This photograph was taken about a little over an hour before I left Saint Thomas for London — after the hair fire incident. The candles in the photo are the ones that my hair was caught with. The robe I'm wearing in the photo is the inexpensive article of clothing I lost on my journey back to Boston.


photo by goldmourn

gryffyn gave goldmourn and me a ride up to London, where I caught the bus back to Boston. In short order I screwed up boarding the bus and spilt my entire cup of coffee (a lot of it going on my skirt).

However, things seemed to go a bit better until we reached the border. Compared to the security personal at the Canadian border, the Americans are fascist assholes. Someone in front of me put his hands in his pocket while waiting for the border guard to confirm his identification, for which he received the threat: "WE'RE NOT PLAYING GAMES! DO YOU WANT TO GO TO JAIL RIGHT NOW?". His was hardly atypical treatment. Greyhound had scheduled 15 minutes to cross the border. However it took us over an hour to get through security, and there was no one ahead of us. The imagery reminded me more of the check points in the old Soviet Bloc rather than something I'd hope to expect from the United States. How times change.

Luckily the hold up at the border didn't cause me to miss my connection at Syracuse. Other than losing an inexpensive article of clothing, the rest of the trip went smoothly — I walked out of the bus station the exact moment purpleglitter was pulling into the parking lot.

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I didn't do my normal voice post updates during this trip, because the entire LiveJournal voice post system was down the entire trip.

I don't seem to be having very good luck with these trips to Saint Thomas. The first time it was far to hot to do anything. All goldmourn and I could do was sit and sweat and play Trouble.

This time goldmourn is sick. And, well, that's not very much fun.

I am still glad I've made these trips, and still enjoy them to a degree. It's obviously not goldmourn's the elements have conspired to foil our plans. I don't regret coming, I just wish I had better luck and I hope goldmourn feels better soon.

goldmourn and gryffyn met me at the bus depot in London. A few stops for coffee and supplies, and I'm now arrived safely at goldmourn's apartment in Saint Thomas.

I'm going to be landing in Saint Louis this Friday on a one-way airline ticket. It will be the first time my brother, my sister, my parents, and I will all be in the same place at the same time in over a decade. I'm looking very much forward to this.

Sunday, we will all be heading down for the day to Murphysboro, Illinois - where I was born - to see my family down there.

Sometime during my stay in Missouri I hope to see type_40.

I also want to find a way to get to Columbia, I haven't seen the town for a long while and I'd really like to meet up with ceruleanct11. However my tight budget and the infrequent bus schedule very well might thwart that endeavour.

I plan to go home via rail and/or bus, but that leg of the trip has not been fully set in place. I will definitely be stopping in Saint Thomas, Ontario on the way back to spend some time with goldmourn.

I'm also hoping to meet up with likeamermaid on my journey, but if that will occur is not certain as of yet.

While this isn't well planned out, I have a good feeling about it. I'm sure it will be an adventure at the very least.

thanks to goldmourn:

"While we hoped that popular revolt or coup would topple Saddam, neither the U.S. nor the countries of the region wished to see the breakup of the Iraqi state. We were concerned about the long-term balance of power at the head of the Gulf. Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream, engaging in "mission creep," and would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible. We had been unable to find Noriega in Panama, which we knew intimately. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting it in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Under those circumstances, furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-cold war world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the U.N.'s mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different--and perhaps barren--outcome."     "Why We Didn't Remove Saddam"     George [H.W.] Bush and Brent Scowcroft     Time (March 2, 1998)

purpleglitter and I are going to start Project Three Meals together today. I've attempted to do Project Three Meals with another person before – goldmourn, long distance. However, I eat a majority of my meals with purpleglitter and spend a lot of time with her. I think that the follow through will be improved with us working together, we've always made a great team.

Same rules as before:

Three reasonable meals a day and one healthy snack. No more, no less. No junk food. 30 minutes of exercise a day.

Not meeting the goals for one day is okay, just get back on the horse. This is about improving eating and exercise habits, not perfection. However, even though perfection isn't expected it can still be strived toward.

tagged by dan4th (changed wording):

Post 6 odd or weird habits/things/facts about you. Tag 6 people who you'd like to see do the same.

1. I regularly pick up things with my feet.

2. I speak Squirrel. Sometimes squirrels gather around me and random passersby take pictures.

3. I walk around in robes carrying a staff.

4. I do not live my life in chronological order.

5. I buy 5 gallon buckets of pickles for personal consumption.

6. I know a wide variety of obscure facts, but not as many obvious ones.

goldmourn, likeamermaid, purpleglitter, recoiling, vagrant, xhappyx

Both goldmourn and I fell out of the last Project Three Meals, but we're going to have another try together. Like before, the goal is three reasonable meals a day and one healthy snack: no more, no less. No junk food and a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise is also required for a "successful" Project Three Meals day.

We're again making a wager as to who will have the highest total number of "successful" days, as the last wager was voided. This time the loser will read a book of the winner's choosing. I like that because the loser doesn't really lose, because they end up reading something they probably wouldn't have chosen to read thereby possibly expanding their circle of thought in an unexpected direction.

Today is the first day of the New Project Three Meals.

The package from goldmourn arrived today.

I have my camera battery back!

Stop!

Picture time!

Pictures of goldmourn I took during my visit:


( +3 )

Yesterday I had pizza for breakfast, vegetarian sushi for lunch, tomatoe soup with mozzarella cheese for dinner, and bean curd jerky for my healthy snack. I got in an hour long walk, more than fulfilling my exercise quota.

goldmourn and I have decided that for the purposes of this go at Project Three Meals, days will role over at 4:00am, so that the project day does not change on us if we stay up late. Previously, I would simply use my sleep schedule for this purpose; but since the is a wager involved this time, a more standardized approach is called for.

1 successful day.

I'm starting Project Three Meals again. Like before, the goal is three reasonable meals a day and one healthy snack: no more, no less. No junk food and a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise is also required for a "successful" Project Three Meals day.

Unlike before, I am not doing it alone. goldmourn and I are doing Project Three Meals together, and we've added incentive to stick to it: The person with the most successful days gets to make a post in the other's journal.

I have seen a lot of dangerous eating and diet competitions on the net, but I believe this differs from them markedly. This is not "how low can you go" and a day is marked unsuccessful for not eating a healthy amount. I think it's a fun project that will keep us both paying attention to what we eat and at the same time make sure we keep eating enough.