Start. Stop. Regroup. Go back to Start. Finish.

i can only draw sometimes.....

those were the last five words i spoke as i lay across the king size bed at Knights Inn, thinking to myself " ONE DAY.....one day, someone will not only pay for my room, but will pay for me to be at ...idk...lets say Comfort Inn....lol...not that im complaining....this knights inn is a far cry from the last time i visited and left my bags at one....that one was back in nashville, during a FW's tour....that particular knights inn, had a police escort in the parking lot, what looked like it could be a prostitution sting, oh and lets not forget about the random white man that knocked on our door at roughly four a.m.  ...

yep...this one is a far cry from that one.....where we are know is actually kinda cool besides the broken recliner that is in a permanent recline, the holes in the standard old timey bedspread or the smell of a smoking room (hey...what can i say, i like blacks and dont effin judge me!!)  we have a nice shower (which if u know my situation, you KNOW how much that means)....(and if you dont know, you're not supposed to) ...we have a microwave and a fridge, which is great because i fried chicken last night that i was worried would go to waste.....safe for another day!!!

the heat works...tv works....wifi works.....bed is sleepable....shower is about to get tested....and we're in a decent looking area....Laurel, MD to be exact.....i think...hahaha....

we arrived in DC around 8ish....got briefly thrown off course from missing our exit....found someone to help us....got back on track....ended up making another wrong turn and cruised thru what i will refer to as "mansion row" ....uturned.....got back on track (again), found the right turn and before we knew it, we were coming up alongside of the Washington Monument.....and all the familiar surroundings.....the water....the signs to the Arlington Cemetary....and then....the pentagon!!! in my normal life, these things have little meaning to me and hardly EVER cross my mind.....but tonight....seeing them....was like seeing a celebrity.....u always see them on tv, and dont have a desire to meet them, but in person, face to face, you become in awe that something that once seemed so far is right there staring right back at you......

yeah...im cheesy like that.....i wish i could describe the current of electricity that seemed to be just flowing thru my veins as we sat briefly in traffic.....but i cant.....the water, the bridges, the traffic!!! ....all of it....knowing im over five hundred miles away from all the pain i feel on a daily basis.....over five hundred miles away from my broken heart (which i mended only temporarily).....five hundred miles into my journey....its a damn good feeling.....

and it all started from HOME!

thats right...i said it...there it is...now that our tour has officially begun (again), its probably safe to let the cat out of the bag.....only selected people were tagged on the list of "knowing what the deal is".....and those people probably dont read my blog anyway.....even if they do, they know exactly what im about to discuss.....this time last week, we had been back in indy for roughly three and a half days.....our 30 day tour cut short by a series of unfortunate events.....not really a series, but that just sounded good right there....

and it all started like this.....
it was thursday night....our first "feature" of the tour....just me and gabby....daynomi was gone to the studio to finish up her cd that needed to be done by friday.....clearly she was on crunch time.....so me and gabby caught the bus to the spot "the wine up".....on our way to the bus stop, i told gabby i didnt have anything but two twenties.....she went on to look for a couple of dollars and some change so we didnt miss the bus or our show......we made it.....caught the bus like big girls in a city where we knew only one person....got off at the right stop.....went into the building, of which was located up a set of stairs.....the room was well lit by christmas lights, had a full band that was JAMMING, including the saxophone player AND they had plenty of pictures on the wall of poets, mid performance.....clearly this place was poetry.....not a bar, nightclub or coffeehouse that needs people to buy more expressos......this was poetry.....247....no matter what else they did in there on other nights, poetry LIVED in that building.....

me and gab did a round robin of our poems....two a piece...i performed one new one, "the people's poet" and one old one 'preaching to the choir".....there were quite a few men in the building, so it seemed appropriate.....i always hate the first time i perform a newly memorized poem because i spend most of the performance wondering if and where i will mess up....i can't fully give my all because of it.....but for some reason, not only did i not mess up, but they liked it...!!!! they were really feeling the poem itself and i was sooo stoked...i left the stage feeling like a million dollars....the next poem for me was preaching to the choir and the men of course ate that up.....men like it when females speak for them and though they piss me off more often than not and hurt me more than i'd like to admit, i am magnetically drawn to them.....so i write for, about and to them....and usually, they love it....that night was no exception....

when i went to sit back down, after gaining hand slaps and claps from the audience, which included some of their slam team members (keeping in mind they have been the national champs at least twice)....i sat at the table to gabby's question of "is my wallet in your purse".....

TBC...
make sure you come back!