Oh, that was a long time away from my bicycle! I spend every single day on that thing, and then I had to spend an entire week away–I didn’t properly prepare for that, not at all. I got on my bike this morning and just went ahead and pedaled myself back to myself. The rides from here to there today were just exactly what I needed. Using the bike to move through space, that’s what I do now, and it was good to come home. Tonight I took the bike down to the Quarter to the Gold Mine Saloon for poetry night. Between you and me, I’m not really a fan of poetry, or least not that poetry voice, but it was Eileen Myles, and she is something else. Back when I was in college, my sister E. and I would go hear her read, and Laurie Weeks would be there, and she and E. would talk about being from Idaho and living in NYC and smoking cigarettes. That was so many years ago and I was so shy that it just seems like a different lifetime. And now I’m here, riding my bike down to the open mic night to see Eileen Myles read, but I’m not in NYC anymore–that’s E.’s town–and I’m with S., who used to live with Eileen Myles and date Laurie Weeks, but I didn’t know any of them then. I swear, it’s a lesbian mafia. And after all that, T. read, and it was so good. Yes, indeed, it’s good to be home.