Went to see my friend and former student Nick O in Providence tonight. We hung out together, had a pizza, and traveled around on foot in the Fox Point neighborhood, exploring via the old chestnut of planned iteration. In a planned iteration walk, you pick a walking-fractal to travel. Our first one was “up, down, left”, meaning that each time we came to an intersection, we chose to go uphill the first time, downhill the second time, and make a left-hand turn the third time. We saw some interesting things — a balcony, a girl smoking on a different balcony, some dogs, a guy in a garage filled with religious paintings (including an icon of Bobby and JF Kennedy, which seemed odd). Afterward talked over pizza in Pizza Pie-ers, down the street from Reflections Café, and talked magic.

Nick O and his friend or Jamie S bugged me when they were my students back in ninth grade. For nine months, it was, “Please teach us magic!” thinks I teach at Hogwarts, and this reputation probably comes from their constant pleas so many years ago. Not wishing to shut myself off from magic, I told them I would teach them when they were at least eighteen and graduated from high school. That time has come, and now they’re collecting on it. In the meantime, of course, I have learned to be that magician, at least in part, and now lead what is a much more intense and magical life than I had in the past. I have them to thank, in part, for leading me in that direction.

Improv’ed again during the reading at Reflections Café. If you haven’t been to this reading, I recommend it highly. It’s one of the hottest readings I’ve ever been to on a weeknight, maybe the hottest eva, except for maybe Java Hut — and Poets’ Asylum is first on my list because it was first on my list. The GotPoetry Live open mic is always rocking: did her new take on the Inanna myth, and did his view from a sandcastle window. A guy traveling with the feature from the west coast, Westin, did a powerful poem about waking from the dreams of fundamentalism — or at least that’s how I read it. Chris Johnson did a poem that I liked, as well, and Christy (sp? right name?) did extremely well, too.

I find that I have to sit on the south side of the room, though. The north side is angled funny relative to the stage, and the speakers don’t seem to project to that part of the room. You have to strain to catch everything, and there’s so much other chatter that it’s hard to pick out a softer poet. Our feature, Ryler Dustin, was excellent, though. And he successfully overcame the room’s chatter to present a sterling set. Go hear him at the Cantab tomorrow night. Give him lots of money, to finish out his tour.

I have blisters the size of silver dollars on my toes. It’s time to get rid of these particular boots, I think. They’re hurting my feet too much to keep.

I’m also worried about the health of my computer. While I was trying to access e-mail at Reflections Café, my computer shut down and needed to be restarted three times. I wound up sending my manuscript to my editor as a backup emergency copy, in case my computer kicks the bucket this week.

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