Harrisburg to Londonderry, via NYC

I spent Sunday in H-burg with Jen.  Rather unexpectedly, we decided to get back together and try again.  This is very good.  I’m sort of freaking out.  If you’ve got questions, call me.

Anyway, Monday morning Ryan and I are supposed to catch a 5am train to NYC.  This didn’t happen.  We caught an 8am train instead, and it caused a sort of domino effect since we were supposed to go apple picking with Alex, Greta, Melissa, etc. in Croton Falls…

1. Because we missed the 5am train, we arrived late to the city.
2. Because we arrived late to the city, everyone left in the rental cars without us.
3. Because they left without us, we had to take a commuter rail up to Croton Falls.
4. Because we had to take a commuter rail, we had to go to Grand Central Clusterfuck where we spent an hour trying to find the right train/platform.

This whole thing was a huge pain in the ass and far more expensive than I ever imagined it would be.  I still paid a share for the rental car, I bought 2 different train tickets (E-town > Penn Station; Grand Central > Croton Falls), I spent 60 fucking dollars on dinner at this fancy restaurant, and then we saw a movie when we got back to the city.  Monday cost over $145.  That’s a lot of money when I’m living on the road.  That’s a week+ of my current lifestyle forfeited in a day.  Of course, it was a fun day.  We played a game called Apple Poaching while we were out there.  Essentially, instead of picking apples off of trees, you pick apples out of other people’s apple bags.  And we did.  It was pretty ridiculous/awesome.  And the meal was really good too, and I enjoyed the movie.  I really had fun, but the next day when I tallied it all up in my head, it was staggering.  And now, I’m back in NH where I will have to work a while before I can go where I love you all.  Blah.

Anyway, Tuesday I didn’t do a thing all day.  Wednesday I hung out with Jen and Lindsey who came in to town for the art trip; I saw the Met, we went to an H&M, we had Malaysian food.  Good times.

OH, this is fantastic.  I came back up to NH yesterday (Thursday).  I took the bus from NYC to Boston.  I chose the Fung Wah over the Lucky Star this time… wrong move.  Fifteen minutes into the trip, the bus dies on a bridge/overpass in Brooklyn.  Beautiful.  Fortunately, we only had to wait 15 minutes in the hot sweaty bus for them to send a second bus to pick us up and continue the journey.  Moral of this paragraph: LUCKY STAR.

Now, the next step is sort of terrifying me…  So I’ll provide more on that later…

Bussing, Wedding, Passing…out

So the wedding weekend was pretty fantastic.  I took a bus down to NYC on Tuesday after landing in Boston.  Thursday, Andy came down and met up with us, and we spent the rest of the day in the bus and then in Ryan’s car.  Thursday night we finally got to Zach’s pretty late after picking up beers and Cisco, and immediately began an alcohol-based celebration of his final single days.  Highlights may include, but are not limited to:

• beer pong
• flip cup
• thumper
• sevens, elevens & doubles
• failing to out-drink John Eyster (father of the groom)
• Ryan Reid saying some pretty fantastic things to the camera whilst inebriated
• waking up stark naked in the basement, very confused (the mystery remains unsolved)

The following day, on Wedding Eve, Ryan and I rolled back up to Hershey where Ryan went to the salon… yes.

We reconvened with the group in Reading Friday night for the rehearsal/awesome dinner.  Post rehearsal, we returned to York with Zach and watched Wedding Crashers.  Slept there.  Next morning, we wake up and get ready for the wedding.  We caravan four cars deep up to the wedding location, prep, and execute a fantastic ceremony. An even better reception followed, of course, and I may have had a few too many drinks(gin&tonics). I may have also been a “phenomenal dancer”.  Fortunately I did not throw up at the wedding, so that’s good.  I did throw up twice after we left though.*  Not so hot… Anyway, I felt fantastic the next day, so I guess it wasn’t such a big deal.

I’ll fill in my Sunday/Monday adventures later this evening.

*I really am not an alcoholic.  I have not consumed that much alcohol in quite a while.  That is all.

Sailing, Sailing…

In addition to a brief recounting of my last two days in Houston spent on the boat, this post will serve as an experiment in posting media to my blog.  I took my digital camera out on the boat Monday… so, here’s the boat:

I can caption!

It’s an older Catalina 25′, retractable keel, 9.9 hp outboard, and (in my opinion) there is more than enough cabin space below deck to fucking live in this boat forever.  And as if this boat wasn’t enough for me to fantasize about, there was a Cheoy Lee at the end of the dock named Patti Lynn.  The Patti Lynn has circumnavigated the globe as I understand it…

Learning to integrate media is fun!

The main boom is missing, and the mizzen boom is brand new, so I assume the owner is in the process of making this boat super awesome again… God it’s beautiful.  I want this boat, it has a wheel!  Anyway, next I’ll post a random picture of me looking very nautical and badass at the helm.

Caption!

Here are some other photos you can check out if you feel so inclined… just me and the sea:

So, that’s that.  Yesterday morning I woke up at 7:30am, got on an airplane, flew to Boston, where I landed at 5:15pm and went directly to South Station.  There I hopped on a Lucky Star bus for $15 and rode down to NYC, where they kick you out on the corner of Chrystie and Hester in china town.  I got into Ryan’s apartment about 11:30 pm last night.  I also read the entire book Freakonomics during this day of travel.  I’m cool like that.

Now I just need to figure out how I can keep living like this AND have companionship 24/7… I will have it all, goddammit.

Lonesome

Well, after San Antonio, we drove about 50 miles farther west, up to the Kerrville property for the day.  The Texas Hill Country really is beautiful; it almost made me want to go camping or hiking or some of that crazy shit.  The property is way outside of town, I’ll have to get some pictures up to give some perspective.  It’s absolutely in the middle of nowhere, totally silent, totally secluded.  After the pavement ended, we had to drive another mile and a half on dirt and gravel.  The entire area is teeming with deer too, I must have seen nearly 20 deer, not counting the ones in the game preserve areas.  They plan on building a cabin at the top of the hillside, between the two ravines on the property.  The whole area is covered in cedars too, with a few large oaks interspersed.  It was the first time that I wanted to stay in the woods for longer than a day.

After visiting the property, we stayed at a hotel and then came back to Houston.  Then tonight, I went and saw Katie Freed and Jen Mawer for margaritas at a restaraunt closer to the center of Houston.

So now I reflect:  In the last few months I’ve been floating around from coast to coast and state to state and I’ve been really enjoying myself, but two things stick out in my mind sorely.  (1) I really want to get out of the states, A LOT.  Admittedly, there are still several cities I want to see in the USA; Denver, San Francisco, Portland, Chicago, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame… but I need a bigger shock than the states can provide.  I thrive and learn and grow based on these new experiences, and the US is not providing me a drastically different experience from which I can grow.  (2) I miss physical intimacy SO MUCH.  I miss the immediate, tangible companionship.  It’s not sex that I miss, I just want someone else to experience this all with me, and to be close to me, and no one is able to fill this role currently.  I suppose that the positive side of that is that I’m more driven to stay in contact with my non-tangible friends since I still need someone to confide in, as most of us do.

These two concerns occupy a great deal of my absent-minded pensive-time.  I get caught up thinking about different women in my life, trying to fit someone into this empty space.  I can never settle it in my head though, I keep seeing the dilemna from different angles, and each angle lends itself to a totatlly unique solution… The more I ask myself these “what-if” questions, the more I think my head might explode.  The primary thing stopping me from doing something rash with all my obsessive contemplation is the fact that I see too many solutions to my problem, and I can’t just pick one.  For those of you who have seen me act impulsively with women, you realize that this could have serious ramifications depending on how my neuroticism leaks out of my brain…