Movin' Along

Nothing like a tightly contained panic attack at work...

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 12:36:06 -0400

…because you made the mistake of double-checking your student loan payment date and discovered that somehow, in the past week, your repayment amounts have doubled. Hopefully I can knock those back down to size in the next few days, because otherwise I may have to resort to less savory ways of earning the money to scrape my way up from the black hole of debt that college in America creates.

Someone please explain to me why this is the way it is.

My only comfort here is that I can plainly state, “I cannot pay you this money,” and they’ll have to work with me. Does it feel good knowing that I’ll be paying for my three years at university for the next forty? No. But I knew going in that our system is a fucked up mass of tracks and spokes that is incapable of carrying anyone without outstanding scholarships or well-off parents anywhere better than “interest-only”.

Caught a rainbow somewhere outside of Chicago. The trains...

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 20:23:47 -0400

Caught a rainbow somewhere outside of Chicago.

The trains heading back East are all slower, delayed, losing time; logic tells me that this is coincidence or luck, but the inevitable pensive fog that comes with long hours of near-total silence wonders whether the trains reflect the moods of so many passengers: they don’t want to leave the West Coast, land of opportunity and relaxation, for the cooler and more frantic promises of Boston and New York City.

I’m different, of course. I’m looking forward to the familiar humidity and collected essence of the East Coast. My album for this train ride - 36 hours of travel between St. Paul and Boston - is The Antlers’ Hospice. It’s good music to listen to when you’re feeling drawn up inside yourself, reflective, on the slow road home.

Foofy tiki bar drinks in the lovely Twin Cities area! I stayed...

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 16:23:16 -0400

Foofy tiki bar drinks in the lovely Twin Cities area! I stayed with a wonderfully dorky pair of couchsurfing hosts in St. Paul, and sampled the area’s selection of cocktails and pizza. For the most part, ‘twas excellent. However, for the good of the nation, I must warn you to stay away from beet vodka. Unless you love beets; who knows, I won’t judge.

More details to come when I’ve managed to secure some non-plastic food.

Pretty pretty.

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 17:13:32 -0400

Pretty pretty.

Montana...

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 17:08:40 -0400

…is by and large a beautiful state. Pictures to follow.

However.

I must advise that you never, ever go to Shelby.

It is a town with more casinos than roads, and everything is inexplicably closed on Tuesdays. It does have a quiet, dim truck stop (attached to a casino) in which two aging Canadian bikers bought my dinner in exchange for stories from the road, but as they were not from Shelby, I cannot in good faith use them to endorse the place.

Photo

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 01:08:23 -0400

Seattle wins. It’s got the mountains, the trees, the not-too-hot weather, the beautiful...

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 00:01:45 -0400

Seattle wins.

It’s got the mountains, the trees, the not-too-hot weather, the beautiful architecture, the incredibly open-minded people, the awesome seafood… I really like this city. Plus, bonus, I got to see the 4th of July fireworks from a prime balcony on the edge of the lake. Biggest fireworks show I’ve ever seen. Imagining how many of my college loans could have been paid off with the money Seattle spent on 20 minutes of colorful explosions pains me.

In other news, I also lost my wallet there. Somehow. Not to worry, as my mom overnight’d me my passport, and I have an emergency credit card; I am choosing to take it as a blessing. Now I have an excuse to get a new license that doesn’t make me look like a skinhead. Ah, the joys of being 17 and not particularly photogenic…

Let's talk about San Francisco.

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 15:12:14 -0400

Most people I know who’ve ever lived in SF are of the opinion that everyone, at some point, should live there. I’ve always been relatively skeptical, considering my bias against the West Coast.

But.

Listen, everyone… you should probably live in San Francisco for a while.

I’ve been staying with a small collective of college friends on Mission Street, which is a fairly dive-y, splendid part of town a short walk from the Castro. (By the way, can I just take a moment to tell you all how lovely it is to see two middle-aged men, one black, one white, strolling along hand in hand? Very lovely, to be clear.) So far I’ve been to a large open-air market (millions of mushrooms, herbs, veggies, spices, trinkets, etc.) and a park that was overflowing, at 6pm, with people getting high and drinking beer and throwing balls for their dogs. Kites, music, and folks wandering around collecting empty bottles. Yesterday also happened to be the 21st birthday of my good friend Brian, and while we spent most of the day lounging around indoors (or giving impromptu haircuts after the requisite midday mimosa and tequila shot) (don’t worry, not my hair), I had the honor of watching that kid buy his first beer at a trashy, loud, beautiful pit of humanity called the 500 Club at 11:46pm.

This city knows what’s up, I’m pretty sure. It knows how to have fun, and - more importantly, unlike New York - it knows how to chill the fuck out. People here seem happy. Excited. Capable of forgiving themselves their daily sins with the sweet confidence that we are, all of us, in this muddled world as a team and… honestly? It’s gonna be okay.

California coastline is admittedly beautiful. So is the...

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 15:51:04 -0400

California coastline is admittedly beautiful.

So is the argument happening behind me, in which our two stewards (one Mexican, one white) discuss Obamacare.

Mysterious happenings on the Sunset Limited

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 00:37:10 -0400

I got to the Amtrak station in Tucson about 20 minutes early, having split up the walk with a stop in Cafe Passé (which advertised a drink called Mexican ice water that sounded dangerous) for a bagel and a local, unpronounceable beer. I was greeted by a whole passel of cops and Amtrak agents - more than I’d seen at any stop - and, for the first time on this trip, someone asked to see my ID.

They were combing the train for someone in a white t-shirt who had purportedly managed to slip through their mighty fingers and had been spotted in a restaurant attached to the station. We left 40 minutes late, and I don’t believe they ever found the gentleman in question.

Possibly he smoked on the train. They take that seriously these days.

View from the roof of Havoc. One of the mountains has a giant...

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 12:32:14 -0400

View from the roof of Havoc. One of the mountains has a giant star-spangled A on it; I didn’t feel the need to capture that for posterity…… ‘Merica’s already got that shit covered.

Not that this land is sacred to people who still live here or anything.

I have done the “break into a pool to go swimming with a guy you met an hour ago” thing...

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 18:50:46 -0400

I have done the “break into a pool to go swimming with a guy you met an hour ago” thing now.

Outside the bike co-op near the house I’m staying in in...

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 17:02:47 -0400

Outside the bike co-op near the house I’m staying in in Tucson. The place is covered in sculptures; everything is made out of bike parts. Inside, a workshop, an art studio, a welding area, thousands of bikes and locals doing their thing.

I helped Clifford - one of the many transients who live here in Havoc House, staying for a few months and leaving their own interesting flavor to the overall taste of the building - deliver a pile of unused and broken bikes from the backyard to the co-op. If it weren’t for the heat, I could see coming back here to live for a while… But then there is the heat.

I feel like this is finally what trains are really supposed to...

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 09:26:19 -0400

I feel like this is finally what trains are really supposed to look like outside.

Also, we just passed a town with no grocery store. People have to drive 67 miles to buy food. Whoa.

So Texas is hot. I walked the two miles to a used bookstore today at around 11:30, and was grateful...

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:26:41 -0400

So Texas is hot. I walked the two miles to a used bookstore today at around 11:30, and was grateful that it was only 90 out. By the time I bought a $3 horror novel and a salad and headed back at 1:30, it was 99. In a few hours it’ll be hovering at around 106 degrees. I stopped in a dollar store and picked up some more sunscreen and a straw hat, because much as I love sunburn and tanning… Sweet Jesus, team. The sky is endless, and the city is low; there is very little between the sun and your face.

This hostel is worlds apart from the one I visited in New Orleans. It, too, is an old-school mansion, but has not been at the mercy of 60 years of hippies and hipsters. It’s gorgeous, all old wood and grand winding staircases; my room - which I share with one other girl, instead of seven - has a fridge and a TV. I bought some Lone Star and watched Jeepers Creepers, and you know what? It was awesome.

Most of my time here has been spent in the pool or walking. There aren’t a lot of people around, not outdoors, because of the heat. But every man who drives past stares at me; I don’t think freckled blonde girls are common around here. It’s unnerving. Still, I’m grateful for the down time. I’ll be couch-surfing or staying with friends from here on out, so this is my last chance to be quiet and sunbathe and read a bargain book with no plans to go party or explore.

How they pick up girls in Texas:

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 13:32:31 -0400

“Hey, there, chicky…”

“You got a man?” *…nods* “Damn. Lucky, lucky guy.”

San Antonio, how can I resist your menfolk?

16 hour train ride to San Antonio underway; I now know way too much about the effects of getting...

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 14:03:57 -0400

16 hour train ride to San Antonio underway; I now know way too much about the effects of getting steroids injected into your hips. Thanks, random Texan lady who spent two hours without a word to me and then felt the need to explain every painful detail of what ails you.

This is the sign advertising Jacques Imo’s, the restaurant...

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 10:27:15 -0400

This is the sign advertising Jacques Imo’s, the restaurant where I ate alligator cheesecake and shrimp jambalaya, washed down with a watermelon mohito with fresh chunks of watermelon floating around. New Orleans is a great city for food: charbroiled oysters coated with garlic and butter tossed into the fire 3 or 4 times, beignets covered with powdered sugar, spicy hashbrowns on top of bacon (crispy, of course), Cajun gumbo with fresh bread…

Also, if you’re ever in town on a Friday, hit up NOLA Brewery for a free tour and as much free beer as you can handle at 2pm, and finish off the evening with Free Fridays at Tipitina’s: I met up with a few excellent folks off of Reddit.com to take in the show. We saw Flow Tribe, a 6-person band native to NOLA and similar to Trombone Shorty and co. I will definitely be checking them out.

Among those I met, Melissa is a programmer kind enough to drive me around; Sasha is a wanderer on his way to San Francisco; Eddie is a Tulane junior who offered to lend me a bike; Barrett is a bartender who gave me dozens of suggestions of nifty things to do; Erik is a twenty-something aimless postgrad who bought me a drink and made sure I got home safe at 2am. Above all else, what struck me about New Orleans is its unbelievable friendliness. Any time I looked visibly lost, a stranger on the street stopped to give me directions - and they were always correct, no less! This is a place that takes community seriously: everyone who lives there now is stubborn, proud, and determined to keep the bons temps rouler-ing.

Oh, and I recommend the India House Hostel. Colorful, huge, full of people trying to speak English at each other, and a guy who shows up at 9-ish to make omelets for a dollar an egg. Although! The door to my room. Everything about my room, in fact. I have never heard such creaking in my life. Imagine a frog being unexpectedly - but firmly - squeezed mid-croak, and you have the sound each of the 8 beds made when someone flinched. The door was more of a loving, drawn-out whine. Delightful in the middle of the night.

Overall, though… This place gets my full approval.

I’ve been trying to come up with a really good way to say this, but… I really...

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:28:53 -0400

I’ve been trying to come up with a really good way to say this, but… I really don’t need to be more eloquent than this: New Orleans is the shit.

I’ll post a more detailed and quippy rundown of why that is in a few days, but know this: I accidentally stumbled upon Bourbon Street at around 11am this morning, and a man said, “Hey, honey, come in and have fun!” He wanted me to go have a drink at a gentleman’s club that promised both beautiful and ugly girls. I suggested that I might just do that, at a time that wasn’t pre-noon, and he laughed. This city scoffs in the face of common sense, as evidenced by the whole hurricane issue. And I love it.

This is what $2.50 will get you for breakfast on an Amtrak...

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 11:51:53 -0400

This is what $2.50 will get you for breakfast on an Amtrak train. They microwaved the bagel, which came in its own little sealed package. I paired it with Godiva chocolate and minimal discomfort.

We are currently chugging through Alabama. I wish I could take better pictures of what’s outside, but alas, I am unable to capture the charm of my favorite store, “Cows And Horse Feed” (…feed whom? Feed WHAT?!), or the hand-painted NO LOITERING sign outside a ramshackle, faded cottage that struck me as oddly moving. This is the very rural South now, and it feels old; manmade colors are not as bright as you think they must have been fifty years ago, and everything is covered in rust. None of it seems unloved, but rather like whoever lives here understands something about permanence that other people have given up in favor of the latest architectural trend (looking at you, Cleveland) or the hippest pair of jeans.

Now, don’t get me wrong; I’ve always romanticized this sense of the South. I’m from a fairly rural pocket of Virginia, myself, and grew up around barns - cracked red paint and all - and gravel and people who spoke in smooth, comfortable drawls. But I do think there’s something different down here, something in the air. All of those things everybody says about the South: time moves slower here, people are more polite and less harried, etc…. That, and the fact that this part of the country is covered in kudzu. Seriously, it’s, watch out.