The District sleeps alone tonight...

...but Kyle and I will sleep one more night at Abby's place just north of DC in Takoma Park. Before our reading at the Cloyd Heck Marvin Center, Kyle, Abby, Tim, Caryn and I ate Burmese food at Mandalay in Silver Spring, MD, which has a photograph of Caryn and Tim on the bulletin board in the entry way, from a fundraiser the restaurant held for cyclone relief. I had to take a picture of the picture, 'cause I'm meta like that: All the food was fantastic, but the highlight was a cute, round cream-of-wheat/coconut-cream baked dessert known as shweji, which is pictured (with Caryn chopping it into shareable pieces) here, and which I will have to attempt to recreate when I am not on tour and have more time for cookery (that is if I can figure out how the heck to make it--anyone?):
Our reading at GW (of which I am an alumna) was up against the Academy Awards (maybe you've heard of them?), but the audience filled up nicely just the same...
...thanks to the valiant publicity efforts of Greg Nanni (pictured here with chairs, waters, microphone and chocolate cupcake)... ...GW student and Rome Review editor. Thanks so much, Greg, and to Dan Gutstein for reading with us! And extra thanks to Dan for quoting Frank O'Hara saying "It is even in/prose, I am a real poet" during the Q&A.

Tomorrow, Kyle and I fly home to our respective Midwestern cities for a couple days of much-needed not-being gone. We will sleep in our own beds, wear our robes around our whole apartments/houses, make coffee in our own coffeemakers and do other home-ish things before reuniting to soldier on our epic adventure in Fayetteville, Arkansas on Friday, February 27. The legend continues. See you there.