Planning Through the News
Feeling like your humanity needs a boost? Plan a trip.
I assume I’m not the only person who’s spent time in tears this week, seeing the inhumanity in the most recently-released files involving horrible “elites” I won’t mention. Let’s just say that today’s therapy session was brutal and leave it at that for now. If you’re in the same boat—I don’t see how any feeling person can’t be—I’m with you. Shit is brutal. If the news is dredging up parts of your life you’d rather forget, I’m sorry. I get it.
For at least a few weeks, I’m not traveling. It’s cold, money’s tight, and I’m devoting most of my time and energy to the work I’m doing to treat my vestibular migraines. This gives me hope, because I’m feeling progress. My physical therapist reassessed my symptoms this week, and things are looking better than a month ago. That’s the goal. Plus, yesterday I learned about the connection between vestibular disorders and autism. I haven’t been diagnosed with autism, but every symptom listed applies to me. The funny part: the first symptom listed was that for people with this form of autism, movement regulates their nervous system.
Does driving calm you like it does me? Probably not, unless you’re autistic with a vestibular disorder.
Sorry, I have to travel. Medically required.
I spent the better part of two days booking all the necessary stuff for the trips I have planned through July. I’ll be on the move soon. In the meantime, you can find me swinging from side to side in my desk chair.
The Plans
It’s been almost a year since I’ve been to New Orleans, and I’m feeling it. By which I mean, I’m living on king cake and weeping a lot. So I found an empty week in March that coincides with a vacancy at the Royal Street Inn, and I’m road tripping it again. I leave on the day Daylight Saving Time begins, so it feels like spring and new beginnings. And of course I’m adding to my big dumb tramp stamp while I’m there. Otherwise, there’s a good chance I’ll just be loitering at my inn/bar the whole time. In the area? Come hang with me!
CJ’s birthday is this month, and I was hoping we could make our semesterly spa trip to Mud & Lotus in Lawrence, Kansas for it this year. And then I remembered that CJ’s birthday is the day after Valentine’s Day, which falls on a Saturday, and means there isn’t a spa appointment or hotel to be had. So we’re going at the beginning of April. Douglas County pie from Ladybird Diner is spa food, right?
Things get wild at the end of April through May because it’s Afghan Whigs tour time! I’m flying to Hartford and driving to the first show in Woodstock, New York. I haven’t been there since 2013 and, even though my stay will be brief, I’m excited to return. You’ll definitely find me at The Golden Notebook before the show. Last time I was there, they had the best selection of music history and theory books I’ve ever seen.
The day after the show, I’m driving across Massachusetts to Boston for the second show. The show’s the next day, so I’ll have some time to poke around the state and city. I’ve barely been to Boston, and still won’t be there for very long, but I’ll be there long enough for the show and seeing my Whig friends Natalia and Beth, who’ll also be in Woodstock. And! I have a friend in Boston I connected with around the same time as that long-ago Woodstock trip. Tentative plans are in the works. I found a lovely little guesthouse in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood, and I’m ready to do stuff that has nothing to do with history. Frankly, living through history has been exhausting lately, so none of that this time.
I’ll be home for a week, then I’ll drive to Cincinnati for the band’s hometown show. It’s only a five-hour drive, but I’ve never really been to Cincinnati. I used to have a friend in one of the Kentucky suburbs, and I went to her bridal shower and bachelorette party when I was pregnant. Everything was awful, and I threw up Skyline Chili. This trip will not be awful, mostly because Bridezilla isn’t involved this time. Neither are Kentucky ‘burbs. I’m not sure if I’m ready for that cinnamon chili yet, though. I’m 100 percent less pregnant this time, so maybe.
After spending a night in Cincinnati, I’ll have a night at home, and then I’ll be driving up to Milwaukee. I love Milwaukee and wish I could spend more time there, but the schedule’s tight since I’m driving up the day of the show and have to be in Chicago the next night. I’m sure some cheese curds will find me, though. And definitely coffee from Colectivo.
And yeah, a night in Chicago. I’ll catch the show and probably do some much-needed bra-shopping. Exciting, I know. (But really, if you have unmanageable boobs, Busted is the best.) And it’s Mother’s Day so yeah, time to treat myself. And the knots in my shoulder blades that do holy work.
I’ll have a week and a half at home, which coincides with CJ moving home for summer break. Then I’m off to Los Angeles! My beloved guest house full of chandeliers was already booked, so for the first time, I’m doing LA from a hotel. Specifically, a little downtown boutique hotel with an outpost of a Koreatown coffeehouse on the main floor. We all know that LA is my favorite, so of course I’ll be staying for a few days to do stuff and see friends and such, in addition to the show on my second night in town. Maybe I’ll meet my future ex-husband Greg Dulli at one of his bars …
The Afghan Whigs tour ends at Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown, which is spitting distance from Joshua Tree National Park. This outdoor venue in the middle of nowhere has a feature I’ve never experienced anywhere else: live music under the desert starry sky. It’s a magical place. Last time I was there, I yelled my thanks to my beloved Patti Smith when I ran into her on my way to the parking lot. Closing night of the tour, followed by two nights in a little (air-conditioned) cabin with an outdoor hot tub will surely remind me of just how incredible life and the world are.
I’ll have a few weeks at home, then at the end of June I’m back to Massachusetts—North Adams this time—for the Solid Sound Festival. I can’t even think about that just yet, because the celebration of my favorite life-changing album, Mermaid Avenue is being celebrated. Thinking about it covers me in goosebumps and makes me cry happy tears.
And just because I had all my travel agent tools open, I went ahead and booked rooms in Oklahoma City and Tulsa in July for my annual Woody Guthrie Poets lovefest. My favorite weekend of the year!
All this planning is my way of giving myself a sense of control in a world that feels completely out of control. Looking at my calendar and seeing these plans gives me hope, both that the work I’m doing on my brain/migraines will make it all possible, and that the world will still be here.
Going on these trips, seeing this country from one end to the other, feels so necessary. I need to see that my country still exists in the form of people creating their art, their food, their lives. I need to see far-flung friends and make new ones to be reassured that most of us are working and wishing for change.
I can’t sit at home at watch history unfold from my couch.
I need to keep moving.
I’m gonna need a lot of coffee on these trips. I’d be ever so grateful if you bought one for me. Thanks!
Hang in there, my friend. Travel cures a lot of woes.
Also feel most at home rolling on the road. Have exciting stretches of music and hot springs planned.