Earl's Court Hostel, London, UK
I woke at five minutes to 10:00. I was supposed to be checked out by 10:00, and had missed the breakfast provided by the hostel. I got straight up and jumped from my top bunk at Earl's Court Hostel, hurting myself a bit because without my glasses it didn't look very far to jump. I dropped off my sheets and checked out. Then I went back downstairs for a wonderful shower. My hair is pretty wild.
I took Earl's Court Tube to Black friars on the District Line. I found City of London Hostel and checked in for two days. I will have no more of this hauling my luggage daily.
I walked to St. Paul's Cathedral and toured it for two and a half hours. I went all the way up to the top. I also went to the crypts and saw Sir William Blake's tomb. I read the poem on his grave aloud. Rose Thou Art Sick. I saw many other famous people.
I'm in The Hatchet Free House having Green King IPA Bitter, alone, in a quiet back room, at one of the small tables, on a stool. The Hatchet had been a trading company with furs from the colonies. No good food, so I'll just drink more bitter.
I went to London Bridge and the Tower Bridge after I left The Hatchet. I ate exquisite tomato-and-cheddar crepe at the market between the two bridges on the east bank. I ate it as I walked. The market was glass covered and had many expensive shops. The crepe vendor was not a permanent building, but a trailer. Just before I got to Tower Bridge, I stopped at a pub and had a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale. The owner of the pub had what I believe to be a very thick Welsh accent.
I crossed the bridge and a woman with the worst stutter I have ever heard asked me where something was. She was from Canada, and thought for sure that I was British. I thought this must have been because I was dressed in all black. I went past the Tower of London, and stopped at a shop in the Tower of London mini-mall and I had turkey and brie on a croissant.
I stopped back at the hostel, and asked at the front desk about tickets to a good play. She said that I should go to a place on Leicester Square, because they are on discount there. She said I would probably have to hurry though. I decided I would go to a play for sure tonight, so I went and changed into my tan sport coat and a black pullover and left the hostel at 18:30. I had to rush, but decided to walk so I could enjoy myself anyway.
When I came to the Leicester Square station, I found a ticket place (which was not the right ticket place I was to find out months later). It had a sign on the window that said "Back in a Few Minutes," or some other lie. I waited, and then walked around a bit.
I noticed that a play called Lysistrata was playing at Wyndam's, right next to the Leicester Station. The billboard for it was quite racy. I had heard the name before. Then I saw it was by Aristophanes and I remembered John Storlie telling me about it. I stopped in to check on prices. They had student prices, so I got a good seat for 10 pounds and went to some pubs nearby. I had a Laphroiag and a half pint of bitter at one, and then a pint of Flowers Bitter at another. Then I went to Lysistrata.
Lysistrata was hilarious. They spoke in a very strong rhyme. The women in it were women, unlike Greek drama. It had a simple set overall. The huge wall of the city was plywood, and there was graffiti all over it that showed it was Athens, and that Sparta was their #1 enemy. They had very strange props, if you will, including inflatable phalli and pillow breasts.
I went back to St. Paul's Hostel afterwards and went straight to sleep. I currently have room-mates from Iran, Iceland, Turkey, and France.
1993
Salt Marshes Campground, Maine
This morning, I took a shower in a blue green room but the water was so cold that I couldn’t be under it much. Then I washed my hair outside in the sink, struggling with untangling. The campground was empty, so I felt comfortable bathing myself, shirt off, in the open air. I shook the water from my hair, my head was dizzy and cold with the water I had to use to rinse it. I wore my water sandals from Walmart to the shower, which had a sign saying ‘No Bare Feet’.
I went to my tent, changed to black Levi 501’s inside, got on my bike and cruised around the sandy and loose rock roads of the campground. At the edge, there was a salt marsh area, with no trees, open field, with rivers cutting through it. Far across it, there were more trees, but with the huge cuts of river, it would be difficult to reach there. The ground was very moist, and the plant life seemed very singular.
Later, after locking my bike to a picnic table, I drove to a Brew Pub in Kinnebunk, where I had chowder, very peppery and delicious. I sat next to a couple from London, and chatted with them before I left about traveling, gradschool, and life. Minneapolis too, he’d flown there for business.
It rained that night, all night. I couldn’t sleep, so I woke early, wet, stuck everything in the jeep and drove to Rochester NY. I arrived and hung out with Dan for the evening at his place.
1995
We had a blackout of power in Spring Grove from 16:30 to 02:30. The whole town seemed to be wandering around wondering who to loot. We were supposed to have play practice, but because it was so dark in the opera house, we moved it to our backyard. It worked for as long as the light held, but we were also getting and making so many phone calls updating the town of the status of our electricity, that we didn't get much done. Other people came to join us, and later it turned into a bonfire with some neighborhood people joining in.
2010
After working at the Opera House in the morning to take out the ceiling, which we did not do, but we took down the movie screen made it fold in half, we worked on our own house and watched "South Park." It the evening, we went to a fund-raiser for Newman, and we bought over a $1000 worth of goodies, a weekend trip to Boston, oil changes, pizza's, dinner for 8 at McCaffrey's, a lovely Waterford crystal ice bucket, and some baby care lotion. We had a great time.
2012