Have mercy

In Cleveland! She greets me every morning when I leave for work. I took my time this morning and drove in the thunderstorm around the area to kill time before the bakery opened because I wanted to treat myself to a warm breakfast that I had not made. Yesterday's travel was all quite smooth, and after having been here four months ago, it feels like I just visited a week ago! The good part of that is that I don't have to meet as many people since it's not such a novelty for me to be in town (and also because summer is as busy a time as ever for people, especially for teachers).

Usually, I head to the Morgan and start work. This time, I started to soak kozo and hung hanji samples and unpacked class goods. Two hours later, Joe (in the bright blue shirt) arrived with a carload of poets from Buffalo and I gave them a quick tour before we headed out for a Korean dinner and then their reading at Mac's. They were joined by Tom Orange, who is a local poet and musician, and I was pleasantly surprised that the whole group was very good. I don't know if I've ever been to a reading where I enjoyed everyone's work very much. Plus it is always fun to catch up with residency-made friends! Today is a slow day for me because my body is uncooperative, but with intern help, I'm not worried about getting everything done in time for class this weekend.