Just Jul Lee

Food, Session and the Highway Twice Traveled

Food, Session and the Highway Twice Traveled
DATE: July 22, 2005

We woke up fairly early in order for us to break our fasts and prepare for a day of sessions. The breakfast was buffet-style with eggs, potatoes and bacon, OJ and water, coffee…pretty typical buffet. But, the potatoes were NOT typical…in fact they were yummy and definitely my favorite of the meal.

After breakfast we had our campfire session. While waiting for everyone to arrive, we discovered that a few members had gone rogue and were in search of a Starbucks. I later found out, from Beyond the Cloud9 , that they got lost and thus missed the first session entirely unintentionally. During the session, the first campfire was stories and the second was poetry (gah!) and then it was time for lunch. (I don’t have the papers with me but check back in a week or so and I’ll add the campfires here!)

I skipped lunch because I had much better things planned. Yeah right!

While everyone else went to lunch, I got into the rental car, mentally reversed the AVIS card directions and braved the two-lane highway once again in order to return the vehicle, rent another from a different company and return to Bethlehem in time for Open Mic Night, which, by the way, I still had no idea what I was going to do up there in front of everyone. Procrastination strikes again!

Heading into Harrisburg was remarkably painless considering that it was daytime and that the traffic was not bad. I managed to maintain my speed for the duration of the 2 hour drive, which in itself was quite impressive. I stopped at a small town about 5 miles away from Harrisburg International Airport to gas up the car before returning it and noticed a McDonald’s. I made a mental note to return here before heading back to Bethlehem.

I then returned the car to AVIS and thanked them for helping me out, being patient and doing their best to get me out of their hair…I mean out of the airport. I then rented a car from Budget (they took debit cards…along with a $300 deposit) and was able to rent it for the remainder of my trip!

And would wonders never cease? It was a TOYOTA!!!

I stopped in the same little town where I’d gassed up (for once taking the intelligent route of travel) and got some lunch from McDonald’s. Then, I pulled out my handy dandy AVIS card and headed back to Bethlehem.

Bumper to bumper traffic and complete standstills awaited me as I sat contentedly in the rented Toyota (I mean, really! A Toyota!!) eating chicken nuggets with sweet and sour sauce, fries and sipped a Sprite with no ice.

I finally returned to the hotel at 5:30 pm (I’d left, you may recall, around noon) and it was time for dinner. After wolfing it down and stressing about Open Mic Night the whole time, I sat at the table and took a few minutes to relax. Then, Open Mic Night began!

I was the third person and I read a snippet from my published novel; The Burning Blood Chronicles: VAMPIRES (buy my book!). It was a very entertaining evening full of laughter and deep lectures, interesting tales and dark horror (this latter one from me ) and I enjoyed the wonderful poetry. I must say, though, that I loved the comedy. The songs were truly inspiring and the stories were captivating. I must say that, if you are somehow unaware, that the talent at this site is massive and many folks don’t get the right amount of notice. But someday soon…

I hung out in the lounge until 1:00 am or so before heading outside to join the others. I watched folks play Texas Hold ‘Em and was doing well until I realized that my laugh was on a 5 second delay and that my eyes were trying desperately to close. I said my good night’s and dragged myself off to the room, where I fell asleep almost instantly and didn’t wake once.