Tag Archives: travel

The Travel Triangle

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This last weekend was one of the craziest I have had in a while but in so many good ways.

On Friday (after forgetting my wallet 5 miles down the road and having to go back) I finally got out of the greater Charlotte area by about noon for my drive up to Chapel Hill. Now, I knew Chapel Hill should be my first destination but since I could already tell I wasn’t going to make it to the art museum tour at 2:30 which was the first event of the weekend, I decided I’d make a detour and stop in Greensboro to trade in a huge stack of used books I’d been holding onto. I had $40 worth of trade-in credit! And I was trying not to buy random books so I went for one that was on my goodreads to read list and the rest were anthologies to investigate for possible future teaching usage. Ah Ed McKay’s you are one of the best things I miss about Greensboro (where I lived for 5 years while getting my undergrad degree)

I made it to Chapel Hill from Greensboro in good time but decided since I was still a bit early for check in but to late for the tour that I’d stop by a new bookstore I’d been hearing a lot about called Flyleaf Books. Terrific store with a HUGE reading room. Hoping to read there someday. I actually had a chance in April but it conflicted with my trip to Elizabeth City to read. Next door is this really great little restaurant called Foster’s Market that I had actually been to years ago when my friend Tara was going to school in Chapel Hill. I picked up a snack of unsweet tea and lemon square edges. Ok these were AWESOME! The lemon squares were huge so glad I just went for the edges.

Then, I finally went over to the hotel right in the heart of UNC-Chapel Hill (and yes I don’t call the school Carolina because I went to UNC-Greensboro and all of those NC schools are part of the same system. Used to drive me nuts when people would ask me, after I had told them where I got into for school – So, you couldn’t get into Carolina/Chapel Hill? I don’t know I DIDN”T APPLY CAUSE I DIDN”T WANT TO GO THERE! – ok that is a vent) which is a beautiful campus. Got checked into my room and got signed into the conference. I quickly started running into people I knew from the NC writing community. I was a guest so I was trying to meet as many people as I could which is WAY difficult for my extreme extroverted nature. I was even whisked away for dinner at this restaurant called “Top of the Hill” which is a big attraction in Chapel Hill but I lamed out and didn’t go over to chat with a friend of mine who was in the bar area because I didn’t want to impose myself on their little party. I have learned I am supposed to. Ok, learning social etiquette at 35 is hard :)

The rest of the conference was Saturday and I had a great time hanging out with a lot of writers and only over ate a bit at the terrific banquet that night. I was underdressed for the banquet but, like I said, this type of affair is new to me but as one person put it, “You’d better get used to it.” Really? I guess there is that part of me that still feels like I have no right being around these kind of events. I’m even working on an essay about it to work out my feelings of inadequacy.

I had to get up relatively early to drive over to Asheville which is back to the west in NC. I walked around downtown for a bit and had a terrific salad at a vegetarian restaurant called “The Laughing Seed” before getting in some quality shopping time at Malaprop’s bookstore where I read with two other poets. No signing afterwards as it wasn’t a buying audience but I chatted with a few of the listeners and left a few of my books for sale. The Malaprop’s staff really treated us well and I’d be happy to go back and read there again. I first heard about Malaprop’s when I was in a high school creative writing class on the other side of the state from it. So happy I had a chance to finally read there.

Sorry this is a longer post than I normally put up and there are more pictures on Facebook but just wanted to get it all down. I won’t be doing any traveling like that again for a while but it was wonderful and is getting me thinking, again, about my place as a writer in the community outside of my mind. Oh, and I made a video for you guys as I was unpacking on Sunday. Not a good quality video but it kind of makes me smile :)

Thursday Expanded Poem Share

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I was trying to decide if I could pull off a Thursday poem share without having to get out my USB drive and hunting around to post poems etc when I realized I had an old version of Paper House on this hard drive. So the poem I’m posting, for those of you who have the book, may not be the final version but wouldn’t that be fun to look at anyway!

June

The warm kiddy pool is slid out of storage. There is beer foam on your damp lips. In a cast iron pot the crabs’ claws clang. You bounce me on your knee. I’m dizzy. You laugh as my face screws up at the bitter flavor of your kiss. Each new beach float that you pull from your shopping bag smells like plastic. I sniff a hint of chlorine on the strap of my bathing suit from last year. As the pot quiets, you say. “Their shells turn red. They flake white on the inside.”

Now back to the trip recap. I last left you with my stop in Elizabeth City with old friends. That afternoon I drove back up to Chesapeake to help my aunt and her sister-in-law (my uncle’s brother and family were in town visiting too) prepare a seafood boil. Prepare to drool.

This was fantastic! It was pretty simple to do and I think we have the ability to do it with our turkey fryer but I need to check. It was also great spending time with some of my cousins and second cousins and non-blood but equally awesome family.

On Wednesday I was up pretty early even though I didn’t have a lot of specific plans for the day. I caught up some on the computer and got some reading done before I went over to Greenbrier Mall (used to be my favorite place to shop once I could drive and yes we drove an hour to go shopping) where I picked up some breakfast and got in a good walk before heading towards my grandmother’s house. On my way to grandma’s I stopped to take pictures of the Mennonite church that most of my family still attends as well as picking up some granola at Bergey’s Breadbasket (formerly Bergey’s Dairy where we used to go to get ice cream when I was visiting grandma).

My grandma is 88 years and still does so much stuff for herself! I hope I’m as spray at 88 (or heck 35). I’ve always loved coming to her house and it was great to spend some time there. She treated me to lunch back up at Bergey’s Breadbasket which had the most wonderful BBQ sandwiches. The store is now owned by different members of the Bergey family than when it was a dairy but I am, as grandma introduced me, apparently related to everyone there. One woman even said who my mother was before grandma introduced me. Yes, I look a LOT like my mother. She has such great stories to tell but one of my favorites was how she stopped liking this little boy she had a crush on when she was 6 because instead of chopping the head off of a chicken for cooking like her family did her proceeding to spin the chicken around by its next until it died. Well, yeah that’s just not the kind of story you are gonna get anywhere.

I ended up spending 4 hours with grandma but it was so worth it! This post is already at the 500 word mark again and I try not to make these travel posts, or well any posts, too long. Still love to hear poems from you guys so feel free to post links or your work in comments. I need to finish packing and prepare to head back to Elizabeth City to speak at the community college at 1 then at the bookstore at 4 before starting the trek back to Charlotte. I hope I can be half awake for Kay Ryan’s reading at CPCC tomorrow!!

Shout out for Thanksgiving

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Well, I’m back! I’m not sure how we decided to do it but somehow we ended up deciding to celebrate Thanksgiving every other year at the home of one of the siblings. It might have been after having Thanksgiving with my mom’s side of the family once? I think that might have been where the idea incubated. But, the first time we did it was back in 2003 when we started the tradition at my brother and his wife’s home in Lancaster Ohio. Then 05 was in Chicago at one of my sister’s home and then 07 I hosted so it was back to my brother’s for 09. 11 will be back in the Chicago area and then 13 will be more tricky – it will somehow involve NC or perhaps VA depending on if we celebrate at my house, wherever my other sister ends up after her husband finishes college or if we return to the Chesapeake and Elizabeth City area in general where we grew up to celebrate. If we really spread it out amongst all the siblings every two years there would be extensive travel every time for just about everyone so we are keeping it in a cycle of three for now.

For me the trip meant a 450 or so mile trek into Ohio. I made this trip once before back in 2003 and I actually traveled part of it once ot twice afterwards into Charleston, WV for work but this time I was doing it by myself so I knew there would be a lot of stopping along the way. Along the trip I left the remaining poetry books I had in my give away pile. I thought of it, after the fact, that I should have left like one of my cards for my chapbook or something but I didn’t think of that until I had left most of them at various rest stops, resturants etc along the way. Oh well, free poetry is better anyway!

Ah WV = Travel The SPREAD!

One big thing I had forgotten, for this drive up, is the tolls! Doh! Luckily, when I was buying things, I kept using large bills because I wanted to have change on me. I had forgotten while but I had exact change for all but one toll. $6 in tolls each way. Yikes! Oh well, part of the travel SURPRISE!Before I finally made it to this travel plaza, I ran into bad traffic where I-77 and I-81 split off in Wytheville, VA. I actually debated just putting a detour into my GPS (something I didn’t have the last time I made this trip!) but I just decided to suck it up and to try and enjoy the music on my iPod and the scenery.I lost about an hour. I might have made the trip in only 7 hours if it hadn’t been for that traffic! Was so glad to finally make it to my brother and his wife! We rested up for a bit, debated dinner and ended up getting take-out from Applebee’s cause no one cooks on the day before Thanksgiving right?We spent the evening playing video games, chatting, playing with my sister’s kids and at least one round of Settlers of Catan which is now our new official board game addiction. Thanksgiving Day was great. We had our turkey and fixings early which we prefer to do, so that we can spend the rest of the day just hanging out. There were more games and many cute moments with the kids

Some quotes from the kids.

The SPREAD!

Dylan: Will you pray for my face?

Jasmin: You can shoot me!

Should I explain those? Well, takes away the fun doesn’t it?

We probably stayed up a bit late on turkey day after watching Star Trek and people fall off of things in the new Mario game for the Wii but I think I functioned better with the Black Friday shopping on Friday. We got some great deals at Target and then Sam’s Club later in the day (thanks bro for letting me use your card!) and I could have spent hours in a used book store we went to over in Columbus but by 1 in the afternoon we were all exhausted so we piled back into the house for more togetherness.

At least I slept like a rock before having to get back on the road!

Love the Bridges

But get back on the road I did. I picked up White Castle for breakfast because I had missed it on the way in. My first actual eating of White Castle. Hmmm…don’t think i am sold on it or most of the fast food I ate on the trip but it was still fun to finally give it a try.

The trip back was closer to 9 hours with even more traffic and me stopping a lot because I was frankly worn out. Really stinks getting older and my ability to sit in the car for a long period of time. But at least there was no motion sickness this trip and I made it home in time to have dinner with K before we spent some quality time catching up on the DVR and just hanging out together.

We also put up our version of the Christmas tree, more pics on Facebook, but I will stop babbling now. I could babble more but I have so much I want to get done today. I am debating the amount of time I spend on the internet. Even with access, I spent a lot less time on it while I was visiting family and after I got home so I seriously want to re-evaluate my balance of real life and virtual life.
And, I really need some salad and a good long walk :)

Have a great week everyone!

Video Tuesday

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First, we have a new poem up at “Shape of a Box.”

If you want to read the text with the poem then click here.

If you just want glorious video then see below:

Next, was a condensed version of the 4-21-09 Charlotte Writers Club meeting where Dannye Romine Powell gave a great talk, reading and participated in Q & A as well as a book signing:

Thirdly, me babbling the day away in my weekly vlog: (this one was slow to load so cone back if YouTube says it isn’t available, it will be shortly

And fourthly, why not another poem since National Poetry Month is almost done:

Issue 25 of Shape of a Box is Up and Kyoto Footage!

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Issue 25 is up with two short stories!

Lise Erdrich lives in Wahpeton, ND where she works at the Circle of Nations School, an inter-tribal off-reservation Indian boarding school. The Kansas City Star just released their round-up of the years best books and Night Train made the Top 10 short fiction list. You can check it out here: http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/story/901141-p4.html and an Author interview at Coffee House Press website: http://www.coffeehousepress.org/index.asp

Also on my personal account I have uploaded my little cameras footage from the week :) Maybe when Ken and I get a chance to work with his camera we will also be able to pull his HD footage which is much better.

Footage here

Day 6 – Winding Down

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We were having the hardest time deciding what to eat last night, so I ended up walking down to the ramen shop and through broken Japanese and gestures I was able to order rice, fried chicken (really like chicken fingers but better) and gyoza (that turned out to be veggie dumplings but that is ok) which is what we had for dinner.

Ken got some good footage of this Gong show type program that was on last night.  It was hysterical.

We slept in this morning and decided to do some final shopping before trying to relax tonight so we can prepare for the long Saturday or traveling and flying.  So the next time I blog, it will be from the states. Our Saturday will end up being like 28 hours, I think, and we should get in about 7am on Sunday unless I can get an earlier flight out of San Francisco where we currently have an 8 hour layover.  We’ll also be spending a lot of time in Kansai airport cause our flight doesn’t leave until 6pm but we are out of our room at 11. Might be buying a book in the airport!

img_1739 We went back to Kyoto Station (where we catch the train for the airport tomorrow too) to base our shopping day.  It is really hard to describe just how big this station is.  I tried to take a picture to give you a rough idea but just think of a major train terminal with multiple subway lines, a bus hub, a hotel and an 11 story department store.  Can you?

We pick up some gifts in the department store but my goal of trying to find a cool shirt was just not to be.  Couldn’t find anything I really liked.  We did find another Mister Donut so we could get a 2nd donuty fix for our trip even though we went through several other pastry shops without buying things.  What is it about Mister Donut?

In one of the pastry shops in the Department store (yes there were pastries on more than one floor) I snapped a quick shot of some of the items. img_1738

Oink, Oink, pastry! We also walked back down the street to Bic camera where Ken picked up a few items before we headed over to Avanti, which was — per the guide book — a department store geared more towards young people.  And it was.  I should have taken some photos in there, but think Spencers with maybe a 5-7-9 store thrown in or Hot Topic.  And then make that like 5 or 6 different floors as well as a food court, electronics section (of course) and bookstore (alas still didn’t find any books to pick up).

We grabbed some McDonald’s for lunch cause it was already 2pm and well, we are getting back to being American right! before the long walk just to get back through Kyoto station for our train then bus back to the room.  It is just after 4 now and we are trying to relax some before, hopefully, being able to check into our flight at 6pm and then figuring out what to do for dinner.  I’m so tired of trying to decide between something on noodles or something on rice, not that there aren’t other choices if you want to walk further, catch a taxi or something else but I’ve had a Japanese food overload!

I took a LOT of pictures on my digital SLR (which is a great camera for anyone who might want it! ) but just not professional enough to be a professional (like in PHOTOGRAPHING WEDDINGS! cause of digital low light limitations unless you spend over a grand) and not small enough to be me friendly.  Think I know what I want for my next camera though, will be released soon! But I’m working on a Facebook photo album that I can share with everyone.

The only things we didn’t get to on our list of possibles were both in the same area of the Northwest of Kyoto.  For me it was the bamboo gardens and for Ken the monkey park.  They both would have required a great deal of walking and/or climbing and at least an hour travel time by bus.  By this point in the week, we just weren’t feeling it!

Album One

Album Two

Many Kyoto Days Combined

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When I last left you, Ken and I were preparing to sleep before making the long voyage to Kyoto.

It was, well, LONG!

Things were pretty easy at the airport except we had crappy seats. Well, not completely awful but we ended up on the middle and window when we wanted middle and aisle so we could get up and move around but the guy we were sitting with ended up being pretty kewl.  He was a 31 year old Canadian named Michael who was heading to Japan to teach English.

We were on the plane for close to 12 hours and, while it is survivable, the last few hours, especially are extrememly difficult. We left San Francisco around Noon on Friday 3/19 and we arrived in Japan on Saturday 3/20 at about 4 pm.

After the flight we managed to easily find the train to Kyoto station but that is where the easy part so of fell away. We tried to figure out how to get to the hotel using either rail or subway but it just wasn’t meant to be. 1 because I read a piece of our map wrong and 2 because there actually wasn’t a subway that went near. But we had a $10 taxi take us :)

By the time we finally got to our room it was almost like 7 pm if I remember correctly and dark and we were having trouble getting the key out of the lock box (we are staying in an apartment kind of place). So tired and frustrated we made it in and passed out at like 8:30.  The only other thing we did was run up to a 7-11 to get some water and some juice for Sunday morning breakfast.

Sleep. Ah sleep. But typical me I can’t seem to sleep past about 6 hours so I was awake by about 3am and finally just got up at 4. We watched some crazy Japanese TV before making plans for what to do for the day.  We decided to first go back to Kyoto station to get information on the bus service (the thing I was dreading) and then we did manage to take a bus to Kiyomizu Temple which means “Pure Water”. img_1467

As part of our visit we drank from a spring there that is supposed to cure your ills.  Can it cure up annoying sinusitus? We shall see.

After that temple we followed a path that lead us through homes that have been restored to the traditional look.  There were a lot of great shops along the way, and I couldn’t help it…I bought a bag..but seriously I needed something to carry stuff in because the bag Ken was carrying was just way too full.

We enjoyed the walk but I’m afraid we got turned around somewhere and we missed some of the temples I thought we were going to see.  We did wander into another one where there was a wedding going on.  Not sure what it was called but I took some video so when I compile my video I’ll be able to share!

We were able to find a bus and made our way back to Kyoto station to grab some lunch.  We ended up stopping at a local fast food place.  Some quick burgers and fries was a nice treat.  Funny that I was satisfied with what, here, was essentially the size of a kids meal. Note to self on return when ordering at fast food establishments.

We wandered some more around the station.  There is a lot to see in an 11 story shopping area and other stores near by, especially the electronis store BIC camera where we saw this:

img_1489For those of you who can’t see, it says Hot Sand Maker. Yep. Love me some hot sand paninis.

This was about 3 and we were getting pretty tired.  We’d been up since at least 4:30am and had been walking off and on since 8:30. I’m figuring we had at least 10 miles today and there were some SERIOUS stairs that I managed to conquer.  Feelign pretty good about me eating and ability to walk on this trip!

We decided to head back to the hotel to rest before maybe going out later to get something to eat or check more of our neighborhood in the evening.  It had been raining off and on all day but really started pouring after we were dealing with the buses at Kyoto Station, getting on the wrong side of the street and then on the wrong bus.  I was worried about the buses and I was not wrong.  They are frustrating!! I wonder if there are even easy for the locals to use?

But we made it back. I’ve uploaded some pics and now we are just going to relax for a while.  Not sure what we are doing tomorrow but it looks like it will be sunny so we might do some more temple hopping in the morning before heading into Osaka.

P.S. Reason for my delay? The room we are staying in only had 2 prong wall units and we have a 3 prong charger for the laptop. ARGH! But at the camera store we got an adaper for like $5!!!