Ain’t That a Kick in the Head

Sometimes, in a worst case scenario, I get migraines from flying. I arrive at my destination with onion skin thin tolerance for food, water, light, and especially noise. When this happens, I imagine my head as an overripe tomato, barely containing its contents. I imagine brushing up against something and having the tightly contained throbbing …


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The Seward Highway

It seemed like a good day to have a midlife crisis so I opted for the red Mini at the rental car place. It was the right choice — the following day the sky was a shocking blue and it was t-shirt weather for the first time since I’d arrived in Alaska. It was also …


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In Alaska

She had coppery hair; this isn’t a metaphor. It was shiny, metallic, like fine copper wire. And it was styled, her bangs sprayed stiff and pin curls by her ears. Her eyebrows were painted on her wide open face. It was impossible to guess her age, she could have been forty, she could have been …


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On Memory, Music, and Travel

Hearing the sound of that music and his laughter about the shade and then later, seeing those pictures of Mali, his home country, made me feel the place somewhere else than just my eyes: it was in my feet, Mali got into my head through my ears and my skin for that short time and …


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Travel Writing 2.0

“I like sugar in my coffee, not in my career advice.” Tim Leffel, author, Travel Writing 2.0, via Twitter Confession: I am a sucker. Many years ago, when I first declared to myself that I wanted to be a travel writer, I signed up for a travel writing “program.” This “program” didn’t actually offer me …


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