Friday, March 20, 2009

"Peculiar Travel Suggestions" or "Finding Niagara"

So I read Cat's Cradle in one night, and came upon a superb quote the night before I embarked on a completely spontaneous, totally unplanned, fantastically unpredictable adventure with one Lindsey Mullen:

"Peculiar travel suggestions are dance lessons from God."


So we had a mantra. Then we had plane tickets, then we had two seats on a plane to the Buffalo/Niagara airport, and then we had a destination. And then we had the adventure.

If you want a play-by-play, there's twitter. If you want the highlights, there were friends we met on the bus that were always helpful, there were tiny birds that ate out of our hands about 10 yards from one of the most marvelous natural occurrences on planet earth, and there was a seriously beautiful stroke of divine intervention that led us to a positively fantastic hotel. Dearest thanks to Hotwire.com, your friendly neighborhood Buffalo airport security guard who also might be a drug dealer, and public libraries.

Buffalo and subsequently Niagara were, respectively, ghost-towns, but as Lindsey and I traveled the streets and public transit, we learned to appreciate it. It was quiet, chilly, and plenty of room to breathe. The houses in Buffalo have some of the most delightful-looking architecture I've ever seen, and we stumbled into a used book store full of hippies and a whole section of home-made zines. Sometimes whole streets would smell like garlic, and we danced to music playing from an outdoors store, and survived on nothing but crackers and clif bars. Then a doe-eyed little cheerleader from the church of Scientology gave us a free DVD.

The whole trip cost less than $300, including plane fare, hotel, food, and transportation. We only ate one real meal while we were there, and I think that the best way to appreciate food is to live on vending machine fare for a few days, then eat anything warm and soft. It'll be so good you'll insist it's manna from God himself, given only to you out of love.

It was a fantastic trip, and I didn't panic when we didn't have a place to stay, or when our friend Germaine tried to get us to stay in a hotel/front for human trafficking operation/crack house, or when Niagara was a town of abandoned buildings and closed Mediterranean food trailers.

My head was completely clear. It wasn't that I was making an effort not to think of my ex-boyfriend new happy-and-drug-free relationship, the work I have to get done for Apwonjo and graduation, papers and midterms, college sophomores who have still stolen my heart, my messy room, or my still foggy job prospects, but the thoughts weren't even there. I thought of nothing but Niagara falls, warm coats, Lindsey's smile, meeting new people, seeing new things, and appreciating how lucky I really am.

We only took video, no photos, so we'll take still shots from that later, and make a little travelogue. But for now, verbal description will have to suffice.

Friday, March 6, 2009

"There Is No Home Like The One You've Got, Cause That Home Belongs To You"

I need to go outside more. It just makes me feel good.



So yeah, I pretty much failed a midterm in one of my favorite classes. And yes, I got what can only be described as "royally rejected" from the guy that I've been gettin' weak in the knees for since November. And I've been worried about what to do after graduation, having no plans and no income, and every try in the job market collapsing like a flan in a cupboard.

But I have GOT to start remembering what I do have. Thanks, Tegan&Sara, for pumping all the sad girl lyrics you could through my speakers and into my veins, but let's take a break. It's a beautiful day outside, and tonight I go home to see my family and my dogs, and tomorrow I get to see Rutsky. I should be happy that I am starting to mend a friendship that I had no business breaking in the first place. I should be happy that I've got great friends and a good family and a nice computer and cowboy boots and a great job- even if it doesn't pay that well.

It's time to make spring break plans with my dream girl, and make some art to hang on people's walls, and cook lasagna and watch good movies and read Kurt Vonnegut and just go outside more.

<3<3<3gen

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

"I Just Want Back In Your Head" or "I Feel You In My Heart And I Don't Even Know You"

There are these two girls. They wrote a song about me,
and then they sent it to me. Now they live in my head.



"You Wouldn't Like Me", by Tegan and Sara

There's a war inside of me
Do I cause new heartbreak to write
A new broken song?
Do I push it down?
Or let it run me right into the ground?

Oh I, I feel like
I wouldn't like me if I met me

Well I can't stop talking for fear
Of listening to unwelcome sound
And you haven't called me in weeks and
Honestly, it's bringing me down

Oh, I, I feel like I wouldn't like me if I met me
I, I feel like you wouldn't like me if you met me



And don't you worry, there's still time
Don’t you worry, there’s still time

There’s nothing to live for
When I'm sleeping alone
And I wash the windows outside in
Hopes that the glare will bring you around

I, I feel like I wouldn't like me if I met me
I, I feel like you wouldn't like me if you met me



So you don’t you worry there’s still time
Don’t you worry there’s still time
So you don’t you worry there’s still time
Don’t you worry there’s still time
So you don’t you worry there’s still time
Don’t you worry there’s still time



Sunshine is days away
I won't be saved, I know all the words
I can't say that I'll love you forever
Sunshine is days away
I won't be saved, I know all the words
I won't say that I'll love you forever