Unstuck

Right now, I know where I am. I’m on a plane, fleeing Vegas for the second time in less than two weeks, on my way to St. Louis. I performed on the Academy of Country Music Awards last night with Sugarland (aka the ACMs, not to be confused with the CMA, CMT, or RMA award shows.) We spend a good bit of time backstage at every award show debating which song we played on which show, which year, never quite arriving at a definitive version of our own history.
It doesn’t help matters that a general disorientation has descended on me this week. Somewhere between Indio, CA and Grand Rapids, MI, I felt my conscious awareness of my location in both space and time start to slip away. It is a particular survival skill that I’ve developed for the longer runs. I just stop paying attention to the details, and just keep a vague eye out for a good breakfast spot or used bookstore along the way.
And it is at this point that I found myself entering the famed Mall of America. With our hotel across the street and a day off, this beacon of commerce seemed to draw me in like an Imperial battleship to the poor defenseless Millennium Falcon (I’m brushing up on my Star Wars analogies in anticipation of the Star Wars convention I’ll be attending next week. More on that to come.) After a few hours perusing all the same stores you can find in just about any mall anywhere in America, I finally got over my anti-consumerism smugness and withdrew my wallet to purchase a sweet belt decorated with 80’s style boom boxes (or ghetto blasters to use more historically accurate language.) The woman ringing me up asked if I lived in the area, and I looked at her stunned, realizing I had no clue what town I was in. Rolling back the days in my head, I remembered Indio, CA where it was 100 degrees. And Salt Lake City with the cool City Library and Japanese restaurant, then…nothing. We played some shows in Grand Rapids, but we left there the night before. So I replied “I’m not sure. Where are we?” Which must have seemed an improbable question to ask in the largest shopping mall in the world, which of course is located in Minneapolis / St. Paul, MN. She just smiled as if I was making a bad joke, took my money, gave me my belt and receipt. And I realized as I left the store that I was, at least temporarily unstuck in space and time once again.