I am having so much fun doing my readings out here. As predicted, I haven't taken many pictures, and the ones I did take didn't turn out very well [Danny's is still so (charmingly) dark!]. I'm getting ready to head to Bloomington in a few minutes, so maybe I can persuade my mom to take a few pictures at my Boxcar reading tonight. I'll write this in installments so that those of you who are interested in my shenanigans don't have to read it all at once.
So anyway, my trip started out with a very early ride to Logan on Wednesday, October 13. I landed in Chicago in the middle of a thunderstorm, while the very gracious Paul Martinez Pompa circled O'Hare over and over again. We got to Triton College only a few minutes late, and I had so much fun with his lively and adorable Intro to Poetry lit class. The energy in the room is certainly a testament to the amazingness of Paul's teaching. After a very brief reading, I answered their questions and talked poetry with them for nearly an hour. I signed some books and even got a couple of hugs. I was a bit blown away by their interest in Post Moxie, which they had just finished reading in class. They asked me some tough and interesting questions. One of the best parts of the morning was catching up with Paul, as I barely talked to him at AWP this year.
The sun finally came out, Paul took me to my hotel, and I tried my best to chill out for a while before figuring out how to get from the airport to Wicker Park. Two hours later, the blue line deposited me right in front of Margie's Candies, and I had a nostalgic walk around the old hood before seeing the familiar beanpole of Joel Craig waiting outside of Laguardia Restaurant, a Cuban place in Bucktown. Nice reunion with Marc Rahe and his sister Kara, as well as some very yummy food. We headed to Danny's after that and I was so happy to see Paul again, sitting at the bar. The reading was so much fun. I drank about one beer too many, but hearing Marc read from his collection was very emotional, and I loved reading to the very attentive and poetry-loving audience. I met some cool people too, including an Iowa Writers' Workshop student named David who was an early reader for the Sarabande contest! Somehow I got back on the train and back to my hotel, where I crashed until I had to get up to get a shuttle to West Lafayette. More about that reading in the next post!
