I'm in Chelan for a few days for a work related meeting. If only it didn't get dark so early, I would have had a spectacular drive. I started my trip by taking a wrong turn IN SPOKANE!! How does one get lost before even leaving your city? I don't know, but I did it.
The car felt lonely at first. I wished for a tall, gentle strawberry blond man who wears cool hats to be in my car filling the silence and darkness outside with talk about Calvinism and theology or justice issues in Latin America, or indie music or the evils of the capitalist right. Instead I made do with a Tchaikovsky symphony on public radio. The conductor described hearing the symphony (I didn't catch which one it was.) played by violinist Adrian Anatawan, a young man born without his right hand. Anatawan uses a prosthetic device to hold the bow and has a bowing technique better than many violinists who use two hands. He was accepted to the Curtis Institute of music, arguable the most prestigious music school in the world. http://www.cello.org/heaven/disabled/nohand.htm
My drive had a few other high points, one of them being the new really awesome KEXP compilation CD. The Decemberists, Sleater-Kinney, Aqualung, and of course M.I.A. (one of my absolute favorite artists) proved to be good road companions, but not nearly as nice as the giver of the CD himself would have been.
There was snow between Coulee City and Waterville and I was surprised to see "Hitchhiking Allowed" signs the closer I got to the Columbia river. I'm always struck by how friendly and down to earth gas station attendants in small towns are. Oh, and I narrowly missed hitting a kitty cat trotting down the middle of the highway. Fortunately I swerved.
Now, I'm in the hotel in Chelan hoping against hope that the meeting tomorrow won't be too boring. I was given a denim button up shirt with the program logo on it when I checked in. The jovial desk attendant said something about us all wearing them to the meeting and looking like smurfs. Great. They put me in a queen suite. TWO rooms, mini fridge, kitchen sink, two tvs, hide-a-bed couch, balcony, etc, etc, etc. It's uncomfortably big. I feel lost here. Oh well, at least everyone so far has been really nice.