ready for a big trip?

I leave for Washington tomorrow. I am making a new mix for my iPod, which is called "Washington" because I had an uncharacteristic bout of non-creativity. The emphasis is on Washington bands, because I'm just nerdy like that: Pedro the Lion, the Postal Service, Death Cab for Cutie, Band of Horses, Sleater-Kinney.

I am also buying some new books to read on the plane. I have been trying to buy fewer books recently, and get things from the library instead, but when I travel I need something new. Something YA (for the plane): Sarah Ryan's The Empress of the World, which is supposed to be a sensitive treatment of teenage lesbian experimentation; and something serious, Jose Saramago's Blindness, which I am morally bound to read because my book club is tackling it for October. When traveling, I think you need a less-serious book and a more-serious book. That way, if you're not in the mood for one, you have the other. This represents, actually, a pretty reduced version of traveling-book philosophies I've held in the past, which may have required bringing three or more books on any one trip.

With new books, and new playlists, I can go anywhere.

All of this is assuming I can get my pending passport in time. If I do, then I'm going to the Seattle Aquarium, baby.