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philadelphia, PA: PHAAT ("philadelphia historic african-american tours") tour bus, seen on my way to the last drop (aka, the coffeehouse where i relocated 2 acts of my undergrad thesis so as to avoid too much fiction/reality blur. i'd never been there before). pennsylvania: my friend's neighborhood reminds me a lot of certain neighborhoods in north minneapolis - huge, stately old houses on decent-sized parcels of land abutting streets full of cubic, celadon green glass shards. "guess what!" she exclaims first thing in the morning, "your car didn't get broken into!" get coffee at a shop i've written into a play, but in which i'd never before set foot. drive. new jersey: there are no signs welcoming me back into new jersey; it just sort of materializes. the highway medians are full of flowers - pink and white, fuchsia and process magenta, the kind my mom taught me as "windflowers" (though i think most people call them "cosmos"). realize that when google maps tells you to take a ferry, it does not account for the time spent on the ferry in its travel-time calculations - so while i'm happy to be on a boat and all, i'm sad i'm going to miss my tour of the dogfish head brewery. hmph. delaware: "delaware. hi, i'm in...delaware." delaware is full of strange places like "broadkill river," "slaughter beach," "slaughter creek," and "slaughter neck" (slaughter neck? eeeew). have dinner at the dogfish head restaurant in rehoboth beach, where they're utterly perplexed that - no, really - i just need a table for one. the most common roadkill species seems to be ears of corn. find myself alone in a motel room in the middle of nowhere, confronted by 98 channels and - thanks to my entirely cable-free childhood - no idea where to find the porn. fail.