Joe On the Go

bada boom!

2010-02-20T21:54:00.000-05:00

New Yorkers continue to impress me with their kindness and sincerity. Today I got my haircut at the Carsten Insistute, which is a beauty school that specializes in a French technique of cutting hair, which from what I can tell is all about cutting free-hand. Normally I’d expect stylists in New York to be bitchy and say things like “honey, why were you born?” but she was extremely chatty and interested in me. She even gave me her card and told me to e-mail her so she could put me in touch with some of her friends who work in media. A similar thing happened at the theatre the other night. The girl I sat next to recommended specific temp agencies that deal with media and publishing jobs, gave me her card, and told me to e-mail her if I needed any help. I think New Yorkers have networking in their blood. They know that helping you could lead to returning a favor, and in this town favors are currency.
Never pay retail for anything, that’s what they say.
I really really really really want to stay here. I hope to start working this week, or else I might get scared. I can’t go home now, I’m just getting started!
Had dinner in the Upper East Side tonight with a really cool actor. He plays Chip on the touring production of Putnam County Spelling Bee. Dating in this city is like being a journalist; you meet a lot of interesting people with semi-important jobs in their natural state of being. Tomorrow I’m going to see Billy Elliott with Matt; he got free tickets from a friend. Favors = currency.
“A Behanding in Spokane” was a really funny play, and that’s really all I can say about it. There was no meaning to it, it was absurdist theatre, but the writing was good (if not needlessly shocking). I love Martin Mcdonagh, but I really hope he makes more movies. In Bruges was his best work on or off the stage. Sam Rockwell was amazing as the ex high school reject with dreams of saving a damsel in distress, Christopher Walken was right on point with his lines, if not a little too much like himself, Anthony Mackie sort of stole the show in my opinion, and the girl, Zoe something wasn’t bad either.
But the best performance I’ve seen anywhere this year came from Nicolas Cage, believe it or not. Werner Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” is a playground for Cage’s neurosis to take flight. You really have to see this.
Listening to Mr. Wade’s radio show out of Goshen College on a Saturday night. I like this.

2005 vs. 2010

2010-02-18T13:07:00.004-05:00

2005: had my heart broken in 2.5 days (Hi Dan). 2010: had my heart broken in 2.5 months!

2005: lived in the city of my dreams (Chicago). 2010: lived in the city of my newer dream (New York).

2005: just lost 50 pounds. 2010: just lost 40 pounds after gaining them back.

2005: thought my friends were my best friends. 2010: think my family are my best friends.

2005: confused about what i wanted to study. 2010: confused about what I wanted my career to be.

2005: thought taco bell tasted good. 2010: can only eat organic foods

2005: thought everything was expensive. 2010: freer to spend money on comforts

2005: relied heavily on parents. 2010: prefer to do things (mostly) on my own.

2005: no car. 2010: no car, and I actively protest owning one... take the subway! 2015: probably be living in the country with a car wondering how I ever got by without one.

LBJ took the IRT down to 4th st. USA

2010-02-17T23:02:00.002-05:00

I love HAIR. I also like that I completed two interviews at temp agencies this week. I almost didn't go to the one yesterday, because it was entirely voluntary, but I'm glad I got my lazy ass downtown because it turned out to be a really good learning experience. I dressed in a suit, even though the person who interviewed me had dread locks and a hemp shirt--I guess the dress code is for clients only. They had me do a short test. I was surprised at how bad my spelling and math were. We live in an age of spell check and calculators, it hardly crossed my mind to do any of it freehand. I did a typing test too, and got 42wmp. That's not great, but I was going for accuracy, not speed. The agent told me that he would make me a priority because I'm new to the city and I don't have any connections. He said he takes pride in helping people like me succeed, which I thought was really considerate.

I'm glad that I did the run through at the first agency, because the second one was the one I really wanted to make an impression on. They handled things a little more professionally. The office was beautiful and had a stunning view overlooking Bryant Park, the New York Public Library, and off in the distance, Times Square. I'd love to work in that office, or one similar to it in Midtown. Here they didn't test me, they simply had me fill out an application and discussed my skills, my preferences, and so on. The owner of the company even came in and did a run through to help me with the format of my resume. I hope they find soemthing for me in a media or publishing office.

I just realized that I started this with a lyric from Hair and then went on to explain how I'm whoring myself to corporate America. The irony!

Meeting people is easy

2010-02-15T23:06:00.001-05:00

I get the feeling that living in New York is quite different than it was ten, even five years ago. On every block there’s a Bank of America, Harlem is sprinkled with condo high rises among the projects, and they even managed to tear down Andy Warhol’s Factory building. Still, the spirit is here, it’s alive in the people who have watched the city change, and it’s in the minds of the young people who have ventured here to fulfill a dream—to live like a bohemian or make millions on Wall St. Due to increased rent, the artist scene doesn’t appear as alive in Manhattan as I hear it is in Brooklyn, but a creative air is still pungent. Just go to a bar in Chelsea and you’ll see that the Club Kid scene is still very much alive, even if it’s a bit watered down. Maybe we’re slightly inauthentic for thinking we can have the previous generations had, but if every generation defines itself and we get away just being the Copy Cat Generation, then that’s still a first. It’s a consolation prize for dodging the AIDS crisis and the mean streets of the 1970s.

Manhattan is still a Mecca for creatives of all types. On Friday I had a drink with a young composer, who has accomplished more at 23 than some artists accomplish in a lifetime. Well known on the classical music circuit, a small elitist group, and yet he asked me out for a drink. Listening to his stories was fascinating; we actually hit it off pretty well. I feel most at home with intelligence, even if it exceeds mine (in theory). His work has been performed at Carnegie Hall, Julliard, New England Conservatory, and according to Google, he’s the second most performed classical composer of his generation. He has an apartment in Manhattan, and he can be seen having a drink with me, or people like me, at any local dive.

Meeting people is easy. There are just too many around for it to not be. Last night I met up with a boy from Toronto at a trendy club space in Soho. It’s called Greenhouse, and it’s an eco-friendly colorfully lit lounge. While waiting in line I got picked up by a Brown graduate from Jersey who took me, the Toroto boy, and the Toronto boy’s friend to a dive bar called Barracuda in Chelsea. The men in this city far exceed any I’ve seen elsewhere in looks. It was nice to know that people still find me attractive, since I’ve been off my game for years. I’ve dated here and there, but haven’t done much bar hopping or gotten to know a stranger just for the sake of getting to know them. It’s a freeing experience, Manhattan. It can also grind you down if you let it. But if you have the right attitude, like riding the subway, and making phone calls, you can do a hell of a lot for almost nothing. Pay your rent, find things to eat, and the rest is up to the night and the city.

What do you do when your dreams come true?

2010-01-11T15:59:00.003-05:00

Only three weeks before I take the plunge--the move to Manhattan, New York, NY. It's something I've wanted to do since I moved to Chicago. I roamed the streets thinking "this is so great, the only thing that could be better is New York." And it is in many ways, though time has tought me to love places for my personal relationship to them, and for shear development in my young adult life I cannot thank Chicago enough, it is truly a great city, one that I would live in again if I ever return to the Midwest.
I have a room sublet for two months on 157th St. and Broadway, in Washington Heights. It's a small 9x12 furnished living room with a door. I couldn't ask for anything more. It's one half block to the 1 train which services all of Manhattan down through the Upper West Side, Columbus Circle, Times Square, Herold Square, allll the way down to South Ferry, which I guess takes people to Staten Island or the Statue of Liberty. I couldn't be happier about living in Manhattan, though I would have settled for Brooklyn, or even Queens.
So here it finally is... the one thing I've always known for sure that I wanted--to live in the city of dreams. It motivates me, inspires me. The thought of it hugs me when I go to sleep.

elation

2009-08-25T00:09:00.002-04:00

I can't describe how much I enjoyed Inglourious Basterds. Cinema is my first love, I don't have the drive to create my own, but I truly appreciate it and always have since I was a little boy watching Disney cartoons. Not only is it an escape, but a way to dream and in many cases, a way to better oneself. Like a good song or book, films can help you through a rough time or instill wisdom. I've often been surprised when a film helped me work out a problem that I had been having. It's the idea that we're not alone in our feelings. When a filmmaker has the courage to try to depict truth, or an actor plays a role in a sympathetic way, our horizons are instantly broadened and we are opened up to new possibilities. So to all the good filmmakers out there, I say thank you... I don't know what I'd do without you.

Saturday in Boston

2009-08-16T18:28:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I spent the entire day in Boston and it was one of the most enjoyable days I've had in a long time. One of my favorite joys in life is being in a city completely alone, moving from one place to another and just checking things out. I started at the MFA (Museum of Fine Art). It was the last day of the special exhibit on the Venetian Renaissance works of Titian, Tinteretto, and Veronese--it was jam packed, but enjoyable. The museum also houses some amazing collections of Chinese, Japanese, and Egyptian artifacts. Afterward I started walking--I wasn't sure where I was in relation to everything, but the nice thing about small-large cities is that you're never too far from anything. I walked through Northeastern's campus, which is set up like Loyola a bit. You can't turn around without seeing a university in Boston. Outside of a music college in a park there were students in a drum circle. It was magical to witness that. I kept walking and ran into Fendway park where the Red Socks play--it reminded me of Wrigley Field. Then I crossed the highway on the bridge and ended up on Newberry St. which is the shopping and district of Back Bay. I found a nice underground coffee shop called Cafe Espresso and read the Boston Phoenix (Boston's independent paper, like the Chicago Reader and Seattle Stranger). I walked up commonwealth ave. and looked at some beautiful houses, walked through the public gardens, which are beautiful and ancient (as much as any American establishment can be). They have statues of the ducks from the children's book "Make Way for Duckings," which I read as a kid. I guess the public gardens are where that book takes place. I never knew it until now.

I walked past Cheers again on my way to Beacon hill, one of the oldest and most beautiful neighborhoods in Boston. I stopped and had a slice of pizza as a small parlor there. I walked back through Boston Common and headed to Chinatown, which is fairly sizable. There I picked up the last half of the Freedom Trail that I didn't finish the first weekend we were here. It took me to the North End, which is basically Little Italy mixed with historic buildings and sites of the American Revolution. I crossed the bridge to Charelstown where the trail ends at the Bunker Hill monument, which looks much like the Washington Monument in D.C. only older, shorter, and fatter. It's the Danny Devito of those kinds of monuments. I was so exhausted from walking that I took the T back... it seems clean and efficient as far as subways go. I took the commutor rail back to framingham and hiked the two miles back to the apartment. All in all it was a full, fun day.

Sorry about the rush... I'm kind of writing lazy lately.

Rambling boy why don't you settle down?

2009-08-16T17:59:00.003-04:00

I don't know why anyplace isn't good enough for me right now. I'm happy to be close to Boston at the moment, especially after the "white out" period of my life--aka Nashville. I'm still not sure I can pick just one place to settle down in. I like New England and it has its many perks including gay marriage laws, free health care, culture, and it's not the bible belt, but then I think "what about California, New York, Seattle, and Chicago? And don't get me started on European cities. I realize sometimes you have to take what you get before you lose what you have, but dammit, what can you do when you want everything?

Ideally the perfect job for me would be one where I could live in New York or LA, and and travel to Chicago, Seattle, and Boston often... that way I would live in a place I love and be able to see all my favorite people several times a year. They're all spread out so this would be better than moving close to a few of them. Traveling is kind of an obsession of mine--I need to have my cake and eat it too. I make list rankings of my favorite cities to help me organize my opinions on where I want to live... here they are:

1. New York
2. Los Angeles
3. Chicago
4. San Francisco
5. Boston
6. Seattle
7. New orleans
8. Santa Fe, NM
9. Washington, D.C.
10. Las Vegas
11. San diego
12. Minneapolis
13. Salt Lake City
14. Portland
15. Nashville

Miami, Austin, Phoenix, Atlanta, and Philadelphia I don't have an opinion on because I haven't visited there. Denver and St. Louis are too lame to rank. The top 6 are the ones I'm mainly concerned with. This is really neurotic, right? Most people choose where to live based on family and jobs... I need perfection. I am thankful that we have so many great cities in the United States... a lot of countries are stuck with only one--the capital. I could easily enjoy a life here in the USA, but I also want to visit other continents like Asia and South America before I get too old.

Still I think that if you're biggest problem is how you're going to travel the world, you're doing pretty good.

ch-ch-ch changes

2009-08-12T21:57:00.004-04:00

Hello. It's been awhile since I've updated. For awhile I was feeling embarrassed by my rustiness--I haven't written professionally in ages, and I have pride about my writing: if i don't think it's good, then it's bad. But then I go back and read it later and it doesn't seem bad at all. Since I last wrote I went on a month long road trip across the USA con mi padre (I'm studying Spanglish at the moment). We stopped in the following places for varying lengths of time... I'm sure you can surmise where we stayed longer and where we just stopped for the night:

Tulsa, Oklahoma
Oklahoma city
Amarillo, TX
Santa Fe, NM
Albuquerque, NM
Flagstaff, AZ
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Yosemite National Park
Sacremento
San Francisco
Highway 1
Fort Bragg, CA
Portland, OR
Seattle
Spokane, WA
Yellowstone National Park
Salt Lake City
Fort Collins, CO
Denver
Somewhere in Kansas
St. Louis
and back to Nashville

It looks like this (western part only):

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=106257293650439657765.00046ecce00e65bde5d5a&ll=37.370157,-92.373047&spn=36.053595,79.013672&t=h&z=4

It seems like Fleetwood Mac's summer tour, but it was my life... it was great... pictures are on Facebook.

Oh, also, I live in Boston now. Well, actually Framingham, MA, but it's close to Boston. It's great to be on a coast and near a decent city again. Life is easier for a thinking person when you're away from the south, the midwest, and some of the other inbetween states. I feel less safe in Wyoming than I do in NYC, for instance. Framingham is a very diverse town, there are a lot of people from Brazil and India, but also from everywhere else. My boss is from South Africa, for instance, and I'd say one in every two people I've met wasn't born in the USA. I work at a local coffee shop called Panache Coffee. They serve organic coffees and are involved with the community. I'm happy to be making money and am already storing away for my next trip. I have a free flight to take with Southwest before October, so I'll either go to Seattle to see Louis, Arian, Elyse, and Nate or go to San Francisco to see this boy I've been talking to for the last four months. I feel like an honorary citizen of Seattle since I'm there so often... I even keep track of their independent newspaper, The Stranger, on facebook.

I was going to rant about republicans and Fox News and lies and the lying liars who tell them, but I think I'll save it. hmm... another update is coming soon.

I'm better at love, you're failing miserably.

2009-04-04T01:25:00.005-04:00

Dear so and so,

Happiness belongs to people like me. I’m not what you and yours call “different,” I am merely living. I belong to a group that is decidedly against your religion and so my life will always be measured as substandard in your eyes. Just because a preacher or a conservative talk show host made a sweeping statement to the tune of “homosexuals are unhappy,” you think that my life and my pursuit of happiness should follow the same track as your so called happiness, which I know isn’t really happiness, just what you have settled for. Your marriages fail, you get dumped, people cheat on you, sometimes you can’t conceive, you wish your spouse would die—these are normal "hetero problems," but when they are my problems it is because of my “condition.” Fuck that! I don’t have a condition, I am happy, well, I was until you came along. I am unusually happy for my kind, not that our kind isn’t as diverse as any other group, but I have hope, self respect, and a sense of dignity. I know many gay men and they are beautiful creatures in my eyes. I wouldn’t be happy marrying a woman, so that’s one strike against obtaining happiness by living your lifestyle. No matter what you do or say we will all be allowed to get married soon, because people with spirit and intelligence always beat oppression and ignorance eventually. Always.

I have hope because of a smile. I cannot say whose it was, or how many there were, but I saw a promise between two gleaming eyes and a pair of soft rogue lips. We’re people, not machines, we don’t love based on an idea, we love because we fall in love—with his gentle voice, a distant thumping heart carrying blood to every corner of his frame, to every feature on his face.

So what if I never have a love that lasts a lifetime? I’m happy to be alive in any capacity. I want to share a moment for a moment, if that’s all the time it lasts. I can go anywhere--any old place, and find a new romance, a new sunset, a new batch of stars to breathe under. I’ll never stop dreaming! It’s a gift--no, a luxury, and as long as my needs are being met I can do it whenever I want. There’s no limit to what I can think about, no ladder to climb, no mental prison so heavily guarded that I can’t think of an escape route. Love doesn’t have boundaries either, and while we’re at it… neither does sex.

The point of all this, though I’m not sure how well I’m making it, is basically FUCK the mentality of "what’s good for me is good for you," because that is far from truth. Instead of worrying about this we should be focused on how to give as much love as possible, accommodate those with needs other than our own--set them free to enjoy their own happiness. Unless your kick of watching others squirm is the only thing keeping you alive, and it seems to be for some of you (Sean Hannity, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh), mind your own happiness! I can’t fathom the reasons why our happiness makes you upset besides some sick power trip.

A new day is coming. Those who cling to the old will perish from the Earth. I could write a new Bible, and write you out of it.

Are you playing your love games?

2009-03-22T18:24:00.002-04:00

I’m celebrating because I just shipped off an application to be a counselor at a camp in France that specializes in teaching French kids about American culture. I think I’ll leave out the bit about “liberty fries” if I get in. The sun is really shining today—I’m glad that I got out for a couple of hours at least. Driving around in the sun, listening to Depeche Mode, smelling the greasy food wafting out of all the restaurants and all the other wet hot American summer scents that have garnished every summer of my life on this planet really remind me why I like to be home during the summer. I look forward to driving in the heat, going to the beach, getting drunk outside, the renaissance faire, and concerts. I wonder if any of that will happen this summer. Hopefully, if I'm still here.

I finished reading “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro last night. Its heart wrenching, but I recommend it for a strange and sad literary experience. I also recommend everyone watch the show “The Mighty Boosh” online. I first saw it in Ireland last year, and I’m surprised how many people know about it here, even though it has never aired or been distributed on DVD in the US.
Here’s a clip:

I could go on all day about what shows you should watch or what you should do online, which makes me second guess spending three months at a camp, but I guess it’s always good to switch things up and go Ralph Waldo Emerson on your own ass. I will always love movies, funny YouTube videos, and certain TV shows the most.

If promises were cupcakes, we'd all have diabetis

2009-03-19T17:36:00.001-04:00

Excuse me for neglecting you, mister blog. I seem to have forgotten the reasons why I made you in the first place. Originally I wanted to write about my European trip last year, but now I think I’ll just continue on with regular posts until I feel inspired to write about the past again.

I read an article yesterday by Roger Ebert about how only 10% of Americans have traveled outside their country. I agreed with the article, though sometimes Mr. Ebert has a way of being somewhat accusatory about reasoning for not experiencing the world and different ideas. I tend to subscribe to the same manner of thinking—I get upset when I listen to ethnocentricity, especially in the series of small towns I’ve managed to live in. But luckily I also had the opportunity to live in Chicago, which is sort of gateway to the rest of the world in a sense. It’s not quite as diverse as NYC, but it has a good representation of many different ethnic groups and social subcultures. I see Chicago as the Midwesterner’s best bet of understanding what the world is really like, unless of course he ventures out of the region. I’m getting off track—Ebert quoted Mark Twain who said:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."

Ebert went on to discuss prejudices, and made the remark: “I suspect some Americans believe there is something wrong with people who don't live here--not that we want them to immigrate, God forbid. If you have a friend who has even once referred to a foreign language as "jabber," travel far away from that friend, whose whole neighborhood is likely to be poisonous.”

I feel like I keep getting stuck in these “poisonous neighborhoods.” I’ve met some people I love in said places, but deep down in my soul it’s never been enough for me. I always have fantasies of moving everyone I love to the heart of New York City, so we could carry out our lives without the slow poisoning bitterness of our towns, who really can’t help but suck some life out of us, mentally. I try not to let it be a burden, but it might be the very reason I cannot find a job in these towns—not so much because there are none (even though the economy is awful right now), but because I can’t stand the thought of being stuck out there for a long period of time—that might cause me to lose hope entirely. Call it irresponsibility, I am after all a pretty fickle, fly by the seat of my pants kind of person (most Sagittarius’s are)—but maybe it’s just a refusal to accept certain ways of living.

Here is what I promised myself when I was in Europe: “Never again will I live somewhere where freedom of expression is lost or non-existent, where art isn’t valued, where people don’t accept differences living side by side with them. “ I was so happy to be surrounded by all of that then, and I let myself down by moving to Nashville, even though I know its temporary, its already causing me to lose some of that hope I once had to always be where I could only be mentally stimulated, not poisoned.

Here’s the blog I referenced earlier: http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/03/a_slow_boat_to_anywhere.html

Standing at the edge of tomorrow, and its all up to me how far I go

2009-01-29T04:02:00.002-05:00

I have started actively looking for a job. Strange how these days that does not require leaving your house or even putting on clothes, and I'll be damned if I wear clothes when it is not required. I spent about a month doing absolutely nothing. That is ok once you have finished 16+ years of school and are about to embark on decades of nonstop work. I still have very little idea about what I want to do. I used to know, but that was then and my interests have shifted. I guess most of what I'm interested in lies in places outside the USA. I like learning about different cultures and studying world history. On my bedside table I have a copy of Edith Hamilton's Mythology and a book about the Berlin wall. I want to go abroad again. I applied to a teaching position in Korea, but of coures everything that sounds good in theory could turn into a nightmare. It could also be one of the best experiences of my life. I suppose even if it turns out to be a nightmare, I'll be happy someday that I lived through it.

I guess it comes down to how willing I am to step out of my comfort zone. Most everyone I know on blogger is abroad at the moment. Wendy is in Korea, Nick in Nepal, Jake in Japan, two people are in China. I just feel kind of stuck, like I want to sit in one of my dad's spare bedrooms and just see the outside world through this computer screen and watch british television wishing I were somewhere else but never actually getting dressed and going outside. I spent a month doing it... and the scary part is that I don't hate it. But I have made steps in getting out, and once I do I'll remember what its like to participate in the world.

End of the fall semester, back to indiana, and on to Ireland

2009-01-14T18:58:00.001-05:00

After school ended I felt like I was done with education for good. I left Chicago to come home because I had signed up to go to Ireland for my last semester of college. I had taken out a lot of student loans to cover the cost of this trip, though I spent a lot of it before leaving on things I needed to prepare myself for the trip, including necessities that were not a priority: new clothes, lots of food, movies, a trip to New York, etc. I was pretty bad with money, but I've decided to forgive myself. There were a series of lasts: last visit with my friend Ashley, last supper with mom, Nicole, Jon, and Justin, last visit to Chicago. I though I would be gone for four months and that was frightening at the time, though now it seems like nothing. I slowly packed my giant Samsonite suitcase with the items I had accumulated in recent weeks. The night before the flight I barely slept. The next morning I was so nervous but could hardly think about what was coming after the flight. I had never flown over the ocean before, and the thought scared me. First I thought I had better get to Ireland before I can decide what happens next. It was my first time at O'hare's International departures wing. I loved the possibilities of being able to go anywhere in the world from this particular hub, that there were people present who likely lived in India, Japan, Indonesia, Israel, France, Spain, Turkey... everywhere. The whole wide world was in that airport, just as they were in every International airport in the world. I took a long time to say goodbye to my mom, hugging her for a good 20 minutes. I knew it would be the last hug I'd get for awhile. I felt particularly uneasy about going. Limerick was never the first place on my list to visit or live, I would be spending the same amount of money as I would at Loyola and then some on a school in a tiny dirty Irish town, and I only did it because I wanted to see London, Paris, and Italy. Big mistake. I eventually chickened out... I didn't know what else to do... it was not where I intended to be or wanted to be at the time, though now I probably would stick it out, now that I have graduated and seem faced with more limited travel options. But self forgiveness is key, so is remembering how much you despised the situation you were in. We tend to make a big deal out of situations where we had an opportunity and took a different one... one thinks about the time he could have spent in one place and regrets the missed opportunity, all the while forgetting the adventure that took its place.

I finally came to my terminal after buying some air-born vitamins and that stuff that's supposed to help with motion sickness. I had all of it while waiting, it made my stomach hurt. At this time i was less healthy then I am now. I was more overweight and stuffed myself to the limit almost all the time. I looked around the terminal, trying to decide who was Irish and who was American. I listened for the accents. I wanted to have a little clue what to expect when I stepped off the plane. We boarded a little late. I was happy to see that the plane was nearly empty, I moved to the center and had the entire row to myself. There were a few TVs in the ceiling, not in the back of the seat like I hoped, but they played Across the Universe and a game show set in Dublin. I enjoyed it. The ride was smoother then I imagined, thanks to the larger plane. When I gained the courage, I moved to the windows and scoped out the peaceful darkness of being at a very high altitude over the Atlantic. I was surprised to an island with lights on it... I still don't know what it was, out there in the middle of the Atlantic. I'm pretty sure we were too far south for it to be Iceland, but it had a comforting mystery too it... who knows what really goes on out in the Ocean. Between California and Hawaii there is an ocean garbage dump twice the size of Texas... who know... a continent of garbage. The stewardesses were friendly Irish ladies. They served chicken, cheese, potatoes, and cheesecake, tea, and coffee. Most of the time I just layed there and thought about were I was going, and what I had just left behind. When I arrived in Ireland, it would be six in the morning, six hours later then it was at home. At home the night was just starting, in Ireland the sun had just come up. We landed, I was so tired. They took my picture to make sure I signed up for my visa in Limerick and wasn't just hanging out in the country. I bought a bus ticket to downtown Dublin from a clerk, who exchanged my money for me. I realized I had lost a lot of money by exchanging cash at the airport in Chicago. I took my giant suitcase on the bus with me, not noticing the undercarriage where it was supposed to go. That was a little embarrassing carrying it off the bus when we finally reached Dublin. I had no idea how to find the hostel. I dragged my suitcase across the cobblestone sidewalks in front of Trinity College. It was packed, I felt like i was back in New York, just people wall to wall. Finally a nice older man directed me to the hostel. I had to carry to 70 pound suitcase up the stairs. I was exhausted to say the least. I tried taking a nap, but it was difficult. I wanted to see what was outside. I layed down for a couple of hours and then returned to the street.

New Blog

2009-01-14T18:55:00.001-05:00

Hi. Welcome to my new blog. Most of the blogs I read now are on this site. I had a livejournal for a few years... there's a lot of my recorded history there. See it for events leading up until now. (http://bloodredmoon.livejournal.com/) I started this because I wanted to finally write about my trip to Europe last year, because I feel as though its slipping away, and finally one year later, I feel like writing it down. It's a great deal longer then I expected. The first entry just brings me to landing in Ireland. Perhaps the entries will get shorter and i forget more and more. I hope you enjoy... I will also post about current events in my life, which are somewhat less interesting.