The first-ever Firefly Music Festival descended upon the Dover International Speedway from July 20^th-22^nd  with a lineup boasting acts with profiles so high, one was forced to contemplate whether both artists and fans could simultaneously fit within the state’s modest borders (one in, one out?).  Every hotel within 30 miles advertises “No Vacancies- Welcome Firefly!” Telltale campground sprawls around the gates; weekend homes for the braver souls.

1. Move to New York. Begin online dating when it still has a stigma. Mortify your mother.

2. After ten years of shacking up, marry your favorite German. Leave all belongings in New York and begin life as a vagabond in your honey’s hometown, Berlin.

It was June. Anna was subletting from a traveling friend, hoping a strange city would inspire her to write and to reach a decision about a man. I was crashing on a friend’s sofa, avoiding a waning relationship back home and struggling with the early pages of my own book. Together, we slunk through a steamy New York City, lovelorn and confused and roasting in the heat.