you keep telling me to live right, to go to bed before the daylight

I somehow forgot to blog last night, which is too bad because yesterday was great. I slogged most of the day, and then I picked Veronica up from the Cedar Rapids airport. We swung by [censored]'s office for a quick tour, and then we went to the hotel, where we had a snack at the bar and sat outside until [censored] got off work. Then, the three of us went to the Map Room - it was an eclectic little burger place in downtown Cedar Rapids, with v. cool decor and excellent food. We rounded out the night at the bar at the hotel, where I got to meet [censored]'s favorite bartender. All in all, it was a v. full Cedar Rapids experience.

This morning, Veronica and I were pretty chill - we had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel restaurant, where we were the only patrons, and we packed and checked out around 11:30. Then we went to Iowa City, where we walked around the pedestrian mall and bought a bunch of stuff - I am now the proud owner of a new air plant of a variety I'd never seen before, in addition to some other fun little trinkets. After we had our fill of Iowa City, we headed toward Dubuque. We stopped for coffee in Mt Vernon and got trapped in an antique store by a sudden downpour, but the antique store was surprisingly vast, so we were able to amuse ourselves for awhile.

Eventually, we made it to Dubuque, and we checked into our Airbnb - it looked slightly sketchy from the alley, but the space is super cute and we met the owner, who seemed like an interesting girlboss kind of character. We hung out for about an hour, and then Carolyn (the third member of our writing retreat) arrived after driving in from Minneapolis. We chose rooms and settled in - I'm in the garret, which is fitting for my height, and hopefully I'll sleep well up here. For a garret it's pretty nice since it has its own bathroom, but I'll report a more comprehensive verdict tomorrow.

After we settled a bit, we walked around a little and found an excellent restaurant (Brazen), where we split a nice bottle of chablis and had a v. tasty dinner. We also discussed our goals for the retreat, which was fun and inspiring. And now, I need to go to bed if I'm going to do the tings I intend to do. Goodnight!