Day 81 - NYC to Philadelphia

Well, it had to happen at some point. As I was leaving Manhattan this morning, I locked my keys in my trunk. Oops. I knew it would happen, and at least it happened in a place where a Pop-a-Lock could get to me quickly. I had dropped my keys in my trunk and realized what I had done as soon as I closed the trunk. I immediately called Acura Roadside assistance and they dispatched a service vehicle. I waited less than half an hour and the guy managed to pop open the trunk pretty quickly.

So I was a little late in leaving Manhattan, but traffic getting out of the city wasn't too bad. I spent most of the day hanging out with a cruise friend, Phil, in northern New Jersey. He made us french toast for breakfast and then we hung out and he showed me around some of the Sandy storm damage in the area. We had BBQ ribs for a late lunch and then I headed down to my parents' place outside of Philly. Traffic on the New Jersey turnpike sucked. Seriously. Crappola. Lots of relaxing this week at my parents', with minimal events planned. I am taking my car in tomorrow to get the mirror replaced from when it got hit up in Newport. And I also finalized my revamped plans for next weekend that had to change based on the death of my friend's brother. I'm also hoping to make it to his funeral/memorial service whenever it occurs later this week.

Currently catching up in So You Think You Can Dance that my mother saved for me on her DVR. And doing a lot of laundry. A lot.

Day 80 - NYC

Another day, another tragedy. I won't go into details in order to protect the family's privacy, but a family member of a friend of mine was involved in a tragic incident last night and was pronounced brain dead this evening. This individual was almost killed in a similar incident back in September, and did not manage to survive this time. Such a tragedy and so much the family has had to endure. I was supposed to visit this friend next weekend, so I'm still working on reorganizing some things in order to possibly go to the funeral, and then I definitely won't be able to visit them in their home next weekend. This is now the second person I've known who has been involved in incidents that caused them to be pronounced brain dead while I've been on this trip. This trend needs to stop. Immediately. No more.

So that obviously cast a huge shadow over the day. Gretchen and I did continue with our plans though while I was kept apprised of the developments in the situation. So, here's the recap of our day. We started with brunch near the Natural History museum. Great hollandaise sauce on the eggs benedict. We had plenty of time before curtain for the show we were going to, so we walked the rest of the way down to the theatre district, stopping for coffee on the way as well.

Theatre today was Pippin, which just won the Tony for best revival of a musical. I definitely enjoyed it more than Matilda the other day. The first act, especially, was amazing. Patina Miller was incredible and Andrea Martin was a revelation. The second act had weird pacing and it definitely wasn't as high energy as the first act. I wasn't a huge fan of the actor playing Catherine and the kid seemed a little uncomfortable on stage until he started singing. The circus acts fit seamlessly into the story and it was truly an amazing spectacle.

After the show was over, we took the subway over to Madison Square Park and hit up Shake Shack - a local chain, and seriously yummy burgers and shakes. The fries were lacking though. At this point, we wanted to find a wine bar, so we tried one rooftop bar nearby that ended up having pretty crappy wine, so we bailed and made our way up north to a tried wine bar and managed to find some great wine and cheese. I always like coming to visit New York - Gretchen and I have so much to talk about and we never get bored. Leaving NYC tomorrow.

Day 79 - NYC

So apparently, I'm pretty tired. I managed to sleep in until 1PM today. That's a recent record. Although, it's not quite true, because I had to wake up twice in order to move my car. Where I had it parked was scheduled to have street cleaning between 8:30 and 10 AM. So I crawled out of bed at 7:45 and tried to find a new parking spot. After half an hour of searching, I ended up following the lead of the other cars in the area and double parking on the other side of the street. After climbing back into bed for an hour and a half, I went back out at 9:45 and moved my car back to the original side of the street. But at least now my car is immediately in front of the building in which I'm staying.

When I finally rolled out of bed around 1:00, it still took us a good hour and a half to get out of the apartment. Gretchen and I had a couple errands to run, so we ended up spending most of the afternoon walking around the city doing that. We took the subway down to about 35th street and then walked our way back up to 107th, making various stops along the way. I figure it was about 5 miles. We did that rather than the volksmarch. We got back to the apartment around 6:30, changed clothes and headed out to the Yankees game.

Now, I am a bit of a Phillies fan (read: I am obsessed with the Phillies), and the Yankees are on my list of most hated teams. For the record, the list is: Yankees, Mets, Giants, Cardinals, Braves, and Blue Jays. I have reasons for each of them. 10 points if you can figure out why each team made my list. So I was a little hesitant about attending a Yankees game on their home turf, but when we got there, the Rays were already up 6-0 and the Yankees never recovered from that deficit. They tried though - there was a decent rally in the bottom of the 9th, but they still came up short. It was a fun time though. The stadium is massive - 2nd largest in major league baseball. The last 2 stadiums I've been to have been Wrigley and Fenway, and those are both tiny in comparison. I'm definitely glad I went.

My lower legs appear to have developed a heat rash, so hopefully that will clear up soon. Seeing another show tomorrow. Looking forward to this one even more than Matilda. Hopefully it'll measure up to expectations.

Day 78 - NYC

NYC, just got here this morning. 3 bucks, 2 bags, one me. 

Ok, not really, but 10 points to the first person that can tell me the reference.

Remember how I didn't get enough sleep in Newport? Well, I made up for it today. Totally crashed last night and slept in quite late. I figure it was about 11 hours of sleep. So needed. Then I relaxed for a good part of the day. I did venture out at one point for Starbucks and Thai food with my friend that I'm staying with. But then we came back to the apartment and I took another nap. Good times.

The one big event of the day going down to Broadway to see Matilda. It was nominated for a bunch of Tonys and won a few and I was excited to see it. So my review? Well, the good first: the set design was INCREDIBLE. Seriously - so inventive, so creative, so visually interesting. There was one scene in the first act with letter blocks that was amazing with the way the set design and choreography and song lyrics worked together. I loved it. Now, for the rest of it. Well....I was underwhelmed by a lot of the songs - I found them hard to follow or boring. I thought the sound design was way off - I couldn't hear certain people singing at times when I was supposed to. The lighting was ok, but at times overdone. Casting for the most part was good. The parents I both disliked, but that's due to the characters rather than the actors. They did what they could with those roles. It was a good show for the audience it's marketed towards, but I'm not that audience. There were some high schoolers in front of us that were super annoying. It was like they had never seen a show before, which I realize is a possibility. But they were overly amazed by everything and were jumping around in their seats constantly - so distracting.

After the show, we went out for a late dinner at a great restaurant participating in Restaurant Week. Had some great Pinot Noir, oysters, beet salad, cheese ravioli, and chocolate raspberry ice cream sandwiches. So yummy!

On the subway back to the apartment, I saw someone I knew from Austin theatre. I didn't say hi cause I wasn't 100% sure it was him and he had on headphones, but yeah, it was him. This makes the 3rd random person from my past that I've run into/seen. First was a friend from Dell in Seattle. Then in Newport, I saw a girl I went to high school with. And tonight, this guy from Austin theatre. Such a small world.

Tomorrow, we're going to do a volksmarch and then go to a Yankees game. Looking forward to it.

Day 77 - Newport to NYC

So after the excitement of last night, I didn't sleep all that well. And then there was all sorts of street noise early this morning. So...yawn. I'm exhausted now.

I left Newport around 10 AM. I had planned to stop at a winery in Connecticut, but didn't have time when it came down to it (or I thought I didn't), so I skipped it. The big event of the day was a tour of Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate. I had wanted to take the 3-hour grand tour, but that was sold out, so I instead took the 2-hour and 15-minute classic tour, which just skips the upstairs rooms. This estate is different from the others that I've visited because this house was meant as a family home, rather than an entertaining home. There is no grand ballroom. There's a formal dining room, but it's not on the scale of the Hearst Castle or any of the Newport mansions. I was kinda in a bit of a sour mood through the tour for a variety of reasons (annoying kids on the tour that wouldn't stop talking, a slow & quiet tour guide who didn't take control, and me having not gotten enough sleep). So it wasn't my favorite house I've been to. It was nice, and I recommend it if you haven't seen a lot of these preserved homes from that era, but they're getting quite repetitive for me. Especially when a lot of the information is like "This is a drawing room. It gets its name from the English tradition of the women withdrawing to this room after dinner so the men could stay and smoke in the dining room. It's essentially a women's sitting room." Seriously. Same information at every house. There was a large collection of modern art in the basement, which was pretty neat and different.

After the mansion, I stopped at a place to get clam pizza, which is apparently a New Haven thing. I didn't quite get it. I like clams, and I like pizza, but together, it was weird. The salad I had was pretty great though.

I made it down to my friend's apartment in Manhattan right around 7 PM. I even managed to find a parking spot less than half a block from her building. I'm staying here for 4 nights, and I'm hoping to spend some of that time just relaxing and chilling out.

I did talk to the insurance claims representative from the company that represents the driver of the car from last night. We talked about the process for getting the work done I need. She said that she had heard there was a telephone pole involved in the incident and if so, the coverage may not be enough to cover everyone's repairs. But I don't know anything about a telephone pole. The girl did hit 3 cars and took out a traffic sign, but I didn't see a telephone pole of any sort hit. I told the insurance agent that and gave her all the information she needed. I just need to send her the pictures of my duct-taped-on mirror as well as the estimate and receipt for getting it replaced. As long as the coverage is enough for everyone, I'll then get reimbursed. I also called and made an appointment at an Acura dealership near my parents' house in Philly, so I'll be able to get that taken care of while I'm in town early next week. That'll be a relief.

Ok, I promised that I'd write about my thoughts about my schedule when I get back. No one reminded me, but I remembered myself. So if you know much about me (or even if you don't, you've probably figured this out from this blog), I am a planner. I like to plan things in advance and then execute the plan. I also like to fill up my schedule with a lot of activities. Over just the past year, I've taken dance classes, improv classes, watercolor classes, leadership classes, trained for and ran a 10K, stage managed 3 shows, attended trivia semi-regularly, done my big cook days once every 6 weeks or so, helped organize multiple silent auctions for my volunteer job, traveled extensively, attended a lot of shows, and a ton more stuff. And this is all in addition to my day job and normal living stuff like doctor's appointments and whatnot. So my life is generally quite busy. No wonder I had to hire an assistant to help me out with laundry and dishes and errands. Anyway, I have a lot of various avenues for finding activities to do. And I obviously have a lot of varied interests. So the other day, the fall calendar for University of Texas Informal Classes came out. I went through there and picked out the various classes that I'd like to take. Then I went through the Austin School of Fashion Design schedule and picked out the classes that I'd like to take. Then I went through the Ballet Austin schedule and picked out the classes that I may want to attend. And then I put ALL of those classes in my calendar (that's my process - put everything in my calendar and then trim it down). And with all of those things in there, obviously there are some conflicts, so I have to prioritize. But even if I limit what's on my calendar to only having one activity at a given time, my calendar is still full. Like really full. And this is where my dilemma comes in. I do like having a full schedule, but it can be draining. And I'm not sure that when I get home from this trip that I'll want to immediately jump back into the same lifestyle that I had before I left. I don't know if I'll want to be as busy as I've been. Or as stretched thin. I might. I might even want to do more - push myself more or something. But the point is that right now, I don't know what I'll want. So I'm trying to resist registering for all of the things that I think I want to do in order to give myself an opportunity to settle back in and figure it out at that point. I have to keep reminding myself that the classes will always be available. If I don't take an oil painting class in October, there will be another one in November. And December. And January. I just have a habit of wanting to take everything now. So my current plan is this. When I get home, take the first week to get settled into my apartment, deal with all the business of being back in town (get my cats, get my hair cut, probably get my car serviced, cook a batch of food, etc.). Then week 2 is going to be about getting back into my day job. I even ruled out any classes that started that week from possible ones to take. At the end of that week, I'll evaluate where I am and decided if I want to add in one class/activity. I am only allowing myself to add in one class/activity per week. So if at any point, I'm starting to feel overwhelmed, I'll know that's my current limit. The limit may vary over time, but I just want to allow myself to have space in my life. I'm pretty sure that I'll always be a "busy" person, with lots of things going on. But I don't want to be busy just to be known as a busy person. I want to choose things for a purpose and do things because I really want to do them, not just because I had an evening free in my calendar.

Tomorrow's plan: not sure yet. Maybe relax, maybe head out into the city. Tomorrow we have theatre tickets though. To a show that I know very little about, other than having seen the movie and seen a performance on the Tony's.

Day 76 - Newport, RI

I didn't originally have Newport on my destination list. I actually had no plans to visit here at all. But when I started investigating historic homes and mansions to visit all over the country, Newport popped up. They have a lot of preserved mansions here. So it got added to my route. Then with the recent shake up in my sleeping arrangement plans for this week, I got to spend a full day here.

Interruption: So as I was writing this I had what could have been an awful interruption. I was lying here in my bed with the windows open again like last night and I heard: "Bang. BANG. SCREEEEEECH. BANG BANG BANG." Uh oh, that didn't sound good. I wonder what that was. Look out the front window...guy on a phone telling someone there had been a car accident. Not good. So I threw on my robe and grabbed my phone and went downstairs and outside. Notice that the car of the woman I'm staying with has some serious damage. With dread, go to check my car. Well, the driver's side mirror is bent the wrong direction and the back of it is missing. But upon further inspection, I couldn't find anything more wrong with it. A flood of relief for me. But my host's car looks totaled to my untrained eye. So I go back upstairs, wake her up and tell her what happened. I put on a pair of flip flops and head back downstairs. At this point, a cop is walking with a girl who is crying, saying "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! I'll pay for everything!" The cop is trying to get her to calm down and make sure she's ok, but she's inconsolable. When he has a minute, I ask him who my host and I should talk to about our cars. He says another officer is on the way, but I should grab my license and registration. So I go back upstairs again, tell my host that she should bring her license and registration down as well, grab mine and head back down. Just as I get back down there, another cop arrived and took pictures, took down all of my information and gave me the accident report number. She also took down all of the information for my host. A witness from across the street was hanging out and she and I found the back of my mirror and I grabbed my duct tape from my trunk (because of course I have some) and we taped the casing back on. Well, the mirror mechanism doesn't work, but I manually positioned the mirror and it'll work for now. I may see if I can get it fixed while I'm in Philly with my parents, but, even if I don't, it's functional and I was really fortunate. Seriously - it could have been SO much worse. My host's car isn't drive-able and she'll have to get it towed and then likely will have to deal with getting a replacement. I can't even imagine. And through all of this, I was totally at ease. The officer even commented on how calm I was. But the girl that was driving was apparently drunk, texting, and possibly without a license. Oh, and it was her dad's car. So we'll see how that all plays out. Good times. Or not.

So that just happened. But back to where I was before all that excitement happened. Ummmmm......oh yeah, full day in Newport. Hey - had I stuck to my original plan, I wouldn't have been here tonight and my car wouldn't have been side swiped. C'est la vie. So I spent the better part of today doing a volksmarch that took me around the city and to various mansions. I hit up Kingscote, The Breakers (the biggest one in the area), Rosecliff (which is where Great Gatsby was filmed), Chateau-sur-Mer, and The Elms, which was my favorite. You know, after a while, these historic houses start to become a little blase. I mean, they're still really impressive, but they become very similar and I end up noticing the smaller things and the regional and time period differences. I also really like understanding the changes that the houses have undergone over the years. Now, I did a ton of walking - outside of the mansions, I did about 8 miles and if you add in all of the walking within the mansions, I'm sure it was over 10 miles. I was basically on my feet for 7 1/2 hours straight, most of it walking. Exhausting. My legs felt like they were going to fall off.

I then stopped at a place called Scales and Shells for dinner and had some oysters on the half shell (Blue Point, I think was the variety), and some clams in white sauce over linguine. So good. The glass of wine helped my legs of jelly as well. Then I just came back here to the apartment, hung out for a while and dealt with the whole car situation.

I forgot to write yesterday about my thoughts about my schedule once I come home and I don't feel like writing about that now, so maybe tomorrow. Someone remind me?

Day 75 - Martha's Vineyard to Newport, RI

I'm being distracted as I start to write this post. I just pulled up a TED talk by Sheryl Sandberg about "Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders." So you'll have to hold on a minute until this is done. It's totally captivating. ... Ok, I'm back. That was really inspiring. I definitely need to read Lean In. And by read, I mean listen to the audiobook, cause we all know I don't actually read. Must search my libraries to see if anyone has it. After I'm done writing. Really. I can wait.

So breakfast this morning was the same as yesterday - yogurt, fruit, and toast. So bizarre to me. Also, a bed and breakfast where there aren't enough seats at the breakfast table for all of the guests? 4 people had to sit out on the porch, which they said they were happy to do, but I wouldn't have been happy if it were me. Anyway, I talked to one couple that was staying there for a little while. We discussed politics, gender, civil rights, deafness in America, all sorts of stuff. There was one interesting interaction I had with them that made me think. Background is that I know (at least conversationally) sign language. And part of Deaf culture is that when you see people signing and you know sign language, if you are not a part of the conversation, you don't watch them. Because watching is tantamount to eavesdropping. So this couple: Emily, who I learned part way through the conversation is hard of hearing, and Amanda, maybe? (can't remember her name). They had just sat down at the table near me and had been speaking when Emily signs something to Amanda in what I immediately recognize as ASL. Now, out of habit, I averted my eyes so as not to eavesdrop, but my question is this: since they had been previously speaking and this communication was obviously meant to be secret between them, because they assumed no one else would know sign language, would I have been wrong to not avert my eyes. I mean, I feel like it was presumptuous at the least to assume that no one else knew sign language. I later signed something and they were all, "oh, you know sign language." and I responded affirmatively, and we talked about that for a while. I really liked them, but this point a bit of a taint on the overall interaction for me. Now, they did infer that Emily has at least some degree of Autism, which I didn't pick up on, but social cues may be not as readable for her and so any rudeness regarding having a private conversation in front of other people may be attributed to that, but it was just an interesting situation for me to think about.

Anyway....I mentioned yesterday (and I think they day before as well) that my ferry off the island today wasn't until 4:00, so I had some time to kill. I was feeling like I had maybe wasted some money by taking my car over to the island, since I didn't use it at all yesterday, but I definitely used it today, so that made me feel like it was worth it. I drove around to the various points on the island, saw the beaches, and visited the lighthouses. I also drove along some residential roads and admired the houses. I stopped at a fish store and bought a lobster roll and some smoked bluefish pate. So yummy!

I caught the ferry back to the mainland and then just had the drive over to Newport, about an hour and a half, totally not bad at all. So, during the drive, I got sick of my podcasts and decided to listen to one of my favorite soundtracks - The Last 5 Years. So good. So emotional. But I surprised myself by not immediately bursting out into tears when singing along to Still Hurting, the opening track. The lyrics:

Jamie is over and Jamie is gone

Jamie's decided it's time to move on

Jamie has new dreams he's building upon

And I'm still hurting

Jamie arrived at the end of the line

Jamie's convinced that the problems are mine

Jamie is probably feeling just fine

And I'm still hurting

What about lies, Jamie?

What about things that you swore to be true?

What about you, Jamie?

What about you?

... and it goes on. I always cry to this song. It's actually a song I sometimes use when I purposely want to wallow. I sang it once in public last August and could barely get through it. So why no tears today? Rather than tears, it actually gave me this weird hopeful feeling. Could it be that I'm finally actually moving on? It's been almost 2 years since *he* left, since my heart was shattered. I still mark the passage of time according to how long it's been since the last time I saw him, since the last time we spoke. Those are my markers in time. The moments that divide my life into before and after. How is it that it's 2 years later and I'm only just now seeing my way out of a tunnel that took less than a month to build? I don't really know why, but I'm glad it's finally happening. Now, I'm not saying I'm through. I can still tap into those emotions. They're still there. It's just not as raw. There's always going to be a part of me that loves him. And I'm glad for that. I'm glad to know that I have that capability in me, to love someone the way I loved him, purely and without reservation, throwing caution to the wind. But maybe soon I'll be able to appreciate that part without also feeling the pain, the hurt of abandonment and isolation. And maybe someday I'll have other markers in time. So that was my cathartic moment of the day. 

I'm staying at an airbnb reservation for the next couple of nights. My room is basically a sun room, with windows on 3 sides. It's quite small, but cozy, with more pillows than there is space on the bed. The air conditioner in my room is spitting water. A quick google search and a visual inspection inform me that the unit was installed improperly and is tilted into the room rather than out and there's pretty much nothing I can do about that unless I want to undertake moving furniture and reseating the unit in the window myself, without knowing what I'm actually doing. So I guess I'll just have to open the windows and let the breeze through. Oh, and then go search for Lean In. Must read!

Day 74 - Martha's Vineyard

Today was bicycle day. Basically the whole point of coming to Martha's Vineyard was to rent a bike and use it to explore the island. That being said, I hadn't actually been on a bicycle for about 14 years, and then it was just once to borrow a friend's bike to go drop off an assignment in college. I rode a lot growing up, but basically stopped sometime around age 14 or 15. My original thought was to cycle around the entire island, but upon closer inspection of the trails and routes, I reduced that and did only 18 miles, between 3 of the 6 towns here on the island. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The day started with breakfast here at the B&B. Now, I've come to expect great breakfasts at bed & breakfasts. But today's breakfast wasn't much more than granola, yogurt, fruit, and toast. Basically a continental breakfast. Plus the other guests were quite rude, in my opinion. There were 2 couples that went to a wedding last night and myself. They basically ignored me at breakfast, talking amongst themselves about possible bicycling trips to take in Europe. The one couple didn't even say hello to me. When I finally excused myself, realizing that there wasn't going to be a hot breakfast served, as I walked away, I heard them asking each other about if they knew anything about me and my travels. They could have asked me directly while I was actually there!!! To quote Stephanie Tanner, "How rude!"

It rained on and off for a while this morning. I hung out at the B&B until it looked like the rain was basically done and then walked over to the bike rental place. It started raining again when I was about 4 blocks away. But it's ok, cause I carry an umbrella with me at all times. I hung out at the bike shop until it finally stopped raining, right around 11:30. Now, most people that I had seen riding around the island weren't wearing helmets, but it had been 14 years since I last rode, and hi, I just lost a friend of mine to a cycling accident, even when she was wearing a helmet. So, yeah, definitely wore a helmet the whole time. I got on my bike and took off. Very weird to be back on a bike. I rode over to Oak Bluffs to start out with. It was much further than I expected it to be. At one point, I pulled over and checked the map to make sure I was still headed in the right direction. I made it over to Oak Bluffs just as a random parade was going through town. It was basically all of the town's emergency service people and vehicles throwing candy out at kids. True story.

I was hungry at this point - limited breakfast and new physical activity will do that to you. So I found a place to get a lobster roll. Yummy!! I window shopped around town a bit and then got back on my bike and rode down to Edgarton. This ride was even longer, but it was still pretty easy - very flat, and mostly on bike paths, rather than the road. Once I got to Edgarton, I had to reward myself with ice cream. It is national ice cream day, after all. Then back on my bike and back to Vineyard Haven. This is the leg that almost killed me. I'm not sure how it's possible that the first two legs were basically flat and this leg was almost entirely uphill, but that's how it was. Had I to do it over again, I would have reversed the direction I went. I made it back to the bike shop and returned my bicycle, having survived my journey. I walked back to the b&b and immediately took a shower since I was drenched in sweat.

So what is my assessment of my 18 mile bike ride? Well, I'm already sore. My calves, my glutes, my quads, my knees, my shoulders, my hip flexors, basically everything. Oh, I forgot to mention about changing gears. When I first got on the bike, for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to change gears. Took me a good 5 minutes or so until I finally figured it out. Thank goodness I did - I definitely wouldn't have survived the last leg without that. I live in Austin, which is a big bike town, and I've thought many times about buying a bike, but I don't know how it would fit into my life. I wouldn't want to ride it for commuting, both because I'd arrive super sweaty and because I carry too much stuff with me on a daily basis. I don't usually go straight home from work, rather going to a meeting, or a class, or a rehearsal, so that would be quite difficult. But I definitely enjoyed the bike ride, but I'd adjust the seat next time. I wanted it further back on the bike. Where it was positioned today, my leg positioning was unnatural and straining on my knees. I do wonder how the lean back bikes are - they seem to have a more comfortable seat and leg positioning. I'm not running out to buy a bike any time soon, but at least renting one occasionally at home is a definite possibility.

I was going to just stay in this evening and relax, trying to combat my soreness, but I got hungry around 7 PM, so I ventured out and found some food. I ate at Cafe Moxie. Good food (I had the seafood pasta), but it sure took a long time to get to me.

That's it for today. My ferry off the island isn't until 4 PM tomorrow, so I'll go explore some lighthouses before heading out.

Day 73 - Boston to Martha's Vineyard

Looks like the heat wave is finally breaking. It's also generally about 10 degrees cooler down here in Martha's Vineyard than it is up in Boston. So, here's my daily recap:

Left Boston at 9 AM this morning and made my way over to Quincy to go to the Adams National Historic Park. It's actually spread out over a couple different sites in the area, containing the birth places for both John Adams and John Quincy Adams (right next door to each other), and the "Old House", which passed through 4 generations of the Adams family, starting with John and Abigail. For only $5 (free if you have an interagency pass like I do), you get a trolley ride between each of the sites and tours of all 3 buildings. It takes about 2 hours and is a great deal. With the heat, however, the houses are quite warm - there is no central air conditioning in the historic houses, although they do have space air conditioners in most rooms, so it's not crazy stifling. The birth place houses have recreations of most of the artifacts in them, and they're not safe enough to go up to the second floors. So those are interesting enough, but, for me, the real draw is in the big house. Lots of original paintings, including ones of George and Martha Washington, and, of course, all the Adamses, lots of original furniture and books and artifacts. A very cool site. I definitely recommend checking it out.

I then drove down to Duxbury, where I was planning on going to the Winslow House, which is the house of some old lawyer, but it was closed due to the excessive heat. I instead went over to the Alden House, which was the house of a couple that came over on the Mayflower. The house stayed in the family for something like 3 centuries, so that's pretty impressive. No air conditioning at all in this house, but it wasn't awful. The house was pretty interesting. Old houses tend to become a little indistinguishable after a while. When I was growing up and my family road tripped, we used to go to Indian ruins. Now those really run together. Especially as a kid, I thought that every single pile of bricks looked exactly like the last pile of bricks. At least now with these houses I'm visiting, I have an eye to be able to notice variations between time periods, geographic regions, and the relative wealth of the owners. That's what makes all these houses interesting - the differences between them.

I then drove over to Plymouth and had some lunch at a local seafood place, the Lobster Hut, where I had fried oysters and lobster bisque. Yummy! I hit up one winery in town - more fruit wines up here. I'm looking forward to getting down to Virginia for some more standard wines.

After crossing down to Cape Cod, I hit up a glass blowing place. I missed out on being able to see the glass blowing take place - that ends at 4 PM, but I picked up a couple pieces. I then killed some time, folded my laundry that I washed in Boston but never bothered folding, and took a nap before heading the rest of the way down to the ferry. No problems at all getting on and off the ferry. I drove over to the bed & breakfast where I'm staying and got settled in.

I was listening to a Rick Steves podcast the other day where he was talking with Samantha Brown, another travel host and they were talking about their routines for settling in when they get to a hotel. Well, I'm not staying in a lot of hotels, but I do have a routine. It mostly involves technology. First thing I do is to adjust the temperature in the room as necessary, via air conditioner, thermostat, fan, or what have you. I then determine where all the outlets in the room are and which are available and closest to where I need them. I plug in and turn on my computer, and then determine the wireless situation. I connect my computer, iPad, and iPhone all to the wireless. Then I unmake the bed, discarding extraneous pillows, throws, and whatnot and untuck the sheets & blankets so that the bed is to my liking. I then unload my toiletry kit, and maybe unpack my overnight bag (or just live out of the bag for the duration of the stay). It is only at this point that I feel settled in.

Tonight, I got to FaceTime with some of my theatre buddies down in Austin. So great to see them! It's so weird not being involved in the show at all this summer. I hope to go back next year.

Looking forward to exploring Martha's Vineyard tomorrow!

Day 72 - Boston

The heat wave continues. It's gotta break at some point, right? It's actually supposed to break tomorrow, but with rain showers. And it'll be cooler once I get down to Martha's Vineyard anyway. Oh, speaking of Martha's Vineyard, I had a bit of a crisis earlier today. I assumed that the Martha's Vineyard ferry would be similar to the Port Aransas ferry in that you show up, they load you on a ferry, and you're on your way. Sometimes there's a wait, but you'll get there eventually as long as you're there in line. Apparently, that's not so with this ferry. In order to get your car over, you need a reservation (and it's kinda expensive). So Alex, who I'm staying with, mentioned this to me and I was like, "Oh, shit, I hope there's space available." But on a Saturday in July with one day's notice? Freak out. So I checked, and there was actually one ferry available at 7:30 tomorrow evening - the only one available all day, but surprisingly fits into my schedule almost perfectly. So I tried to book it. And the website wouldn't load. So I tried to call. And the office was closed. AHHHHHHH. New plan: call first thing in the morning. If it has sold out since now, I'll just park on the mainland and take the ferry over to the island without my car and deal with cabs on the island. 20 minutes later, I tried the site again, and it worked. Woo hoo! So I booked it. Phew. Only wrinkle is that I couldn't get a ferry off the island until 4 PM on the day I'm leaving. I would have preferred about 10:30 AM. So I'll have some extra time to kill on the island and won't be able to hit as much stuff on my way to my next stop. But it'll be fine.

But, right as all of this was occurring, I got word that the friend that I was supposed to stay with in Connecticut is going to be out of town unexpectedly for work. So I had 2 nights to kill. A bit of rework to my schedule, and it's all working out. I added one more night in NYC and one more night in Newport, RI. Because I'll now be later getting into Newport because of the ferry, having 2 nights there rather than just the one will allow me to spend a full day exploring all of the mansions. It all works out in the end.

So today. The plan was: tour of Fenway Park, visit to John F Kennedy National Historic Site, volksmarch around the Freedom Trail. I went to Fenway Park and got on the 10:00 tour. Most of the tour was outside, and it was already over 90 degrees with lots of humidity. Not comfortable. The tour was good. I don't know if it was cause it was a game day, or if it's just how they always do the tour, but we didn't get to see any behind the scenes stuff. We did get to sit atop the Green Monster and heard some great history of the park, but didn't get to see any clubhouses. After the tour was over, I was starving (I didn't eat any breakfast) and hot and sweaty. So I made the game time decision to skip the volksmarch and rearrange my schedule. So I found a local bar and had a nice long leisurely lunch and then headed over to the JFK National Historic Site.

The JFK site is the house in which he was born. It's in Brookline. The first 4 Kennedy kids were born in this house. After the family moved to a larger home, the house passed through 5 families until Rose rebought the house, recreated the way it was decorated when JFK was born (all from her memory), and donated it to the National Park Service to be opened to the public. It's a nice house, and our tour guide was very knowledgeable. Oh, and it's a free tour, so definitely stop by if you're in town.

I then came back to the house and took another nap. Yay for naps!!

This evening, Alex and I went out to a local bar for a bite to eat and to watch the Red Sox game. That was fun.

I keep forgetting to write about this dream that I had the other night, so I'm writing about it now. It was a few days ago while I was up in Vermont. So here's the dream:
I was at UVA, on the lawn, and a big airplane was either taking off or landing, but something happened and it totally crashed and started rolling down the lawn. There were people in the way, and people were screaming for them to get out of the way, but they didn't hear it, so the plane ran over them. Disturbing, right? Then, once the plane had come to a rest, a bunch of us ran over to it (at which point it became miniature), and we popped off the various panels of the sides of the plane in order to reach the people inside. I could reach in and check their pulses and everyone was in their seats and totally okay. But this guy and I got into this huge argument as to whether we should get the passengers out of the plane or not. 911 couldn't get there for 10 minutes, and I kept yelling at this guy that the plane could explode, so we had to get them all out, but he was all, "you're not in charge." So, of course, I responded, "well, no one here is, so now I am." And that was the end of the dream.

So after reading some stuff about plane crashes in dreams, here is my official analysis: I am worried that I might fail when attempting to achieve my dreams and ambitions, but I'm still willing to fight for them and not give up. Even if I do fail, I will fight to go on and try again. And so it will be.

Tomorrow, leaving Boston and headed to the Vineyard.

Day 71 - Boston

Ok, let's start with a discussion about Boston traffic and drivers. Obviously there was no central plan when deciding where to put roads in this city. It is just spaghetti everywhere. I turned off the voice prompts on my GPS system pretty soon after I bought the car. I found them unnecessary, since the display shows the map of where to go. However, sometimes the display is a little ambiguous, the arrow not being clear as to which branch to take if there are multiple options. Here in Boston, I've had to request the system to give me the voice prompts more in 24 hours than I have had to since I bought the car. I don't know how anyone ever got around this city before GPSes. Then there are the drivers. Now, I am a good driver. I know everyone says that, but I know it's true for me. I'm very aware of everything going on around me and have an eye on the crazy things other drivers might do. I have quick reaction skills if necessary and I am a good judge of rate of speed vs distance. I also have this annoying tendency to follow the law. Crazy, right? Well, it seems a lot of people here don't have that problem. Left turn only lanes apparently mean that you can also go straight and cut in front of other drivers. Rotaries (I know them as roundabouts) are completely chaotic. I'm never sure if they are supposed to be one lane or two. Since there are no markings, people just make up whatever they want. Craziness. But I've survived driving around so far. Parking is also either really expensive in garages or completely unavailable on the street, but I guess that's just a symptom of a large city.

I started today with a trip to the JFK Presidential Library. I actually found this library a little lacking. There didn't seem to be a lot of "stuff" out on display - everything seemed much sparser than the other libraries. I wanted more information about his personal life - kids, brothers & sisters, etc. There was lots of information about the Cuban Missile Crisis, about which I know very little. Also, very little about the assassination - just a black hallway with 5 televisions showing a 2 minute clip of news footage from the day. If you're interested in learning about the assassination at all, the LBJ museum has much more information presented about it.

I left the JFK museum and drove over to the Sam Adams Brewery. Apparently, the actual brewing floor was being cleaned, and so the tour went straight to the tasting room, where we got tastes of 3 different Sam Adams beers, all good in my opinion, and we learned about tasting beer, which is basically the same as tasting wine.

Then I drove over to Newton and went to the Jackson homestead and Historic Newton Museum. The Jackson homestead was a stop on the underground railroad. It was kind of interesting, but not enough to hold my interest for long, so I didn't stay too long.

I drove over to Cambridge and went to a cheese shop that I had heard was good, and boy was it packed full of stuff - cheese, produce, jams, jellies, charcuterie, meats, all of my favorite things. I picked up some fresh mozzarella (yay! I've been craving this for weeks) and soprasseta.

After a much needed nap, I met a cruise friend for dinner at Hungry Mother, a farm-to-table restaurant in Cambridge. I had some amazing gnocchi and his catfish was really yummy too! We spent a good 3 1/2 hours there talking and catching up. Good food, good wine, good conversation - a great night.

Tomorrow - more Boston! I'll be outside much more, so let's hope it's not as hot as it's been.

Day 70 - Vermont to Boston

A seriously great day today. I left Strafford right on time at 10 AM. First stop was a cheese store in Quechee. It was actually most of the same cheeses that I saw at the Cabot Annex Store yesterday, but I'm still super glad that I stopped. I found a treasure in the store right next to the cheese store, but I can't talk about that yet.

I then went to Derry, New Hampshire to go to Pierce Mance, the Franklin Pierce homestead. They don't seem to get a ton of visitors there, so I got a personal tour of the house. I didn't know a lot about Franklin Pierce before going (read: I knew nothing, other than he was a president), and the tour and house were very informative. Apparently, he was the only sitting president to seek the nomination for re-election and not be granted it. I also inferred that his policies, in combination with Buchanan's, who succeeded him, probably contributed to the eventuality of the Civil War. The flow of history is always interesting to think about.

I stopped in Manchester at the Red Arrow Diner for some lunch - a very classic diner. I had an omelette and homefries - twas quite good, and pretty cheap. I recommend this place if you're looking for good, low-stress food.

From Manchester, it was on to the Robert Frost Farm & Homestead. I actually don't know a lot about Robert Frost, but it turns out I recognized a couple of his poems - the "road less traveled" line and the "miles to go before I sleep" line. It being so hot out and there not being air conditioning in the house, the park manager took me through a tour of the first floor and then told me about the second floor and let me go up on my own to check it out.

I am staying with a cruise friend of mine in Medford for the next couple nights, so I got to his house right around 5:00 and then braved the traffic to go downtown to meet another cruise friend for dinner. She and I were roommates on a cruise about 2 1/2 years ago and haven't seen each other since then, so it was great to see her and catch up.

There's so much to do here in Boston and I have so many friends here that I know I'm not going to be able to see and do everything that I want to, but I have a pretty packed schedule planned to get in as much as possible.

Day 69 - Vermont

Central Vermont is pretty cool. I hit up a number of great spots today. I started with a trip to Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory. If you count Hammond's Candies, this is the 4th chocolate factory I've been to on this trip. Lake Champlain doesn't do the roasting of the cocoa like Theo does, but they do make some darn good chocolates. I may or may not have spent $40 at the factory store on chocolates after the tour.

From there, I picked up a bagel at a local store - hot from the oven and only $2.50 including the cream cheese. Super yummy. Then I drove east to hit 3 places all right next to each other.

First was Cold Hollow Cider Mill, where I saw apple pieces being pressed to extract the juice that would be made into cider. I picked up a couple pints of cider for the road. I also tried some wines at the winery next door - all fruit wines mostly, so not really my thing.

Then I hit the Cabot Creamery Annex Store, where they have lots of cheese to sample. I still have some Wisconsin cheese and have been craving fresh mozzarella for a while, but haven't been able to find any. Lots of cheddar at these cheese factories, but not much in terms of soft cheeses. I did pick up a pint of organic chocolate milk which was amazing.

Last up was the Ben & Jerry's Factory. I have a vague memory of visiting sometime as a kid, but I don't remember the details. They've obviously done a lot of work to the place over the years, and the tour is pretty interesting. And you get free ice cream sample at the end. Apparently I won the prize for the person on the tour who had come the farthest, and this was with me even explaining the circuitous route that I took to get here. I checked out the flavor graveyard and then bought a cup Peaches & Cream, which is apparently a small batch, so I don't know where & how long it's available, but it was yummy. Although I felt like I was melting along with my ice cream as I walked back to the car.

I made it to my home for the night right around 3:30. I'm staying with a childhood friend and her husband. Our parents were best friends while we were growing up, so we spent a lot of time together, especially on vacations. She is the farm manager at an alpaca farm, so I got to see her feeding and taking care of the alpacas, cows, and pigs. How cool is that? We all went out to dinner at a local burger place called Worthy Burger, which was amazing.

I wouldn't want to live up here in the winter - way too cold for me, but it's great to visit in the summer. I do wish this heat wave would break sometime soon. It's getting pretty annoying.

Days 67 & 68 - Ottawa and Northern Vermont

I was out late last night, and crashed as soon as I got home, so I never got around to writing a post.

Yesterday I went to the Laurier House, where 2 of Canada's Prime Ministers lived, and Rideau Hall, where the Governor General lives. The Laurier House was pretty cool. Since 2 separate prime ministers lived there, some of the rooms are restored to how they were when the Lauriers lived there and some of the rooms are restored to how they were when William Lyon MacKenzie King lived there. If you remember that I went to the MacKenzie house in Toronto. The guy that owned that house, William Lyon MacKenzie, was the maternal grandfather of the prime minister, William Lyon MacKenzie King. Interesting how all these pieces fit together.

Rideau Hall was great, except there was a child on my tour who kept trying to run around and touch everything and his mother wasn't doing much to stop him. So annoying. It took me a while to figure out who exactly the Governor General is. Apparently, he is the Queen's representative in Canada and is apolitical. But he has causes that he supports, so I don't really understand how that can be apolitical. Guess there's a reason I don't live in a constitutional monarchy, since I don't really understand how it works. Not that our government necessarily works any better. Ugh.

Last night, I went out to dinner & drinks with 3 of the girls I met on our tour of Russia, Emily, April, and Jenn. It was SO great hanging out with them. The Russia/Finland/Sweden trip that we did was 5 years ago and this was the first time that I saw them since the trip. The trip was a great trip and one of the most memorable of my life and I loved that our little group found each other. We really clicked and had so much fun. It was great reliving our memories of the trip and talking about how our lives have changed since (some of the changes a direct result of the trip).

I left Ottawa this morning and headed back into the states. After my last experience crossing the border, I was nervous that I'd get grilled again, but this ended up being my easiest border crossing yet, with the least amount of questions. Phew. Such a relief. Not that I have anything to hide, but it's just nerve-wracking.

I drove through the islands in northern Vermont, stopped at a winery and then came down into Burlington. I stopped at a farm store and a local restaurant and then walked through the outdoor shopping area in the city, Church Street. The region is going through a heat wave, so it was about 90 degrees this afternoon as I was walking around, whereas it's only about 80 in Texas. How is this possible???

I got to talk to one of my orphans from home this evening. I'm sad that I won't get to see 3 of my orphans before they head off to school this fall. It's been nice hearing from a number of them over the past few days. I miss those girls.

Not driving very far tomorrow, but I have a lot of fun stops to make.

Days 65 & 66 - Cooperstown to Ottawa and Ottawa

So I didn't post last night cause I was still pretty anxious about the questioning I had to go through at immigration, but I'll get to that. 

I left Cooperstown yesterday morning right on time and had planned for 4 wineries and a mansion. I ended up skipping 2 of the wineries - the wine was getting worse the further north I went, so I gave up on the last two. But I did go to Boldt Castle. It is in the thousand islands on the saint Lawrence river between the US and Canada. Kind of a sad story with this castle. George Boldt was a hotel magnate (he was responsible for the Waldorf-Astoria in New York) and decided to build this amazing castle for his wife as a token of how much he loved her. Construction started and continued for 4 years, but she suddenly died and he ordered construction to cease. The workers laid down their tools and left the island, leaving the castle unfinished. It passed through ownership of a number of different people, but was vandalized and raided by the public for years. In 1977, a historic society bought the property and decided to restore the house and island to what the original finished plan would have been. So far, they've restored much of the first floor and a series of bedrooms on the second floor, but much of the house still remains either unfinished or covered with graffiti. It is a beautiful house though. One this that I really liked was the abundance of doors and windows. The whole house has this feeling of flow throughout it, air and light. It wouldn't be comfortable in the winter, but it was intended as a summer home, and I'm sure that it would have been wonderful if it were ever completed. There are also a TON of guest rooms, so I'm sure they planned for some great parties that never happened. 

After I finished at the castle, I made my way towards Ottawa. Crossing into Ontario, I answered the normal questions about how I'm on a road trip, and what I had with me, and where I was staying, and all of that. And the guy decided that he needed to investigate further, so he made me go inside the building. Two agents searched my car while another agent asked me a ton of questions about where I work and why do I have so many friends in Canada and where's all my stuff while I'm on my trip (including my cats). Apparently, they are worried about people coming into the country and not leaving. I told her how, just that morning, I had made arrangements to move my stuff back into my new apartment and I had set up internet and tv service and that I'm definitely going back. Regardless, it was really anxiety causing. She thought that I must be lying about something because I was so nervous. I'm just naturally nervous around authority figures. Even though I wasn't doing anything wrong!!!!

So they finally decided that I wasn't a risk to national security (unless they flagged my passport without me knowing it - I have no idea what systems they have), and I proceeded the rest of the way into Ottawa. One problem with visiting people in Canada is that I have no cell service up here, so from the time I cross in until I arrive at my destination, I just hope that my gps is right because if its not, I have no way of using my phone or iPad to check google maps or call anyone for clarification. Well, the GPS was right again (it hasn't been wrong yet), so I made it to Emily's house without further issue. We visited for a while before I crashed for the night. Long day. 

Today, I started with a trip over to Parliament Hill where I first saw the changing of the guard. That was pretty cool, if a little long in the hot sun. Some of the soldiers' marching made me laugh though. It was this weird over exaggerated arm swinging thing that looked so unnatural. After the changing of the guard was finished, I hung out on the hill for a bit, just milling around. I saw that people had these yellow tickets for tours of the buildings and once I figured out where to get them, I went and asked when the next tour was - 1:30, long past the time I could do it. So instead, I got a walking guide for the hill with information on the statues and buildings and whatnot. I spent about an hour walking around the hill, and then walked over towards the Canadian War Museum. It was a pretty hot day, so I did stop at a Starbucks briefly on the way over for a bit of a break from the heat. 

The Canadian War Museum is very well done. I don't have much of an interest in Canadian military history (why would I?), but I was fascinated by the museum. The flow is fantastic. There are 4 galleries that have a defined path woven through each one of them, but you can get to the start of each of them from the central hub, so y could theoretically do one gallery, go have lunch, come back, and do another gallery or two, go to the bathroom, and come back and do another. It's a very smart way to combined a guided flow museum with easy access in and out. The exhibits are well done as well, with a great combination of information, videos, and interactive pieces. It's a challenge to present everything in both English and French, but they did it well. 

After I was done with the museum, Emily and her daughter picked me up and we went over to our friend Jenn's house to visit with her and her newborn. Jenn, Emily, April, and I met 5 years ago on a tour of Russia, Finland, and Sweden. I'm so glad we've stayed in touch and are able to reconnect after all these years. We shared a special experience on the tour, and they are the only ones from it that I've stayed in contact with. I hope to continue to stay in contact with them for years to come. 

Basically just hung out this evening. Tomorrow I'll check out a couple mansions and maybe a couple other things. Also looking forward to a girls' night out. 

Day 64 - Cooperstown

So remember how yesterday I crashed for 2 hours around 5PM? So that meant that I couldn't sleep last night. So that meant that I got like 5 hours of sleep. So that meant that after breakfast at the B&B, I fell back to sleep for another 2 hours. So I didn't get out until about 11 AM. Oh well, no big deal. I drove over to the start point for the volksmarch and picked up the directions for both the 5K option and the 10K option. They were identical for the first mile or so, so I decided to postpone the decision about which to do. Initially, I thought I'd do the 10K, but it was already getting warm and I was anxious to get over to the hall of fame. So I switched to the 5K. And I'm totally not ashamed about it!

I made it to the hall of fame right around noon. It was all I wanted it to be (if a little crowded). I took a ton of pictures (mostly of Phillies stuff) and definitely shed a few tears (yes, I tear up at strange things). The list of things that caused me tears:
1. A jacket worn by Richie Ashburn
2. A display about the 1980 Phillies, including jerseys worn by Pete Rose and Mike Schmidt.
3. A display about the first woman to play in the minor leagues.
4. A jersey worn by Roy Halladay when pitching the 2nd no-hitter in post season history
5. A ball used in Roy Halladay's perfect game
6. A hat worn by Cliff Lee in his gem of a world series game against the Yankees in 2009.
7. A picture of Carlos Ruiz.
8. A hat worn by Wilson Valdez when he became the 1st player since Babe Ruth to start a game in the field and become the winning pitcher.
9. A picture of Harry Kalas from when he won the Ford C. Frick Award.

Are you sensing a theme here?

Oh, and one thing that cause me to just laugh and shake my head: the jersey worn by Eric Bruntlett (?!) when he performed an unassisted triple play.

After I finished up at the Hall of Fame, I continued on the walk, stopping for lunch at a local place and walking up and down Main Street. There's not a lot to do in Cooperstown besides shop for baseball stuff and go to the hall of fame. It's a really cute little town with some adorable houses.

This evening I've been watching the Phillies game while relaxing to complete my day of baseball.

Tomorrow, back to the Great White North one more time.

Day 63 - Finger Lakes to Cooperstown

I left the B&B this morning right on time (and managed to coordinate the rain such that it stopped whenever I went outside - power, I tell you). This morning I hit up 4 more wineries along my path. I skipped the Hard Cider place cause I wasn't in the mood for cider. Honestly, I think college was the last time I was in the mood for hard cider.

Speaking of college, I drove through Ithaca this afternoon, so I decided to drive through the Cornell campus. I was thisclose to attending Cornell. It had pretty much always been my dream school. I can't remember exactly why I decided that I wanted to go there, but in 10th grade, I was pretty set on it. But when it came time to apply to schools, I knew I should apply to more than just Cornell. After applications went in and decision letters were sent back, I had to choose from Northwestern (too far away), University of Pennsylvania (too close), Cornell, and University of Virginia. I did an overnight visit at Cornell and liked it. It was what I always wanted. And then I did an overnight visit at UVA and absolutely fell in love with it. I don't know if it was the beautiful grounds (yes, grounds, not campus), the more southern hospitality disposition, the weather, or some other factor (it was actually probably all of it combined), but I just felt at home there. I was pretty much decided that I was going to go to UVA over Cornell. When I got home from the overnight visit, my parents told me that since UVA was so much cheaper than Cornell, if I chose UVA, they'd get me a car. Yeah, that was the tipping point. I loved UVA. I still feel like it's home to me (well, one of my homes). I've been involved in the Alumni Association since graduation and later in this trip, I'll get to go visit. But it's interesting to think about the choices I've made along the way. There are a couple of major decisions that I've made in my life: where to go to college (Cornell vs. UVA), where to take my first job (Microsoft vs. Dell), whether to leave Dell or not when I had the opportunity. Driving through the Cornell campus today, I thought about how different my life would have been had I taken the other path. I don't know where it would have led. Would I still have ended up in Austin? Who would my friends be? Obviously I would have a completely different group of college friends. Would I be a stage manager? Would I even be involved in theatre? These are all questions that I don't have an answer to. There's no way to go down both paths. You make a choice and you commit to it. Even if you change your mind at some point down the path, you'll fork from the path you're on. There's no way to actually go back and change that decision. Time keeps moving forward. Interesting to think about.

Anyway, I got to the Cooperstown B&B around 4:30 and pretty quickly crashed out for 2 hours. I hope I'm able to sleep tonight.

Tomorrow - Baseball Hall of Fame. ahhhhh!!!!! so excited!!!!!

Day 62 - Finger Lakes of New York

Now this is the life. I'm sitting on the balcony of my room at the bed and breakfast at which I'm staying the night. I just got settled in and now the rain has started and it's definitely picking up. I wouldn't want to be out in this at all. It showered a couple of times today, but nothing that caused me any pain. I have crackers and cheese next to me and a glass of water (no need for wine - I've had plenty of that this afternoon. It's 5:30, so I have all evening to relax and maybe catch up on some pictures or writing or software writing. Or maybe just relaxing and streaming a couple movies on Netflix.

I had breakfast at Belhurst Castle this morning. I actually ate in what was the library. I didn't take too much time to explore the castle and see how it was converted into a hotel. It was enough to just stay there. The breakfast buffet was filling and satisfying. My first stop for the day was the Women's Rights National Historical Park. Now, I had planned to get there around 9:20, but since I couldn't get to sleep last night, so I was later than expected in leaving the castle this morning, I didn't arrive at the Visitor's Center until about 10:15. And I had only planned on spending about an hour and a half there. I ended up spending close to 3 hours when all was said and done. With all of the fights around the country for women's rights that are going on right now, the exhibits at the park really resonated with me. I saw the church where the 1848 convention for women's rights was held, toured Elizabeth Cady Stanton's house, watched a movie about the women's rights movement, and then toured the exhibits at the visitors' center. Overall, it was very inspiring. You know, I really feel like I, as an individual, could make a difference in women's rights simply by pursuing lofty goals for myself. I have often held myself back from risking new opportunities because I worry that I am not perfect enough for them. I wait for opportunities to be given to me rather than creating my own opportunities. That's going to end. I'm going to stand up and try. Stand up and do the things that I want to do, that I know I can do, even if others tell me that I might fail. Yes, I might fail, I might fall short, but just standing up and trying is a step. And that step is worth it.

After I finally dragged myself away from the inspiring messages of the national park, I spent the afternoon wine tasting down the western edge of the Cayuga Lake. There are a lot of wineries all over this area, so I had to choose which path I was going to take and stick with that. I think I made a good choice. Overall, the wines were pretty good - a couple that I just couldn't stand at all, but generally good. Not nearly as complex as the California wines, but good, straightforward, drinkable wines.

As mentioned before, I made it to the bed and breakfast right around 5PM before the rain started. It seems to be letting up somewhat now. If it stops altogether, I'll walk out to the lake and sit on the dock out there. If not, I still have a great view sitting here. Tomorrow, a couple more wineries and then onto a town I've been seriously looking forward to.

Day 61 - Toronto to Geneva, NY

Another great day today. I left Toronto about half an hour late (I had a ton of laundry to fold before leaving), but still ended up hitting more attractions than I thought I had time for.

First hurdle was to cross the border back into the US. I managed to get the meanest border patrol agent so far. He asked me about 3 times what I had bought in Canada. "Um, a bag of ice?" And then he kept asking me if I had any fruits or veggies. "No, just cheese and meat." "You sure have a lot of stuff for a 2-day trip" "Well, the 2 days in Canada is just a part of a much larger road trip." And he even made me pop the trunk to inspect it. I think at that point, he was pretty amazed at how organized the trunk was, cause he barely poked around. Note to self: organize back seat before crossing border next time (it's currently a mess of stuff that I just throw back there). 

Immediately after crossing the border, I hit Niagara Falls. I'd been there at least once as a kid, but I had never done the Maid of the Mist boat ride, so I knew I wanted to do that. There was no wait, which surprised me. I bought my ticket and went straight down onto the boat. Couldn't have been a more efficient use of time. But it wasn't until I was on the boat with my poncho on that I realized that I might actually hate it. It's basically a lot of misty rain, and sometimes not so misty, and we are all aware of my feelings on that. But hey, bucket list and all. It was fine. Some decent views, but while being assaulted with water. I didn't do anything else at the falls. I know I did cave of the winds as a kid, so I skipped that this time. 

I then drove down to north Tonawanda to go to the Herschell Carousel Factory Museum. It was pretty neat. Lots of old carousel horses and other animals in addition to some exhibits about ho they were made and the history of carousels and the company. There was also a working, century-old carousel that I got to ride. I was the only one riding it. It was cheesy, but pretty fun. 

I was, at this point, about an hour and a half ahead of schedule, so I was pretty pumped that I got to go to the Teddy Roosevelt Inauguration Site. I didn't think that I'd make it, but yay! I got the right on time for the 1:30 tour. Although I ended up being the only one on the tour. It's another historic house, but it's been converted for visitors to walk through the story of the inauguration, starting with a short video introduction of the 1901 world's fair in Buffalo, which is where McKinley was shot. 3 of the rooms in the house are restored to what they looked like on the day Roosevelt was inaugurated, while the rest of the house houses other exhibits, like what his office in the White House looked like (he was the last president to not use the Oval Office). 

Then it was onto a late lunch at Charlie the Butcher's. I had to try a Beef on Weck sandwich. It was so good!!! Seriously, I'd eat them all the time if I lived in this area. From there, a short 2 hour drive over to the castle (yes, castle) where I'm staying tonight. It's the Belhurst Castle in Geneva. They've converted the turn of the century castle into a hotel, spa, and restaurant. I love staying in historic places like this, except that there is no wifi in the bedrooms. Oh well, there's a tv, so that makes up for it.

Tomorrow - exploring some stuff in the Finger Lakes. 

Days 59 & 60 - Clio to Toronto and Toronto

I didn't have Internet last night, so I couldn't post anything, so I'm combining yesterday and today into one post (again). 

I left Laura's parents' house yesterday morning and headed down to the northern edge of Detroit. First on the schedule was a mansion called Meadowbrook Hall. It was built in the 1930's by a woman and her second husband. She had inherited much of the Dodge motors fortune from her first husband when he passed away, so the mansion was quite extravagant. Upon her death, she donated the house and grounds to Michigan state university, which then spun off this campus to be Oakland university. Pictures went allowed in the house, but I got some from outside. The house has a grand ballroom, game room, dining room, breakfast room, fountain-centered receiving room, beautiful library, an organ, a solarium, a huge drawing room, and many beautiful bedrooms. Her two children from her first marriage each had their own wing that has its own guest room. It was a beautiful house. Because our tour group was small, our guide even let us into rooms that are normally roped off, like into the son's bedroom so we could see the window into the room from his loft play room and into a unique bathroom off of one of the guest rooms. It was a great tour. 

Immediately after the tour completed, I had to dart out of there in order to drive to a movie theater that was showing Before Midnight at 1:15. I got there just partway into the first preview. As I mentioned the other day, I was really really looking forward to this movie. I think I need to see it again. Spoilers in this paragraph if you want to skip it. Number one, I think I want to see it again. It's very dense with all the dialogue. I like the evolution of the characters. They are obviously still themselves, but they've grown over the past 9 years. Now, I liked it. A lot. But it left me feeling so ambivalent, which I guess is kinda the point. But it wasn't as satisfying as the other two for me. Maybe it's because I don't identify with it as much as the other 2. I don't know what it's like to be in a long term relationship and have to navigate the course of the two parties' individual evolutions. I don't know what it's like to know exactly what buttons you can press in order to elicit a specific response. I don't know what it's like to have a knock down, drag out fight with someone you love. So a lot of the movie made me uncomfortable with what they were saying to each other and how they were saying it. It definitely wasn't as easy a movie as either of the first two. All of that being said, I'd absolutely recommend it and will likely be watching it again soon. 

Ok, so after the movie, all I had was a 4 hour drive (including another border crossing) over to Toronto. I'm staying with one of my cruise girlfriends here. We went out to dinners last night before I crashed hard. Amazing how a long day of driving can wear one out. 

Now, today. I got done about 2/3 of what I had planned for today. I blame the weather and really enjoying the first 3 events for me not making the other 2 events. So, the 3 events that I did make it to - all historic houses. Yay! First house was Casa Loma, definitely the most extravagant of the 3. It's actually kind of similar to the Hearst mansion that I went to in San Simeon. It's a big tourist attraction here in Toronto. A number of the rooms, the largest ones, in fact, do not have any furniture in them. The owner of the house went bankrupt with the stock market crash and ended up having to sell off most of his possessions to pay his debts. He actually was almost penniless at the end of his life. The price of admission includes a self guided audio tour, which is a good way to see the house and grounds at your own pace. I skipped over a lot of the exhibits that had nothing to do with the house, but listened more in depth to the items about the servants and the architecture of the house. The only issues were that there were a lot of people there, many of whom had no sense of appropriate flow of people (they would butt right in front of me when trying to get in to see a specific room, rather than waiting, as I was doing, to let the mass of people ahead of us out), and the humidity - the house obviously didn't have any air conditioning, so it was kind of warm, but more than anything, it was crazy humid. The map in my hand was deteriorating every time I touched it. 

I then went right next door to the Spadina house, which was built years earlier than Casa Loma, but has been restored to the 1920's era. It is significantly smaller, but was still considered an upper class home. While Casa Loma employed about 40 servants, Spadina House employed 6. Most of the furniture in this house is original. The family lived in this house up until 1982. When the house originally opened to the public, they had decorated each room in the style from a different era, from the 1860's when the house was purchased, up until the early 1980's when the family moved out. In 2010, they closed the house, and restored the whole house to the 1920's era, since they had such extensive records from that time. 

I made a quick stop for lunch at a coffee house that serves Indian food, odd combination, but good food, and then made my way downtown to the MacKenzie house. William Mackenzie was a mayor of Toronto, who later went on to an attempt to overthrow the Canadian government. The attempt was thwarted after just 5 days and he fled to America. He was later cleared of charges related to the attempted overthrow and returned to Toronto. This house was the house that he lived in at that point with his wife and a few of his children. As opposed to the other 2 houses, this house was a distinctly middle class home. He and his wife only employed one servant and there are only 2 rooms I the house where the family would entertain guests. On my tour, it was just me and one other woman, so we got a really intimate tour experience, asking a ton of specialized questions and getting really interesting information. William was also a newspaper man, so there was a reproduction of his printing factory (that's the wrong word, but I can't think of the right one). They even have an original newspaper from 1866 (not one of his, but still, it was in amazing condition, so it was pretty neat).

I was supposed to do a volksmarch and then go up the CN tower, but I was already about 2 1/2 hours behind schedule and it started raining pretty much right as I got into my car after the Mackenzie house, so I decided instead to just drive around the downtown area. Which was a great idea except that I managed to drive straight into the area where the Blue Jays game had just let out. Now, my understanding is that not a lot of people actually go to Blue Jays games, but still, it's enough to cause a traffic jam. So that was fun, especially in the rain. </sarcasm>

I then came over to the restaurant where I'm meeting Jayne and a few of her friends for dinner. I've been just hanging out here, writing this blog since then. A totally great use of the time I've had. Looking forward to dinner tonight. Tomorrow, back to the states. This has felt like an especially short stop for some reason, but time to move on already. 

Days 57 & 58 - Chicago to Benton Harbor, MI to Clio, MI

Today marks exactly halfway through my trip. I can't believe it's only halfway. It feels like this trip has lasted so long already. The second half is more dense than the first half, only 2 big long driving days, and one of those is the day I drive home to Austin. I actually had planned a big driving day for both today and tomorrow, but changed it because I needed a break from the grind of being in the car for 10 hours straight. It gets boring! Even with audiobooks, podcasts, and plenty of music. 

So I left Chicago yesterday morning. I like Chicago. It's similar to Helsinki in that I could totally see myself living there if it weren't so damn cold. Seriously, it was chilly and rainy for most of my visit. Of course, it got really warm on the day that I left. I did make one stop on the way out of town - Calumet Fisheries. Yes, I heard about it on No Reservations. Don't judge me. I picked up some smoked salmon and a smoked trout tail. I ate some of the salmon for breakfast yesterday and finished it today. It as quite good. But the trout? I had it for a snack yesterday afternoon and it was incredible! Seriously, I could have eaten like 4 of them. I dunno if there's any chance of finding somewhere in Austin where I can get smoked trout tails (maybe Quality Seafood?), but I'm going to have to look into it. 

Both yesterday and today were mainly devoted to checking out the wineries in the area. I hit 5 or 6 yesterday and 3 today. The first place was in Indiana. So bizarre. The tastings were in those little plastic half shot glasses. Like what you take NyQuil from. Not even a real glass. And the wines were NOT good. But they had decent fudge, so at least it was worth the stop. The Michigan wines are not nearly as complex and interesting as the wines I've tried up to this point. There have been a few that are decent, simple wines that are totally drinkable, but nothing has blown my socks off. I wasn't expecting them to anyway. 

Yesterday, I also hit up the Bailly homestead in Indiana Dunes National Park. That was a bit of a bust. Not nearly as interesting as I wanted it to be. There were a few buildings and informational signs, but the buildings were all locked, so you could only see the outside. Apparently, Joseph Bailly was some sort of fur trader. I didn't really pay much attention to the posted info. Plus, it was really hot. 

I stayed in a hotel in Benton Harbor last night. I got there around 5:30 and was exhausted. I crashed for a while, until I was woken up by the cracking of fireworks or something going on nearby. I peeked out the window, but didn't see anything within range and wasn't willing to leave my room. So yeah, happy Independence Day! No fireworks for Lisa. 

I did have a wave on loneliness hit me last night. Not immediate loneliness like, "I wish I had someone with me on this trip," but more of a general loneliness like, "I'm really sad that I don't have a romantic relationship in my life." Yes, I am very happy with my life, and I'm happy being me, and I'm happy spending time with me, and I have a few close friends that I can really depend on, and I have a large circle of friends in addition to my close friends, and I have tried to push away the feeling of wanting a romantic relationship. I often deny to myself that it is what I want, but the feeling always creeps back in. It's not that I can't be happy without one - obviously, I have been and I am happy, but one can be happy but still want more. I often feel like I am being denied a romantic relationship because I have so many other blessings in my life, like it is my one burden that I have to bear - I have to learn to live without it, mourn the loss of it. And I have tried and tried and tried. And still the desire is there. I am not yet willing to give up on the possibility of it. I have no idea where it would come from, or what it would look like. I just know that it's something I'm still hoping for, still searching for. 

I'm staying tonight with the parents of a girlfriend of mine from home. I so appreciate the hospitality of my extended circle. It really is so nice to have people to connect with all over the country. We're even having a bonfire tonight, with s'mores and everything!

Tomorrow - try number 2 to go see Before Midnight, in addition to some more traveling. 

Day 56 - Chicago

Just to change things up, tonight's recap is going to start with the end of the day because I'm PISSED about it.

Before Sunrise is one of my favorite movies. I don't remember the first time I saw it, but I'm pretty sure that I didn't really get it at the time. It came out in 1995, and there's no way that at that age, I would have really connected with it. If you're unfamiliar with the movie, it's about 2 people, a guy and a girl, both around age 22 or 23. He is from the US and is bumming around Europe and she is from France. They meet on a train and decide to kill some time overnight walking around Prague, I think. It's a very talky movie, not a ton of plot, but it's about this one night that they spend together and this connection that they have. Well, I guess the reason that I love it now is that I understand it. I had a night like that once - in actuality, it was 2 nights, but same idea. I met this guy from New Zealand on a tour that I did of Russia, Finland, & Sweden back in 2008. We were on the tour together, but didn't really connect until the end of the trip. Had this amazing connection and leaving him broke my heart. Well, when I came home from that trip, I felt the need to wallow, so I borrowed my friend's copy of Before Sunrise. She told me that a sequel had come out as well, called Before Sunset and she owned that one as well. How had I missed this??? So I watched both and just absolutely fell in love with both of them. Early this year, I must have had a premonition or something, because I randomly asked if I could borrow them again to rewatch. So good. And then I found out that a 3rd was coming out this summer, Before Midnight. I was psyched! Except that I'd be on this trip, so it might be difficult to figure out when to watch it. My schedule is pretty busy, and there's not a ton of flexibility. Plus, the movie had a rolling release schedule, released in New York, Los Angeles, and Austin back like 4 weeks ago, then out to various cities. It being more of an art house movie, I don't expect it to stay in theaters all that long once it is released. So I was pretty sure that based on the Chicago release date, I'd get to see it while I was here. I penciled it into my calendar for tonight, knowing that I'd have to confirm the exact theater and schedule within a week of the actual date. So I did. I kept checking. I even checked yesterday night. I confirmed that there was a showing at a theater about a mile away from the apartment in which I'm staying at 7:35 tonight. Perfect. Put it in my calendar, figure out dinner plans around it. So excited. Such anticipation.

I got to the theater tonight at 7:00, in plenty of time. And as I walked up to the box office, no 7:35 was shown on the list of shows. WHAT? So I stand in line and get up to an associate and say, "there was a 7:35 showing of Before Midnight listed on your website as of last night for tonight."
"On our website?"
"Yes."
"You're sure it was for tonight?"
"Yes. I just checked last night. And I checked for today."
"Well, you can go talk to guest services. It was probably cancelled in order to add another showing of Despicable Me."
"Seriously? That's no help to me at all."
There was an 11:50 AM showing still listed of Before Midnight, but I had already missed that obviously, and I'll be out of here by then tomorrow. I was, and remain now, pissed about it. Do you know how many showings of Despicable Me there were? Like 8. And just the one of this amazing amazing introspective beautiful movie. There's a line in the musical [title of show] that says, "I'd rather be 9 people's favorite thing than 100 people's ninth favorite thing." I think it's important to show the movies, and the plays, and the artwork, and the music, and whatever, that is beautiful and that there are a few people are really passionate about, and not pass them over in order to only show the things that a large part of the population likes a decent amount. Maybe I have grand ambitions for the world, and I realize that a movie theater is a business and they know they'll make more money with another showing of Despicable Me, but I find it offensive, honestly. I'm not sure if I'll get another chance to see the movie in a theater. I've managed to avoid all information about the movie other than it's the 3rd one and it's fantastic. I really don't want to know anything about it going in. I don't know how long I'll be able to avoid all that.

Now, the rest of the day. I did another volksmarch this morning. I hadn't done one since Seattle, but no worries. It was an 11K walk this time, through the Museum Campus, up along the lakefront, and then down the magnificent mile. The walk went pretty well, except that it rained for a bit during it, and I think I've made my feelings on that pretty clear. By the end, my legs felt like jelly though. You know that feeling when your legs are just totally shot, but you keep walking anyway? One foot in front of the other. Just keep going. How is it that I can do that with walking, but can't do it with running? Well, I guess that's a pretty obvious question - with running, it's not so much about my legs, it's about my heartrate and not being able to breathe. Stupid running.

After the volksmarch, I stopped for lunch and then stopped in a starbucks to charge my phone. I'm starting to get pissed at my phone too - it has no sense of even distribution of power usage. It says that it's at 21% and then jumps down to 4% and then says it's completely empty. So infuriating, especially when I need it for navigation. I don't carry my iPad with me on days that I'm doing a ton of walking because of the weight. Oh, speaking of the weight of my purse, I think it's screwing up something in my shoulder. It's seriously uncomfortable. I'm going to give it a couple of days of rest and see if anything improves. If not, I may need to find a masseuse to move it around and work some muscles out.

After lunch, I had a ticket for the Chicago Architecture Foundation Boat tour. It had already been a grey and overcast day, but weather.com assured me that the rain was done for the day. They're now on my shit list too. The first hour was fine, but by 4:30, with a half an hour left, the rain really started coming down, so I (along with the rest of the people on the tour) went downstairs, where it is obviously pretty difficult to see the great big tall buildings on all sides. Grrrr. The tour was still really interesting though. Wish I knew more about architecture, but I learned some on this tour, so that's a start at least.

After the tour, I walked, in the rain, over to Lou Malnati's. I heard that was the place to go for deep-dish pizza. It was about 10 blocks. In the rain. But I have decided that walking in the rain (with an umbrella of course - I always have one with me) is slightly more tolerable when I'm wearing my running tights rather than jeans. Jeans get wet easier and then stay wet longer. That's part of my hatred. Anyway, I made it to the restaurant without melting and ordered my pizza. It was great! I don't agree with this whole New York vs Chicago style pizza debate. I think they're both really good - totally different though, so I don't think they even deserve to be compared. After dinner, I walked another 10 blocks over to the movie theater where the above story occurred. Still pissed about it.

Leaving Chicago in the morning. I've adjusted my plans for the next couple days a few times, but I think I've finally got it set.

Day 55 - Chicago

What a great day. Seriously. Despite the cold and drizzly weather (I think that's kinda normal for Chicago maybe?).

Well, as I stated yesterday, I was a little nervous about all of the logistics for today, but it worked out great. I was on time to everything and didn't get too stressed out about the transportation. When I left the apartment this morning, I first had to go to a FedEx in order to print out my ticket for tonight. I don't know how I managed to forget to print that one out before I left, but I did. Thank goodness for FedEx print centers. And it wasn't too far out of my way either. From there, I headed over to the metro (or whatever they call the trains in this town). As I was walking there, I started to get nervous. It's just an uncommon experience for me. I bought a 3-day visitor pass yesterday on my way into the city, so I had that ready to go. As I got closer, I said to myself, "you rode the Sunday in Moscow. I'm sure you can handle Chicago." Truth. 

So I handled it. Took the red line north to.......Wrigley field! I had a tour scheduled. Well, kind of. I bought my ticket for a Wrigley field tour about a month ago. And I don't know how it happened, but I somehow managed to buy the ticket for yesterday rather than today. Uh oh. I discovered this on Friday night when I went to print out the ticket. Well, I called the cubs office and left a couple of voicemails, but they were closed for the weekend and couldn't help me out until Monday morning, right when I was scheduled. Yikes. So I called again first thing Monday morning, and the girl said I could just bring my ticket to the tour I wanted and it should be fine. Then the 2 people that I had left voicemails for both called me back. Good customer service!!! (Even though I had already gotten it basically taken care of) So when I arrived there today, I talked to the guy at the desk and he said it should be fine. Even if the tour did sell out, I'm only one person and they could squeeze me in. But ultimately, when we went through the gate presenting out tickets, the guy didn't even look at the date/time. All that stress for nothing. 

So, the tour. It's a really cool park. I can see why the fans love it. Very intimate with a TON of history. But not exactly what one might call "modern." Seeing as it was built in 1914, that's pretty understandable. So we started in the regular stands, then moved out to the bleachers, passing the one and only batting cage, then up to the visitors' clubhouse, the press box, the Cubs' clubhouse, and ending in the Cubs' dugout and the field. All in all, lots of interesting stuff. I took a sociology class in college. There's basically one thing I remember from this class - not the various theories of sociology, not any famous sociologists, not anything else, except for this concept of the world being divided between backstage and onstage. Maybe it's my theatre background that draws me to it, but I find it fascinating. For instance, in a restaurant, the dining room is onstage, and the kitchen is backstage. A service elevator is backstage, whereas a hallway where guests walk on a regular basis is onstage. There is some crossover, but I find myself to this day identifying areas as onstage and backstage. One thing that fascinates me about this is the idea that as one moves up in society, they go from backstage areas, to onstage areas, and at the upper end, back to backstage areas. Think about presidents or celebrities - they are constantly being moved through back hallways, alleys, service entrances. So interesting to me. Anyway, the point of this is that, maybe it was partly because it was an off day, but I think it's more of a sign of when the park was built, that the areas that in most other ballparks or similar buildings that would be onstage areas, in Wrigley field are backstage areas. The concourses, the entrances, etc. - it all has a backstage feel. And the player areas are so closely integrated wit the public areas. The players may have a separate entrance from the public, but they have to cross the main concourse in order to get to their clubhouse. It's definitely a limited stadium, but it was really cool to be in the same room that at one time or another, all of the baseball greats have been in, where they've all gotten ready for games, celebrated wins, and mourned defeats. Just really cool. 

Ok, so now that I've written a book about the first 3 hours of my day.... After the ballpark tour, I hopped back on the train (had to transfer this time - oh no! Can I do it? Turns out, yes, I am totally capable of transferring trains), and headed out to oak park for the frank Lloyd wright home and studio tour. Arrived at 1:07 for a 1:20 tour reservation. Planning success! We went through his whole house and then his studio. He designed the house and then lived there for 20 years with his family. He had 6 kids, but by the time the house was built, the oldest 2 boys were basically out of the house, so the house has essentially 3 bedrooms - the master bed room, the boys' bedroom, and the girls' bedroom. The boys' and girls' bedrooms are right next to each other and separated by a wall that doesn't go all the way up to the high arched ceiling. Our tour guide told us that the kids used to have pillow fights over the wall. Too funny. I honestly don't know a ton about Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture, but residential architecture is something that I'd love to learn more about. Architecture, in general, is cool, but, as with history, I'm specifically interested in more modern architecture - 1900 and forward. The house also has this giant playroom that even includes a seating gallery for when the kids put on plays. I wish I had time to take the audio tour of the neighborhood, which includes a number of FLW-designed homes, but I had another appointment to make.

So back on the train back towards downtown. You know what's annoying? When an address of 233 N Michigan is actually on the cross street (not Michigan) and not even on the 200 block. The entrance was around the corner on the 300 block of Michigan. What??!???!?! So yeah, glad I had extra time blocked into my travel plans, cause it definitely took me about 20 minutes to find.....the salon! That's right. I got my hair done. Finally. Seeing as it's been about 8 weeks since I got it done last back in Austin, I was getting antsy about it. My original thought was to get it colored while I was in Seattle, and then again in New York or Philly. But I only had one day in Seattle, and I didn't want to spend any of that getting my hair done. So since I had 2 full days here in Chicago, I figured it was a good opportunity to do it. Now, I am VERY picky about getting my hair done. My hair dresser in Austin has been the only one to do anything to it for the past 11 years. I trust her implicitly. I don't even bother to know what I want when I go see her. Sometimes I'll say, "let's go sassy this time" or "something kinda sleek and funky," but usually I sit down and say, "do whatever." And she always comes through. So before I left, she decided the easiest thing to do would be to take my hair back to all one color (it had previously been 3 different colors), and give me the recipe for what to do. Then I could just find a salon that had that particular brand and show them the card, and all would be good. Good plan, right? So I searched for a salon with this brand, contacted them to confirm that they had it, and made the appointment. And then when I showed up, I showed the stylist the card, and he says, "well, we don't have this exact brand." What?!??! But he assured me that he knew the brand and understood the whole recipe and could make the same color with the stuff he had. And he did! My hair looks great again! Woo hoo!

Ok, (why is it that my paragraphs always start with "Anyway," "So," or "Ok"? apparently they are my transitional words) after my hair got done being prettified, I came back to the apartment, changed my clothes and walked over to dinner at Grillroom Chophouse & Wine Bar. Dude, the tuna special??? So good - with these corn and chipotle mashed potatoes. YUMMY! From there, it was right across the street to Book of Mormon(!!!!!!!!). I have been waiting SO long to see this show I was so so so excited to see it. I wanted to see it last year in New York, or even this year in New York, but it's still next to impossible to get a decently priced ticket there. So I knew that a resident cast was going to be here in Chicago while I was here (they opened around February, and are leaving at the beginning of October to go on tour), and tickets weren't too crazy expensive - I got mine for $105. The show was at Bank of America Theater, which is larger than most Broadway houses, but not as massively expansive as Bass Concert Hall in Austin. A good size for a show like this. Now, I have the soundtrack of the show memorized, so I knew what to expect going in (which also meant that I occasionally laughed at jokes just before they happened because I was actually laughing at the set up), but that didn't diminish my experience of it at all. I actually enjoyed wondering how the audience would react to specific moments. So how was the show? In one word, flawless. Well, I actually have 2 minor quibbles - one of the spot lights shook when the iris was really small, and I could tell when people or sets were moving behind some of the drops because those people/sets were too close to the drop and it would subsequently wave. But seriously, have you read my reviews of the other shows I've seen? If those are my ONLY 2 issues with the show, it's damn near perfection. The book - perfection. Music and lyrics - perfection. Set design - BRILLIANT. Costume design - perfection. Costume change execution - perfection (why yes, I did applaud loudly for an on-stage quick change). Casting - perfection. Choreography - perfection. Lighting - AMAZING (god knows I rarely say that). Orchestration and music direction - perfection. Seriously, this show was brilliant. So funny, so honest, such heart. So glad I finally got to see it.

On the walk home from the theatre (just over half a mile, not too crazy in my heels), Random Dude #1 walking past me on the street told me, "You look beautiful tonight."
"Thank you!" I replied (yes, I do talk to strangers when it's not sketchy/weird, which this wasn't).
Then, Random Dude #2 (who was coming out of a bar/restaurant with Random Dude #3) said, "I love your dress!"
"Why thank you. I made it!"
"What? No way!" Random Dude #2 and Random Dude #3 were amazed. "What do you do? You must be in design of some sort."
"I write software. And I stage manage." which precipitated a discussion about if I had any upcoming shows and then about how I'm just visiting town and then they thought that I must be from New York, cause I'm super stylish. Anyway, it was just a really fun little conversation. I love this particular dress. I call it my "confidence dress." I made it for an audition that I did a few months ago. Since I made it, I made it to fit me, so it's super flattering. Plus, just the fact that I made it makes me feel good in it. I love it. I'm hoping to take some fashion design classes when I get home. I'm pretty good at making a garment out of a pattern, but I have ideas for stuff I'd like to make, and I want to learn how to take something from an idea to a pattern or dress form or whatever - I don't even know what the process is - so that I can make stuff that I've imagined in my head. Once again, so many projects, so little time. :-)

One more day in Chicago. Can't wait to tell you about my plans for tomorrow night - another something I've been looking forward to for a while.