Central Illinois is centrally located...

...so Kyle and I didn't have too far to drive yesterday to get there from Edwardsville. And when we did get there, there was a high-quality audience--which contained Richard Powers (!)--waiting to hear us read with Ninth Letter editor Jodee Stanley, pictured here to the right of Kyle: After the reading, we went out for beers and onion rings... ...with Aaron Burch and other assorted members of the U of I MFA program. Then Kyle drove the rental car hurriedly (but lawfully) back to Toledo where he had to teach this morning, and--because it was my birthday, and because he is selfless like that--Martin drove me back up to Chicago where I will be for a couple days before heading out Thursday to do a visiting writer thing at Western Washington University. On our way back into town, it was snowing slightly, but that's okay because Chicago knows how to deal, and it made the city look even more beautiful than it always does. For instance, here is the Adventures in Babysitting building, officially known as Smurfit-Stone: And here, just because I can, a blurry picture of the lights of Navy Pier as seen from the passenger-side on Lake Shore Drive: Also just because I can, a couple of birthday fun facts: 1980 is the year that I was born, but did you know it is also the first year that Mattel manufactured an African-American Barbie? And that it is the year of the founding of University of Arkansas Press? True story.

Super-huge thanks to everyone who came to see us on this leg of the tour, and we look forward to seeing everybody else on the next tour dates this month!