A new

A new bike tour along the Southern Tier. I first mentioned this tour to other cyclists in 2010. Perhaps actually doing it will make me look more committed to serious life choices. I leave Chicago in April/May. Then I'll travel home to Cleveland for the blessings of my loved ones. Cleveland, a town of tallish building and many of my family members who I'd like to see before I leave for(ever?) a long time. After Cleveland, I'm going to New Orleans, where I'll have letterpress access, and will make and make and make. I've currently been working on personal maps. I've mostly been tracing old city maps and inserting text. While on tour, I'm going to make intimate maps of the places I stay. These will become small, 3 x 3 inch, books of no more than a couple pages- compact, private, informational. I'm going to sell these books to cover the cost of bike tour. And who knows, maybe I'll make a large multi-state map. For now, I'm working on intersections. To the right is a flier I made for an upcoming poetry reading at my house. It's my intersection and other geography.

I sincerely apologize.

It's been a while. I meant to say something earlier. I didn't want to interrupt. Or to make this awkward. I've been busy. You'd like the other things. Maybe I should've told you about them. I mean. Maybe. You don't really mind, right? I had that bike job. I just got fired. Have been living at a space with people and shows and such. I just don't want this to be weird. Did a race. We got drunk instead of going to the afterparty. Yeah. Same old, same old. I mean, we didn't get drunk. We just had a couple drinks. Who wants to sit in a super-sized lot on the north side when you want to go home, slip into your sleeping bag infront of the space heater, and wait for a cat to find you? We're all caught up. Except, I'm leaving Chicago soon, and I want to see you before I go. There's a reading/show. I'll be reading from a piece. It's not about you. It's newer. See you then.


http://www.facebook.com/events/#!/event.php?eid=204220006312957

I was biking over the River and that guy by the Metra

station was drumming on a bucket something drum-buckety, hollow from the material but quick because that's how the drum bucket guys play, and he said something about Rahm Emmanuel. There were all these people herding toward the train out of the loop. I was with them. Not in a train car or on the sidewalk, but I was commuting out of the loop in the same direction that they were commuting out of the loop. And thought something wistful like, I live here, or, I'm here now. That feeling was short lived. I fall out with this place a lot. I need to work on the relationship. I try new things. I stay away from the things that make me stray. I even got a bike job. A job on a bike. And like other jobs, it pays. Also like other jobs, it pays poorly. Feel like I'm losing it to a thing that's not there, a sentiment, an idea of location. Feel like I thought I would come here and just be here. Instead I've been me and also here. The sun was shining yesterday. That was nice. There was a race last Saturday. That was nice. I got lost and unlost a lot. I placed second to last. Second to totally losing it. There is no valor in second to last. There's a race this coming Saturday, and I'm going to do it because eventually I will know where I'm going. When I know where I'm going, I'll be able to navigate myself out of here.