Missouri wasn't so bad after all, not that I really expected it to be. I've always had a little bit of an obsession with the Midwest. Some of my favorite acquaintances have moved to the coasts from the Midwest and I think of it as being golden and pleasant. We lucked out, weather-wise, it was warm in the shade, and not too hot in the sun.

Our trip to Missouri was for a wedding--friends of Jenya's. We flew into St. Louis on Saturday and hopped into the back of Briar's minivan as she drove us all to Columbia. The whole drive was spent with the New Yorkers trying to find a Super Walmart. Apparently if you live in New York city you like to spend your trips elsewhere shopping at places like Walmart or Target, but not Big K.

On the way back to the airport, yesterday, we were listening to Annie Lennox' new album, Bare. I was counting cows and firecracker stands and imagining my career as a musician. I told the crew that if I were a musician I would name all of my albums homonyms. I would have series of albums with the same name, but different spellings. I decided that this would be genius, almost as genius as REM's Eponymous. Alana's Fair; Alana's Fare; Alana's Fair (but that one is the synonym of just as opposed to the noun like the first one); Alana's Fair (like blond).

Okay, now that I think this through I am deciding that maybe the picture on the album cover might need to support the definition of the word I am using so as to make it clear to my listeners.