Monthly Archives: January 2008

Well…someday.

Virgin Galactic has just released photos of Spaceship Two, the follow up to the first commercial, manned spaccraft that also won the X-Prize. You can see the photos and read the press release and Richard Branson’s speech here.

And, Admiral…it is the Enterprise.

Isn’t it fun to live in the future?

I’m here. In Hollywood. In North Hollywood, specifically, but here nonetheless.

With little time and spare energy, I didn’t write in Phoenix and since I’ve arrived, I’ve been all over the place, either with stuff, or people, or just my head trying to wrap itself around it.

BUT! Let’s start from where we left off, shall we?

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Here in New Mexico, as I gather my things and get ready to head out on the road again, I flip on CNN, to get what I can of my news fix before I head out the door. And what is CNN doing a story on? A local man (that is, to South Jersey) who made sizable donations to a local community college and local high school (accompanied by the briefest of B-roll shots of the school itself) after a life of modest earnings and living.

That high school? St. Augustine Prep – my high school.

I had read briefly about it in the local paper and the alumni newsletter while home. And now here I am in the hills of New Mexico.

Small world.

I write from a Hampton Inn in Gallup, New Mexico, near the border to Arizona towards the north of the state.

Today began early; I had wanted to compensate for the relative lack of miles made yesterday, so I was out the door and on the road by 6:30 AM and well before the sun had begun lightening the sky. In fact, I was several miles down I-10 before the sun started to make its presence known, and I stopped to watch for a little bit, and watched the sun actually climb above the horizon a few miles further down the road. How often does one get the chance to watch a sun rise over Texas hill country?

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(Note: I’m cheating with the timestamp on this, backdating it to when I actually finished writing it, last night)

At the moment, I am writing from a Days Inn outside of San Antonio. I left New Orleans yesterday morning, after spending the previous day there, and took the scenic route through southern Louisiana to Houston, meeting up with Anthony at Johnson Space Center around four in the afternoon.

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How does a cross-country trek to a new chapter on one’s life start? Why, in rush hour traffic of course. The first twenty-minutes or so were completely indistinguishable from any random school day from the past year. But soon enough, I was past Full Sail and past my commute for the last time. And as I sped down the 408 and past Goldenrod, I put that time behind me (Get it? Behind me? Deal with it, I’m tired). And further down the road, I sped past other places and other times, some years old and others only months.

Further down on the 408, going to Fig and Chris’ for Geekza. Then merging onto I-4, passing International Drive, seeing that one improv group at that shitty pizza place and then playing that same place with Random Acts a couple months later, past where Jungle Jim’s used to be with all those trips out just for burgers, past Universal and Rocky Horror and meeting George Takei and Billy West, past the Convention Center with all the sci-fi conventions that come with it, past Seaworld with Ryan, Gladys, and Leslie, past Disney with Rob and Jane and visiting the family on Sammy’s first trip there, and off towards Lakeland to see Brick with Travis and Christa and further on, toward Tampa to see Aaron and Jamie.
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I feel like I should be disappointed that all of my worldly possessions could fit into a 6x7x8 foot box, but I’m not. If anything, I’m disappointed that it took so much space. But regardless, there it sits, in my (rather, Travis’) driveway, waiting for the moving guys to come pick it up and truck it across the country.

And similarly, tomorrow I’ll get in the car and start the week long trip west. Though, the plan as written has already taken a hit, as Dustin is still in training in Little Rock and won’t be back in San Antonio by the time I come through. So since San Antonio is far less than a day’s drive from Houston and I obviously won’t be spending an evening’s worth of time in San Antonio, then I should be able to make better time across Texas. The question, then, becomes what to do with that time, which remains to be seen. I originally attempted to work in a visit to Meteor Crater or Trinity Site into the itinerary, but was unable to. Now, perhaps, I might be able to fit at least one into the schedule.

But both are several days and many, many…many miles away, so we’ll see.

It all starts tomorrow.

Yikes.

So getting back into the habit of blogging regularly has certainly not been as quick or smooth as I would have liked, though I’d be lying if I said entirely unexpected. I really am badly out of the habit of writing regularly, much to my own frustration.

But here I am, on the first leg of an entirely new chapter to my life, unlike any that has ever come before, with a self-resolution to blog more and write regularly. What else can I do? If I can find excuses to get out of writing now or even, disregarding excuses, I simply can’t call up the wherewithal to do so, at this great watershed of personal events, then when?

So here I am, as I’ve said, on the first leg of a great big backwards L of a journey across the country. At present, I’m on board the Amtrak Auto Train with North Carolina rolling gently by. By tomorrow morning (the earliest at which you’ll be reading this), I’ll be back in Florida, into the final stages of packing up belongings and bidding friends farewell. Wednesday morning, I’ll be on the road, headed west for fortune and glory.

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