Hi, Sarah. You've got a big weekend ahead of you. I know, I'm going to Birmingham, Alabama. Have you ever been to Birmingham?

If my mental map is correct, then yes once Mr Reed's romance and his entire family and I in a

minivan drove from Houston to Atlanta and I think we stopped in Birmingham at a waffle house.

Well that's so nice. I've never been to Birmingham. I've been to Alabama. I was in

Alabama one time when I was in middle school. I was on the science

Olympia team and we were the best science Olympia team in all of Rhode Island and

we went to Auburn University to compete in the

National Science Olympia. That's amazing and we lost horribly and I sprayed my

ankle in the woods. So they had Science Olympia out in the woods. So, they had science olympiad out in the woods.

It was, I had, I don't know, there was like map reading or compass reading or something.

And I tripped and I fell and I sprang my ankle and it's all very sad and apologies to Jeff

Sikeowski who was my partner on that trip and we lost the compass reading competition because I

sprained my ankle in the Alabama woods.

I will say I bet Alabama it's I bet it's a really nice time of year in Alabama right I

bet it's gonna be warm and sunny in spring you would think so but according to the

weather it's 38 degrees in Alabama today.

Okay.

So, well, anyway, I'm going to see my, the best part about it is I'm going to see my friend Rachel

Hawkins and then I'm going to see Naima Simone and Naima and Sally Kilpatrick

and I are going to do two, count them two sessions on romance as part of the

Southern Voices Book Festival despite the fact that I am neither

Southern nor do I write about the South. But it's fine. I'm fond of the South.

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