T Minus 1 Day: The Road Trip is On!

On The Vine nomadic tour is on!

Ref: Wanderlust. Starting on Tuesday, this goofy diamond shape will be my road-tripping path for the next 10 days. I'm so thrilled + excited; I would love for you to join me on this journey. I'm going to be blogging my trek daily with a series entitled "Living the Dream."

Living the Dream - 10 Days, 7 Tour Stops, Lots of Visiting

Mon, 1/31
Pittsburgh, PA: Bricolage and Belarus. FREE reading of Being Harold Pinter and movement excerpts from Mad Forest. Okay... it's technically not part of the road trip, but it's right in line with what I want to be writing/doing with OTV. Anytime 'solidarity' is mentioned, I tear up a little. Note: event is sold out... but have no fear, I'll post a recap + pics/video on Tuesday.

Tues, 2/1 
Cleveland, OH: interview + lunch with Jeff Finely, Go Media + Weapons of Mass Creation Festival for Agents of Change
Rochester, NY: visit + interviews with Sarah, Rich + Amanda

Wed - Fri, 2/2 - 2/4
NY, NY
- heritage research + interviews with family in Upper Manhattan for Demystifying Depression
- visit Elise Island Immigration Museum
- meeting with Freelancers Union (Agents of Change + building Pgh collaborations)
**fingers-cross (TBD) - tea with Jonathan Safran Foer and/or Eugene Hütz of Gogol Bordello (Break the Spell collaborations)**

Sat - Mon, 2/5 - 2/7
New Jersey: visit with Jessica Curran for lunch
New Freedom, PA: visit with Andrew Herwig for dinner
Manassas, VI
- heritage research + interviews with Rebekah + family for Demystifying Depression
- museum it up in DC (want to see the Holocaust Museum again... particularly for Break the Spell reference)
- TBD: lunch/dinner with Andrea in DC

Tues - Wed, 2/8 - 2/9
Somerset, PA
- visit with parents, heritage research + interviews for Demystifying Depression, begin collaborations for me+mam crochet/craft etsy store
- visit with friends (Lauralee, Denise, Kathy, Heaven, Regina, David, etc...)

Thurs, 2/10
Greensburg, PA: (TBD) lunch with Dan DiCecca of Jesedia
Pittsburgh, PA: home sweet home... begin decompressing and processing all these amazing stories, experiences + research:)

Last Minute Things

• Tour Stops Needed: I don't do well driving for more than 3 hours at a time and the stints between Cleveland > Rochester and Rochester > NYC are about 6 hrs each. If anyone is in Erie, PA + Binghamton, NY and available for a visit over tea, let me know.
  
• Points of Interest: if there are any museums, visitor centers, heritage associations, etc. in any of these locations that would be resources for any of those four bodies of research, give me a heads-up and send some info.
  
• People to See, Stories to Tell: as always, if there is anyone you know along my route who has a tale to tell, send me an email + I'll squeeze them in.

An opportunity to practice 'being in the moment'
I've learned over the last several years that while it's great to plan things out (see the above tour for example), things rarely go according to plan. There are lots of factors outside of my control on this road-tripping journey in particular... namely weather. I'm testing nature by driving through lake-effect-snow-hell country in NY... I don't anticipate winning that game of chicken.

Part of the fun of traveling (regionally, nationally, internationally) is all the crazy crap that happens along the way and how you adjust/react/deal with it. I'm going to try my best to practice 'taking things as they come.' Thankfully, I have enough perspective to know it won't be too bad... everything pales in comparison to traveling to Siberia.

I'm excited to look back on this plan and all the subsequent blog posts after the trip is over and see how many of my plans came to fruition. Hopefully, a few of them will... that will make me happy:)

Living the Dream begins Tuesday... keep an eye out for the first day blog post + pictures late Tuesday or Wednesday morning. Wooo hooo!