Archive for the ‘comings and goings’ Category

Megabus and the Ogre that sang

today, I rode the Megabus with P and Z from White Marsh, .MD to Manhattan. The double-decker discount bus fills seats on the internet with pricing based on demand, so. For about 30 dollars each today we were able to be to Penn Station In NY by around 9:30. That required us to be up at 5 am, but sacrifices must be made for value.

Sacrifices were made to some other god at the musical we went to see iin .Manhattan. “Shrek”, now a stage musical, officially opens tomorrow. And it, as the Big Bad Wolf said in one ensemble set, is a hot tranny mess.

Yes. The Big Bad Wolf apparently watches Project Runway.

The musical was entertaining for Z. But at a time when we’re taking the discount shuttle to go to NY for a day trip because it’s the closest thing to a vacation we can afford, it would have been nice if it had been a bit better done. Some scenes worked, others were AWFUL. I guess we got our money’s worth just from the entertainment of watching things go awry.

I will leave the full review to the critcs, or at least until later as I am typing this on a crackberry while hurtling down I-95 …it was a good day on the whole, and there were some talented people getting a paycheck there, so I guess it was a win all around. But the show was best when it focused on the two leads, and worst when it broke out the puppets.–the Dragon in particular.

Return from the Wilderness

OK, I haven’t been gone, really. But let me just say that when you work at home like I do, and things go wrong with one part of the work/life balance, it all goes to shit.

I have no one to blame, really, but myself. Just because you can do a job doesn’t mean that you should take the damned thing. And sure, the first six months were filled with energy, ego-stroking attention, and other good things.

But the travel killed me. It really did. And the more I travelled, the less I slept, the less energy I had, the more introverted I became, the more useless to pretty much every freaking person in the universe I became. I imploded.

Unfortunately, I denied much of it up until the end. And then one day, WOOSH, it crushed me into a little tiny ball and spit me out.

I should have seen it coming. But few trapped inside the event horizon can see beyond it. Thankfully, the collapse freed me from the things that had prevented me from seeing the problem — a problem that, admittedly, I’ve struggled with before. I had fallen down the not-writing rabbit hole again, and it took all my creativity and ability to think rationally along with it.

And now I have emerged. Well, I emerged last month, really, but I’m still sorting my shit out.

And here’s what I’ve sorted so far:I have to write to live. It has to be the center of my daily existence — it can be for work, or for myself, but I have to write every day. It isn’t a luxury; it’s essential to my sanity.

morning train to NY

Some pictures from last Monday’s train ride to Manhattan:









Pile o’Sheep

pile o'sheep

Before and After Alpacas

Alpacas: before and after

Running off the rails (a photolog)

Travel on Amtrak Monday was not as smooth as I would have liked…
For the want of a brake....
Baltimore Penn Station: the mystic portal awaits

The mystic portal awaits

In motion
Flying through a station

Met opar?
Met opar

A view of Philadelphia at night by rail