Blog Archives
Ma belle
10:55 pm | 7 | Blog | Girly, Places
Did you know that some Canadians, when they are traveling overseas, prominently display maple leaf icons and Canadian flags so that they do not get mistaken for USians*?
Somehow a few years ago I came into the possession of two tiny Canadian flag lapel pins. C and I have joked about wearing them while we’re in Europe next month.
But as disappointed as I have been in the regime of the past 8 years, I still love the United States and everything it idealistically stands for, and the thought of masquerading as someone else’s citizen doesn’t sit well with me.
Then C (voice of reason) had the brilliant idea of wearing Obama pins. We’ve been wanting to find some way to publicly display our support for him at home, and this has the added benefit of announcing to the citizens abroad that we do not support the colossal boob currently in office nor the never-ending war with which McCain seems to be in the midst of a love affair.
Besides, how could I resist this Team Obama button featuring Barack and Michelle knuckling up? Did you see her get teary during her speech this evening? Friggin’ love her.
*I use this term because Canadia is, technically, part of America.
Sandy ego
2:31 am | 5 | Blog | Friends, Reading
First, you should go to Eyeshot and read this wonderful short story by my friend, Megan Tria Andrews.
I haven’t seen Megan in, what, six years, but she lives in San Diego and that is where I will be for the next five days. I hope I can see her. I have many friends and family in California but most of them are far away from San Diego.
I am going to San Diego to attend Tiki Oasis. I am going because I have thousands of frequent flier miles to use and friends to see and also I need to find some way to burn up the four weeks between right now and my reunion with my husband in Germany.
I’ve never been to San Diego, or that far in south in California before. I am planning to eat at taco trucks for every meal. The weather there is supposed to be 75 degrees every day. That astounds and confuses me. It’s been so hot in Houston for so long that I have no idea what 75 degrees feels like. I have no idea what to pack (and I’m supposed to be leaving in seven hours. I should be sleeping). Seventy-five degrees sounds awfully cold to me. Seventy-five degrees sounds like winter!
Never tear us apart
11:35 pm | 1 | Blog | Girly, The Man
C left yesterday for what is supposed to be his last regular trip overseas. This is the sound of me crossing my fingers.
At the start of the year we were eager to undertake this experiment, to live the life of vagabonds, to willingly separate ourselves for the sake of having more time together, and on the surface I would say the experiment worked. This has, after all, been a epic summer for travel: scooter rallies, road trips, overnight motorcycle rides. It may seem glamorous — I had a friend say Saturday “You’re going out of town again?” but the truth is that I have spent more time alone in the past 8 months than I have in the five years previous and when my husband is gone I miss him so much I can not sleep at night.
When he’s home we never fight because there’s not enough time to fight and make up for the previous 30 days. We sleep late and stay up late and eat out too much and struggle to fit everything else in to the allotted time.
But when he’s away I can barely hear his voice over IP without breaking into tears. I have to make notes about all the things I want to share with him because I’m afraid I’ll forget to tell him. We have to schedule sessions because his workdays are 12-hour shifts and he’s 6 timezones away.
What made it particularly heartbreaking yesterday is that this last time home has been one of the funnest so far. I really did not want to tell him goodbye. In the morning I said to him “I’m not ready for you to leave yet.” In the afternoon, as he walked into the airport terminal and I moved into the driver’s seat I rolled down the window and yelled to him at the top of my lungs “I love you.”
Wednesday I am flying to California for a week. And in a month, instead of me picking him up at the airport here in Houston, he will be picking me up at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany. To celebrate the end of the Living Apart Experiment we will spend three weeks traveling Europe. Together.
John McCain is a misogynist
2:25 pm | 0 | Blog, Internerd, Video | Girly, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
There are a million reasons* not to vote for John McCain but here are two that have my blood boiling lately.
First, McCain calls his wife a make-up smeared cunt ** and then he offers her up to a pack of bikers in an event that equals little more than a debaucherous wet t-shirt contest.
Other ways in which McCain shows little to no regard for women: he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade, limit access to contraception and and doesn’t believe in fair pay.***
* Next time I get a blanket email from my grandmother about how Obama is the Muslim antichrist I’m going to reply with this video.
** Here is an interesting follow-up to that story.
*** I know most of these videos and links are old news but I still think they’re important.
The numbers
8:38 pm | 3 | Blog, Photo Album | Places, Two Wheels
Miles traversed: 1,800 +/-
Days: 9
Major rivers crossed: 2
Minor tributaries crossed: countless
States traveled: 6 (if you count 5 minutes in Georgia)
States never before visited: 5 (counting Georgia)
Accidents or catastrophes: None!
Riverboats: 1
Museums/tourist attractions: 5
Antique malls: 10 +/-
Hotels in Memphis before we found one we liked: 4
Nights in Memphis: 3
Illnesses acquired and incubated: 1
I have a lot more thoughts to sort about Tennessee and the trip but I have a fever and can barely bring myself to get off the couch. The worst thing about being sick like this is how bored I get. The good news is Butch sent me a copy of Image Capture and I was able to get all my videos off the scootercam. I’ll edit them someday.
Indulging myself in narcicism
2:38 am | 7 | Blog, Video | Girly, Places, Two Wheels
Here’s the video from Chattanooga Channel 12. That’s me in the first montage, kick-starting my scooter in one shot and then revving the throttle a few shots later. That’s also me at the end of the video, rambling about helmet hair. For the record, I don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about when I say I can ride “for weeks” on one tank. For those thinking of buying a scooter, that’s not true. She just asked me a mindless question and I responded in kind.
The current *spin* on scooter stories is about how people sick of high gas prices are turning to two wheels to ease their economic woes. It’s the only way the news can come up with to relate to the scooterist community. But I’ve been riding scooters for 5+ years, way before gas prices reached unreasonable levels, and even before then I was raised by a father who raced and was obsessed with moto-cycling. There are so many people out there now who have bought their first 2-wheeled vehicle and who have no idea on how to ride safely (flip-flops? no helmet? tank tops? lane sharing?) and in my opinion they are not the bulk of the scooterist community, nor are they representative of what AmeriVespa is about. I mean, my bike is a greasy 30-year-old 2-stroke highly-pollutive inefficient engine. If I was in it for gas prices, surely I’d be driving a hyrbid. I’m in it for the scooters themselves.
Okay. End rant. Enjoy the video. Sunday Punchers REPRESENT!
Choo choo chaboogie
6:51 pm | 0 | Blog | Places, Two Wheels
We (the royal We) have taken the town of Chattanooga over. We got here about 5 p.m. Thursday afternoon (too late for the ride to Deal’s Gap) but early enough to socialize and meet a few people. We missed the ride today too because SOMEONE (not me) wanted to go antiquing in the morning. Probably a good thing though, because it rained all damn day. We tried to catch up, riding the twists up to Lookout Mountain (where C was once the youngest person ever to hangglide). It started pouring rain. There was fog everywhere. Even after it stopped pouring rain our clothes were so soaked it felt impossible to get warm. Eighty degrees is one thing. It’s a whole lot cooler 2,000 feet above sea level and at 45 mph.
When we got back to town we heard rumors of wrecks. More than 10. The second ride was canceled. But the rain cleared, so we rode up to to Signal Mountain, just C and I. Maybe tomorrow we’ll try Lookout again.
While hanging out at the Chattanooga Choo Choo I was interviewed by a local newscaster. I’d seen her interviewing other scooterists across the street. “I wanted to talk to a girl,” she said. Hopefully I won’t look like a dork. I’ll post the video as soon as it’s online.
AmeriVespa was on the cover of the Chattanooga newspaper this morning. Oh Bumblebee Dude, ride on my friend. Ride on like the Transformer you wish you were.
Works in progress
5:09 pm | 3 | Blog | Girly, Watching
Guess what? I’m turning this site into a tumblelog. As if you haven’t noticed my gradually increasing tendency to post only Twitter updates and YouTube video.
God, this exactly the kind of meta-blogging blog post that I hate. I was ruminating on this last night at Stitch ‘n’ Bitch — why do I always think that everything I make or create has to come out perfect? I have spent so much time on this silly little narcissistic website that I almost take the joy and spontaneity out of it for myself.
Less talk, more rock. That’s what we need. Except Wordpress and I aren’t on good terms right now either. Why can’t you just do what I want you to do, inanimate object?
Point of this post is to tell you that I have been having many adventures, and I want you to hear all about them. I’ll get to them as soon as I can. Patience, my pet.
In the meantime, I’ve updated the Movies page. I’ve seen some real shitters this year.
Auf wiedersehen
I had an awesome weekend at the museum. Really awesome. I got paid to attend a party, got to drink a glass of wine and flirt on the job, met dozens of fascinating people and was invited to three (three!) after parties.
So I am really sad that tomorrow is going to be my last day. I gave notice two weeks ago because C comes home Wednesday and I want to be able to spend as much time with him as possible. The whole purpose of this living apart experiment is that we could spend every day together on the months that he is home but with me working that has just not been possible. We are now halfway through his assignment and we are determined to make the second half better than the first half. We are determined to do it right.
I will not be bored when he is gone! I will hang out at the museum and write all day! I will take the dog to the dog park and read a book a week again and finish the baby blanket I’ve been knitting since December.
Twenty eight
11:03 am | 0 | Blog | Below The 38th Parallel
My house is empty. The dog is with doggie friends, husband is millions of miles away. It’s hard sometimes to sleep when it’s like this, even harder when I am excited about something.
I will be spending my birthday tonight on the banks of the Guadalupe River, figuring out how to attach my digi-cam to the handlebars of my scooter so I can capture the Texas Hill Country scenery as it passes by during tomorrow’s ride.
Yesterday during a bizarre spring-y rainstorm I looked at the umbrella I bought in Seoul, the one that reminds me of a Magritte painting, and had a very strange feeling.
I looked at this umbrella in my hand, and for a split second I felt a fondness and nostalgia for the monsoon season in Korea, for waking up in the mornings and watching the fog rise over the bay and walking everywhere with a umbrella in my hand, the smell of humidity in the air before the stifling heat of summer.
It’s the first time I’ve felt any kind of longing for Korea since we got home. And as soon as I realized what it was, it was gone.