live from Sioux Falls

Just a quick note to say that the boys and I safely arrived in Sioux Falls. The drive—interstate highways in two directions, all the way—was done in just shy of five hours. I have no idea if I was making good time, but we only stopped once. For Blizzards. And, I was able to drive 75 mph, which almost felt like flying. The boys plugged into their ipods and DSs. Didn't hear a peep from them the whole drive, which allowed me to listen to David Sedaris' When You Are Engulfed in Flames and laugh. A lot. One piece in particular had Sedaris, on a flight, violently coughing a throat lozenge out of his mouth, right onto the crotch of his sleeping seatmate. That was funny, but what was funnier? Before she fell asleep, they'd had a tiff over changing seats with her husband, who was in a different row. In the bulkhead. Sedaris said No. She called him an asshole. On audio, Sedaris delivers this story—and you know this story because you've lived it once or twice—with the most impeccable comic timing, earning Genius status. If you ask me.

If we were having a conversation right now you might ask, Why are you in Sioux Falls? And I would answer Because my mother is attending the national Izaak Walton League—Defenders of Soil, Air, Woods, Waters & Wildlife—convention, and there is a great kids' program, which the boys are attending. Simon did this a few years ago, traveling with Grandpa and Grandma to Big Sky, Montana, for fly-fishing and a daytrip to Yellowstone. Certainly Sioux Falls, SD, offers less in the way of impressive vistas and irresistable sightseeing, but it's funny that the boys don't know that or care. Today they are collecting soil samples, the description of which didn't resonate with them until I told them they would be digging in the dirt. They're pretty excited.

Grandpa is chaperoning. Grandma is in meetings. I'm editing a manuscript in the hotel, staving off horrible flashbacks to the seven years I spent on the road for St. Martin's Press. I loved the job, but the travel was brutal and the only reason I left the position after Simon was born. I have often regretted leaving my position, especially when I see other women my age, with children, who are still doing it. When I sat down to my computer this morning, coughing up $10 to access the Internet for 24 hours (usurious!), I went right back to that dark place in my mind. The one that,—sitting in front of my laptop on a hotel bed in Omaha, NE in 1995—would ask "What the hell am I doing here?"

I turned on the TV for company and have promised myself a really yummy, off-campus lunch, in exchange for two good hours of work. Gotta go....