Adventure!

Well. New York is B I G. I arrived here yesterday around 3:00 after driving through a lot of the city on the bus. I actually got in the city around 2:15 and was amazed at simply how far we had to drive through it to get to the Port Authority bus station. I had no idea. The tall buildings simply went on and on, like a thick concrete forest.

After I arrived I wandered around and stumbled upon Time Square. It must call out to tourists because I found it without even trying. The big lights simply called out to me, so I followed. The snow falling down was beautiful and I enjoyed seeing the landmark made famous in too many movies. Because of the weather, it was practically empty.

I didn't know that this was so unusual. After, I wandered into the M&M candy shop to indulge my sweet tooth and try out some different colored M&M's. Delicious. By this time I was pretty famished so I walkd into a random cafe and got a Tabasco Panini and a canoli. Both were far too big and far too tasty. The only downside was my back was starting to hurt from lugging my suitcase around so I hopped on the subway and headed to my Cousin Vicki's. It really couldn't have been easier.

We hung out until Zlatka got home. She brought her boss, Irene because of the weather. The four of us ordered sushi and hung out, talking about this that and the other. I was extremely tired because I hadn't slept well... Chena's stomach rumbled like a freight train. She slept right through it, occasionaly making dog noises, but I couldn't. Eventually I woke her up and gave her some kibble.


Today I went in with Zlatka and Irene to their work, which is right on Time Square. It was really cool seeing a production agency. Zlatka and I talked about her job and it sounded really interesting. I told her about my love affair with movie trailers (they are the best part of any film) and she said I should consider a career in television writing or producing. I've been reading up on it. Sounds like fun.

Her work place is A M A Z I N G. It's so spacious an airy -- a theme I found throughout the day on my tour of the city which really surprised me. There was a ton of open space and then offices were people could do video editing. The rooms get rented out, people don't work in them full time, to companies like ABC, NBC and CBS ect. ect. I then got to partake in fresh bagel Friday and took a soda from the fully stocked fridge before departing on my merry way.

I headed down Broadway into Time Square again which was noticeably even less crowded (if even possible). The snow was falling steady and everything seemed so peaceful. The snowplows were out in full force and I was very grateful that I had worn my rainboots even though they are hideously unstylish as well as my full rainsuit. Not exactly Ms. Fashion Queen.

I really enjoyed the wide spacious side walks as well as the intricacies of the buildings that flowed by me, one after another after another. There were all different types of architecture going on. New interspersed with old -- but not in a tacky, unsightly way. I splashed about in puddles in my boots and eventually found myself in Central Park. It was delightful walking through with all the fresh snow covering the ground and seeing mothers pulling their babies around on sleds.

Eventually I made it to 5th Avenue and walked back up towards where I came from, making detours in the Apple Store (so I could make a move in my online scrabble game) and FAO Shwartz because when I was in grade school all the kids used to talk about it. I figured I better see what all the hype was about from way back in the day. The giant stuffed animals were really cool. I felt like I was on a stuffed animal safari with all the lions, giraffes and camels.

After, I made my way along window shopping. Some of the dresses I saw were simply stunning. The manequins looked like they were wearing waterfalls of flowy white silk. Simply gorgeous. Like snow queens. It couldn't have been more fitting. Some of the other designs I thought were a little too ostentatios -- but then I've always preferred the simple.

Somehow I then made my way to grand central station where I was simply awed by the grandeur of the building. I went inside and felt so incredibly small beneath it's blue shaped roof. It's funny, but that roof reminded me a lot of what the Great Hall is supposed to look like in Harry Potter. It was covered with pictures of the twelve zodiac constellations. It was very humbling to be standing in the middle of something that was so incredibly large and filled with so many people. Everyone's voices and footsteps blended together so that we sounded much like a river flowing steadily downstream.

Then I walked to the Tudor buildings and the United Nations which was really cool. I enjoyed the subtle details of the buildings. I was rather surprised, however, that the UN wasn't flying any flags. I thought they always flew, but maybe they were taken down for the weather or maybe they are only flown when it is open... most places were shut today.

I also found this really cool building... I forget it's name , with ah uge botanical garden. I wanteed to go in (the public was allowed) but the building was closed. I took a pretty cool picture however of the plants in the garden and the reflection of the snow outside.

My final stop was the New York Public Library which was big, beautiful, and currently the film location for the show Gossip Girls. I stumbled accidentily onto the set (not literally onto the set,  just outside it) and watched as they filmed a beautiful ballroom scene. It was strange seeing so many people dressed up and dancing, but really entertaining to see the band play too. I'm curious to see the show now just so I can say "I saw that scene being shot!" I don't watch the show, nor have I ever seen it but Leigh and Kerri do.

Then I headed back to Zlatka's work... I was pretty tired and turned on the hockey game. They have a huge TV and watched as the USA scored 6 quick goals against Finland within the first 12 minutes of the first period. Talk about a slaughtering...

Anyways, I'm back at Vicki's now but I had a really exciting day in the city. I could definitely see myself living here, which is strange because I thought I'd find the city big and overhwleming. It is big, but the city planning is simply brilliant -- especially having to deal wiith Boston's smooshed side walks and odd layout. I dig the organization here.

Ok, nap time.

Waking up to a foot plus of snow is always so delighful. I took Chena out this morning and she was real excited. I was great watching her romp around in the snow like a big puppy. I had an easy job in the morning. There was little poop to pick up. It had either been buried or the dogs simply had stayed in their houses all night long. I'm not sure which. I guess we'll learn in the spring...

I primarily spent the morning looking for dog bowls, which was tougher than it sounds though I recovered all but two. (go me!) After, I came back in with Chena. She hasn't gotten used to eating in the house yet though, so she's been going hungry. Though she was eyeing the tuna sandwhiches we made for lunch today with interest.

She's been doing really well and follows me around the house a lot, if she thinks I won't be coming back to the room. Earlier, when I went to move my laundry in the basement she sat up at the top of the stairs whining.

This weekend I'm going to New York City. I'm leaving tomorrow and am really excited! That means on friday during the day I will just walk around the city and hopefully not get too lost. I'd like to go to Central Park and Time Square because I've heard so much about them. I'm curious to see how different the city is from Boston. I'm sure it's going to be quite a shock. Well, bring it on!

It will be sad not seeing Chena for a couple of days too. That's all for now!

Well I'm at the 10,000 word mark. It probably doesn't sound like a lot, but that's approximately 40 pages in a novel, if you figure the average page in a novel has about 250 words which is the standard most publishers go by.

Depending on the genre novels usually range between 80,000 words (short side for general non-fiction) to 115,000 words (science fiction/fantasy).

The good news is I've made it so far. The bad news is,  it's still a longggggg way to go. The novel I'm currently writing (ahem, trying to write) is a dystopian science fiction piece with the working title "The Story of Caroline Burke." I found that I've been reading a lot in this genre and figured I had a decent understanding it.

I think it's a genre that allows tremendous flexibility in terms of what you do with it. I particularly like that it typically tackles what it means to be human by (usually) showing the loss of that humanity or the loss of things we think make us human.

Anyways, I just wanted to share the news.

Well, we are back to the ATV.

This is my dog Chena or B.C. (big Chena, Lev's nickname) or for some reason Chena Beana. I'm not sure where I got that. In my head sometimes its the Great Mexican Chena Beana. I'm not sure why. It's not like she wears a sombrero or has a goofy mustache and she's not very bean-like, although she does take after the 'musical fruit' aspect quite well.

Anyways, she's a furry bundle of love. During the day, we hang out. I try and write, she sits and watches me.  She's a very mellow old lady (~9) but still enjoys goofing around and pulling from time to time.

Currently, we're working on the "sit" command. Whoever said you can't teach an old dog new tricks must not have been using the right type of kibble. Right now she'll sit if she knows she's going to get something to eat out of it. Otherwise, she'll hold out and wait -- though we are slowly making progress.



I got her a toy duck but she didn't know what to do with it, so I gave it to Ollie. I also got her some chew bones. She chews it for a few minutes at a time here and there, but never for any extended period of time.

In other news...

Dogsledding this week has been interesting to say the least. We didn't get enough snow for the trails to be particularly good, but we've still been using them. This can be quite terrifying as in some places it becomes extraordinarily difficult to stop. So far we've gone out twice on the trail, each time worse than the one before.

My first trip out I had an eight dog string of pretty powerful boys who simply wouldn't slow down. I was standing on the drag mat and digging my heels in but we were still going incredibly fast over snow, dirt, rocks, gravel... you name it.  The worst is the hills. It's always the hills. Like some rollercoaster out of hell. No seatbelt, no nothing. Just got a hold on tight, drag your feet in and pray for friction to do it's miraculous thing. It's 'by the seat of your pants' mushing.

The good thing is (supposedly) I will never face a trail like that on a race, ect. The bad thing is the trip seemed incredibly long and I got really nervous that if I needed to stop or slow the team down (for whatever reason) that I wouldn't be able to. My stomach clenched up, which was a first for me. The bad thing also was the trip was deemed usable so we went out the following night.

I probably didn't get out onto the trail until 10:30 and by then my eyes were already dragging. Apparently long distance mushing is all about sleep deprivation. Well, no thank you. I was driving Lev's racing team. They'd already been out the night before so they were easier to manage. Still, I wouldn't call the trip 'fun,' but I'll certainly remember it.

anyways, nap time.

Other stuff

Listening to: Sarah Jarosz
Reading: The Book Thief
Following: The Vogel Family 
Planning: A trip to Nova Scotia
Dreaming: Riding a bike across the USA
Writing: The Story of Caroline Burke

over and out.

The tap tap tap of typing is always soothing. Like piano keys being struck, each letter has it's own sound, so when I sit down to write, I compose. Like Beethoven with a keyboard. I may be blind and deaf, but I'll make music that will leave you awe-struck.

I remember going to the Boston Symphony Orchestra once this fall all by myself, dressed to the nines. Seated on either side was a stranger who never turned their wooden cheekbones to say hello but it didn't matter. Think of the music.

Sometimes I think of New Orleans and imagine all the instruments that were stolen by the sea. The music comes bubbling up from the ocean floor and beats against the sand. Crash. Crash. Crash. Like a heartbeat you can wade in.

Sometimes, when I am outside I think of metaphors that unravel themselves like poems, a single train of thought taking me from Falmouth to Boston to Alaska to Home. Or maybe I don't think them, maybe I catch them like butterflies floating through the air and simply hold onto them long enough so that I can see the dust settled on their wings. I wonder if I scraped it off if I could fly. Like Peter Pan. Maybe I'd become a super hero and develop some sort of complex. (As if I didn't have one already.)

I've been dreaming mountains again, their ridged tops poking into the sky, like an Aunt poking your baby fat. Up. Up. Up.My dreams seem to be saying, as if I were a helium balloon trying to fight the kid who's holding my string. I spend my time online perusing websites about different mountain ranges thinking which one of you would I like to try? As if I were picking out entrees or appetizers.

I like to do things that empty my head so I can fill them with my butterfly thoughts and put them in jars of paper. Climb mountains. Bike. Walk in the woods under the trees. Stare up at the stars and wish I were a space pilot hovering above the earth like some sort of demi-god, laughing at the humans below: what did they know of living?

But then, what do I?

Well, I guess I spoke too soon. I ended up driving the ATV tonight. It was my second time on the machine with the dogs in front of me. Mostly, you just go straight and try to drive in the best track possible. Not too difficult.

The only hard part is that there is one sharp turn and you have to gas the ATV and swing it really hard. I didn't do so hot this time. I gave too much gas and nearly hit a dog...well not really but it was too close for comfort. Imagine if I had hit little Tessla! She's the smallest dog we have in the kennel but man does she pull hard! She's got a good head on her shoulders and she just keeps pulling and pulling.

It's also fun driving the ATV to and from the trailer to set up. I never would have imagined that I liked that sort of thing but it's sort of wild. The pathetic thing is I'm not even going far (maybe 50 yards...maybe) or even fast. I always did worry too much...

Tomorrow my good friend Dave is coming to visit. We met mushing sometime back at Kevin and Polly's. I really admire there set up. Ciao Ciao.

I'm currently listening to the Lord of the Rings on my ipod. I don't particularly like the reader. He doesn't do very good voices and tries to sing the poems embedded in the text. The result is hideous melodies that get stuck in my head for hours.

Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo!
By water, wood and hill, by the read and willow,
By fire, sun and moon, harken now and hear us!
Come, Tom Bombadil, for our need is hear us!

This refrain has been stuck in my head for approximately three days. A broken soundbite that fills every inch of my brain when I'm trying to sit quietly and mind my own business. I suppose there could be worse things stuck in my head.

Anyways, while I scoop poop I listen to the adventures of Frodo Baggins. It's quite interesting because I also have the text. What I found is that while I don't mind listening to the book on tape, reading it is much more enjoyable. I wish the guy who did Harry Potter would do Lord of the Rings.

The snow storm that we were so desperately counting on was a complete bust which means we are still using the ATV. It's a little frusterating because I don't really do anything. I harness dogs and then tag along for the ride, a little bit of extra weight to pull. Usually, I try and think about the book that I'm trying to write. I say "trying" because I haven't gotten very far.

It seems as if I have all these great skeletons for stories in my head but giving them flesh and organs has turned virtually impossible. I have an army of half-alive stories parading around my skull bragging about the fact they are seemingly incomplete.

I'm not sure how to get around this problem. I write, but then what I write I do not like or I don't know where it's taking me. Or I try to plan, but I don't much like that either.

I keep feeling like writing a story should be like reading one. It should unravel itself to me as I go along, but I'm not naive enough to actually think that's how great books, or any book for that matter, is written. I don't like the endless struggle that seems to unfold every time I sit down to type or the endless questions about style or my characters.

My characters lately have been the worst part. I'm finding that I have a very hard time writing characters who are unique and, more importantly, have flaws. I specifically need to create unsavory characters but find myself incapable of doing so, despite surrounding myself in literature filled with them. The result is pages full of characters who are mind numbingly similar and who are predictable.

No one is perfect, but why am I so set on creating characters, who in seemingly every way, are perfect? And if not that, at least not mean. Jeesh. I have learned about myself from this process; I think people are inherently good or at least start off that way. Stupid, perhaps. But I can't exactly rewire my brain. Maybe I can override it though.

Alright, time to load up the dogs.

Sorry, it's been awhile. I haven't been feeling 100% so everything has been going a little slower than usual. Things here have been going quite well despite the lack of snow. Last week I took the old dogs out for a run all by myself which meant driving the truck and trailer. It wasn't as terrifying as I imagined it would be. In fact, it wasn't even difficult. Unfortunately, I couldn't report good news. The trail was in lousy shape and even with a 4 dog team slowing down on the ice was difficult.

So we are no longer using sleds. We've switched back to the ATV which is primarily used during fall training. The ATV has some advantages, I suppose. The main one being that you can stop on a dime. We do a different trail than if we use the sleds. Because the ATV can stop so easily, we go on a trail that cuts across a road that isn't used very often. We've passed cars 3 times. The look on the driver's face is always priceless. On Sunday, we ran into a woman who was out with her two dogs. One was a big puff ball of a dog who wasn't leashed and ran right at the team, but our dogs just kept truckin' along.

Last week we saw 3 dogs go . Turtle, Planck, and Ninilchik all moved on to new homes last week. Turtle had been running on my 6 dog team and I will definitely miss her even though she was a quiet dog who mostly kept to herself. I will miss Planck too despite the fact that he was a bit on the stupid side. I had a soft spot a mile long for him because he was such a playful, happy dog.

Over the weekend we made a long trek up to Greenville, ME where Lev was entered in a race. To get there took about 7 hours plus a stop or two for the dogs. The funny thing about stopping anywhere with a dog team is that people always come up and tell you there dog stories. It's nice.

There were 18 teams signed up for a 30 mile course. It was really exciting to go to a race that size. Although I'd been to two previous races, this race was different because there were more teams and more on the line (money). It was interesting seeing the different types of dogs and teams. There weren't many Siberian teams. I met some other mushers too which was nice.

Anyways, I'm tired again and I feel like I'm rambling.I just chopped up 100 pounds of meat for the dogs and I think I'm going to take a nap. Ciao.