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Showing posts from March, 2012

T-Minus One Day

One more day until I leave, but I'm already on vacation. I'm out of the routine now, as I go through my house cleaning and organizing before it's time to catch the bus downtown so I can run some errands. I already feel like I can relax a bit and truly thing about what's about to happen. I'll be in England for a full week to see my son. I've not been over in four and a half years, and this is a chance to see what his life is like. I love being in England, and I plan to write a lot about the experience, either on this blog or in one of my notebooks. I did so back on previous trips, and I plan to do so now. Ever since I left Court Square Tavern, I have been writing a lot more, mostly freehand while sitting at bars. Part of what I write is observation about what's around me. I also write out my journeys on the bus, trying to capture a little bit about the mundane to sharpen my skills a bit. My son is 8 now, and is only about 5 inches shorter than me. I'

The Mockingbird has returned

I did not notice the presence of mockingbirds until the summer of 2010. I remember I heard one singing at Hill and Wood this night as I was walking to Fellini's to take part in live band karaoke. Last summer, I heard one repeatedly in my backyard, singing everything he could all through the night. Every time he sang, I would stop and listen and marvel at all he knew how to sing. With no-one to compete with, that little guy would sing until the sun came up, playing all the hits. My friend this week told me that this bird was likely an un-mated male who was singing to find a mate. Nothing now seems more appropriate. I've spent the last hour playing guitar scales up and down. My friend Jeffry told me I should begin playing scales, and I listened. I'd definitely reached a point in my improvised music where I wasn't going to go any further without learning some serious fundamentals of how other people play the guitar. Since leaving Court Square, I've not felt t

Prepping for the return to England

Leaving Court Square Tavern meant I could actually imagine a trip to England. One less thing to cover, one less item to figure out. Now, I'm working out the details of how to get there. I'm sad as I type this because I'm adding the schedule into Google Calendar, and I'm typing in the details of how I will get back home. And this makes me sad already because on some level I don't want to come back home. I love Charlottesville and don't think I would want to be anywhere else in the United States. I have a home here, in part because it reminds me a lot of England, and reminds me a lot of what I think is best about the United States, as well as the challenges that face us as a community. But for the next month, I'll be preparing for this trip. It has been four and a half years since I've been to England. I've not seen my son in his home for nearly four and a half years. So much has happened since then, and going to see him became such an impossible f

A new start on running

I was out with friends at South Street last night, and at around 10:30 I knew it was time to go home. "I'd love to go to the next whiskey bar, but I want to get up to make sure I can run," I said to them. Off they went, and off I went to my home. This week I signed up to go on the Sunday Sixer put together by the Charlottesville Area Trail running club. I have been looking for opportunities to run socially for a long time and now that I don't have two jobs, I decided to sign up so I went home to prepare. I woke up at 7:00 am, and wanted to keep sleeping. So, I did, drifting into a deep sleep with multiple dreams. I have incredibly vivid dreams about my real life all the time, and I remember most of them, at least for a little while. So, I woke up at 8:40 am again, taking every second I could to dream. But, I knew I couldn't stay there. I knew I had to get out and live a dream. I drove there, not sure what was going to happen. Our departure point was Th