I’ve been very busy this year. I’ve been out teaching almost every week in various places. I had always been thinking about the different things that I would have blogged about, but instead of “back-blogging”, here’s a summary of what I’ve been doing since the New Year.
- Spent a week in New Jersey and took the train into Manhattan for dinner a couple of nights
- Went to Atlanta for a couple of days. Saw some good live blues music and had good BBQ at Fat Matt’s
- Drove seven hours to Poughkeepsie in downstate New York instead of flying. It wasn’t as far as you’d think.
- Taught a three-day course in Pittsburgh. Forgot to pack pants and taught in jeans all week. Honestly – who forgets to pack pants?!?
- Taught in Dallas at a large airline’s corporate headquarters. Charlie Pride (country and western legend) did a small concert one lunch hour in the lobby. I’m not a C&W fan, but that was pretty cool. Also had some wicked food. Dallas/Fort Worth has a lot of good restaurants (including Angelo’s – my new favourite BBQ place anywhere)
And that pretty much brings me to this week. I’m currently in Bloomington, IL about two hours out of Chicago. There’s not that much to do, but with a little help from my students, I’m finding some of the good local places to go to (most of the places that you can easily spot are chains). I’m going to spend a lot of time here in Bloomington over the next month or so; probably three more weeks after this one.
My rental car this week is probably one of the biggest vehicles I’ve ever rented (other than a moving van). I’ve got a Chevy Uplander with three rows of seats and a DVD player. It’s so big that when I put my backpack in the back seat, the amount of empty space is almost comical.
That’s it for now. Here’s to reinstating old habits…
