colors as TSO and I headed southeast from MI, through Ohio into Pennsylvania. It was also one of those especially contemplative days for me as I thought back to a year ago today when Dad died, especially as that day too marked a long and weary roadtrip home to Michigan to begin all the drudgery of planning a funeral. We traveled from flat Michigan, beginning with more chill music—to introduce we weary wa...