Finding my Groove

I started the new school year in the dark. Thanks to the now infamous Irene I settled into bed early Sunday night with only the light of my headlamp to guide me. Yes, it would have been nice to know the coffee would be ready when I awoke at 6:00 AM on Monday but things don't always work out the way I want. I've learned that. Besides with people suffering from much more than loss of power up and down the east coast I considered myself lucky to be in my own bed without a tree coming through my roof.

I was happy to find my refrigerator humming when I came home yesterday and looked forward to a better start on Tuesday.

I woke up late this morning having set my alarm for 5:45 PM by mistake. The coffee failed as well. I had measured out the water as needed but somehow skipped the important add coffee step.

Sometimes it takes a little time to get back into the swing of things doesn't it?

School Supply Time

I have to say I was a bit envious of the young gal walking around Bed, Bath and Beyond today. Her mom was close by, clutching a shopping list and checking it twice as a younger sister pushed a cart full of everything that was sure to make her college dorm feel like home.

Maybe I was a little envious of the adventure she was about to embark on, but mostly I was jealous of all the cool stuff they have for college kids these days. Stores just didn't carry that kind of stuff 30 years ago when I headed off to school. My college shopping trip consisted of exactly five things: a green bucket that would be used to cart my supplies to the hall shower, a nice pink soap container, a brown bedspread, a small hotpot and a hot air popcorn machine.

I still have my pink soap container-surprising that it's moved with me over the past three decades. The bucket was re-purposed after college, it came in handy when washing my car. The hotpot got a lot of use during my four years of school--there were endless cups of coffee, noodle soups and mac and cheese (sometimes with a little tuna stirred in). I can't say what happened to that little hotpot, but I bet it was one of the things I threw in the dumpster the day I looked at all the stuff that wasn't going to fit into the car after graduation. The bedspread is still around. It now makes its home at a friend's beach house. Next weekend I'll meet up with a few friends from college at the beach and no doubt we will be lounging on that very blanket reminiscing about all the fun we've had since we first met so many years ago.

I did a little back to school shopping last week. I have a new plan book for the year and some new pens.

I'm ready for school.

Road Trippin' with Tina Fey

Many of my friends have shared the joy and satisfaction they find in audio books. Some use them as entertainment on long trips; others listen in as they run errands around town. Years ago I tried to listen to Personal History by Katharine Graham but found myself falling asleep and missing most of what was being said. I haven't had much use for audio books since.

Last week while cruising around the internet I came across an offer for a free audio book, with a 6-hour drive coming up in a few days it seemed like a good time to take Audible.com up on their offer. I downloaded Tina Fey's memoir, Bossypants.

Let me say this, Tina Fey makes for a helluva road trip partner. Sure she's no help with the navigational aspects of the trip, but what she lacks in map skills is easily made up in her ability to make me laugh. She taught me a few things as well. Thanks to Tina, I've got the basic rules of improvisational comedy down.

We spent about 5 hours together, enough time for me to know I'd let her ride shotgun any old time.

A Little Bit Of Beach Time

In the span of ten days I've travelled from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. Tonight I find myself in a small beach town on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Today's rainy, cloudy weather kept pretty much everyone except the fishing enthusiasts inside. It was a great day to do a bit of shopping and napping.

By about 6:00 pm the storms had passed and the sunshine streamed through the clouds. In turn, groups of people streamed from their rental houses and headed toward the beach. My group shuffled off with them.

Like everyone else that made their way over the dunes we knew that even one hour on the beach is better than no time all.

Travels with family

7,000 miles of travel from Virginia to California and back again...

Alexandria

Baltimore

Phoenix

San Jose

Santa Cruz

Salinas

Lost Hills

Anaheim

Venice Beach

Los Angeles

Studio City

Pacific Coast Highway

Monterey

Big Sur

San Jose

Phoenix

Baltimore

and finally back to Alexandria

Many miles, many sights and a whole bunch of pictures.

Fun?

Oh, yeah.

The Rewards of the Sky

Airline travel, the way it can so quickly and efficiently shuttle groups of people from one place on earth to another, is a pretty great thing. It can also be pretty boring.

I realized that three hours into my seven-hour journey from Baltimore to San Jose this morning. I looked around at the other people around me, some napping-others reading, and wished I had the focus they had while speeding along above the earth. Too many things distract me on a plane. If it's not the strange noises of the engine it's the bumps and dips that come out of nowhere. Sleep is difficult and reading more than a page or two in the span of 15 minutes is near impossible.

Of course there is always the reward of arriving at the destination. I stepped out into a glorious day in San Jose around noon this morning. The temperature hovered around 68 degrees and there wasn't a hint of humidity in the air. The azure sky was clear as far as the eye could see. It was a welcome change from the heat and humidity I left on the east coast. Three hours after my plane touched down I was enjoying the comforts of the hotel pool, my eyes squinting as they looked past the tall palm tree towards the sun. The boring plane ride pretty much left my head as soon as I stretched into a back float and felt the cool water lap up around my body.

Eagle Eye Cherry

I've spent the last few days going through the stacks and stacks of music CDs that I've accumulated over the last twenty-some years. It's funny, I clearly recall buying my first album--Boston's debut album with that infectious tune, "More Than A Feeling,"--but have no idea what the first music CD was that I purchased. Nor do I remember the first song I downloaded, legally or otherwise.

Today I made a discovery. The music I had that came out between the years 1989 or so to the mid 90s is pretty forgettable. I recognized a lot of the band names but when it came to the songs listed I was lost. Which ones had I liked? Was it worth holding onto or should I let it go?

I spent a few hours plowing through the music of the early 90s. In the end I downloaded about 1o0 songs from 78 different CDs.

Tomorrow I'll take a large grocery bag of "oldies with a few goodies" to see if the local Record and Tape Exchange is interested in buying what I no longer need. Maybe, just maybe, there will be a little bit of money in those foggy musical memories.