One leather pants

I have 25 boxes packed for my move to New York.

Nic and I found a beautiful, cheap apartment in way up in Harlem, specifically in this area called Sugar Hill - so high in numbers that it's almost near Washington Heights. My friends in Queens and Brooklyn are all tiffed because I'm so far away from them. But it's a nice little place one block from the subway and about a 30 min ride to school. My student teaching will probably be in Harlem or the Bronx so it'll probably be the perfect location in the end. Luckily, far isn't too, too far from anyone.

My boxes are labeled and sitting waiting to be moved out. When? I'm not sure yet.

Some of the labels on the boxes read like you'd expect labels to - "bedroom, clothing" or "kitchen, pots and pans" but my favorites are the stacks that read:
"writings"
"photos"
"soda machine"
"art & throw pillows"
"boardgames, basketball, bible"
and last but certainly not least
"TO SAVE"
the contents of which are listed as:
1 exboyfriend's t-shirt
1 airbrushed denim jumpsuit
1 tie dye shirt
1 cap and gown
1 leather pants
1 mermaid costume

Today I'm saddened by the thought of leaving Baltimore and have a craving for chocolate.

Portland

Yesterday, was our first day in Portland. We arrived late the night before and crashed at a house where there was a party when we got in. They couldn't stop us. We fell asleep while everyone was still hanging out.(pictures to follow) Unaware that we were so clever, this ended up being a sneaky way for us to claim a place to stay. All day we walked around and looked at stuff in this awesome city I bought some clothes, and like a celeb, wore them out of the store (but of course, not like a celeb, i was doing it because I needed to change into something clean.)

At a vintage store there was this adorable girl ringing people up behind the cases of sunglasses and oversized medalions. And, it was Weesie's sister, Allie! What?! Awesome. She was so nice and friendly and happy to meet buddies from Baltimore. Hopefully we'll hang out with her today or tomorrow. She seems SO nice!

Yesterday, a little homeless we went to see Spaceballs for 3$ so that we could take a nap. We thought this was hilarious. Spaceballs and Napsballs.

Traveling with Jeanne, Katrina and Erin is amazing. I don't hate them at all. I thought for sure I secretly would hate one of them a little by now! See, Katrina and Erin I didn't know so well before but, ends up, they are totally awesome BFFFFF. forever, forever. Last night this girl Adriana, a friend of Jeanne's friend Zach let us stay in her house and all of the nice, crusty bike messengers, and tattooed bakers all had a sleep over in the living room after we went to The Know and drank $2 Papst Tallboys. I slept through all of the sleepover, but there was rumored to be a pillow fight after I was passed out. Rad!

Today? Leebs sent a bunch of awesome suggestions and besides just walking around and looking at stuff we are going to go to the following:Rose Garden, Voodoo Doughnuts, Ground Kontrol Arcade and continued awesomeness.

Lastly,
I'm really psyched about the shower I just took....it's been a few days.

New Mexico- Tour de Friends de Friends

20 hours after I landed in from Sicily, Jeanne and I hopped on a plane toward New Mexico.

We almost missed our connection in Houston and literally had to run through the airport to catch our flight to buddies. We sat next to a man on the plane who thought that Jeanne drew the Batman comic I was reading. I tried to explain...But, he was either stupid or drunk. He congratulated her on her terrific illustrations and characters. Do you think that he's ever heard of Batman before? *the particular issue I was reading was by Paul Pope, and was set in the future, so maybe it's possible that he was just confused and not drunk or stupid. I shouldn't have said that, that was mean of me.

When we arrived in New Mexico we met up with Katrina, Erin and Jon. It was then that we discovered that because we ran to catch our connection, we were stealthy and made it to our seats, but unfortunately my bag did not make it. So, ONCE AGAIN, my little red luggage was lost, this time in Houston instead of Milan. When I was filling out the form, I already knew that my bag is described as a "RD #22" in airport-speak. The lady behind the counter asked me what was in it, and I told her "Diamonds, it was a huge suitcase full of diamonds and other rare gems."

New Mexico is awesome. Katrina and Jon live in a "EARTH SHIP" - (Sarah Raz, You'd love it here.) Their home is up a mountain built half underground. The walls are constructed with trash and cement and everything (besides the propane stove) is completely self sufficient. Katrina and Jon made t-shirts for the solar festival and are hearty supporters of vegitarianism, activism and recycling.

It's strange to think that just a week ago, I was having the time of my life, partying at a Navy base in Sicily, and now, I'm having the time of my life dancing with children of dreadlocked, Taos, NM hippy-punks. Everyone here is really nice and seems friendly. They talk about building new roofs on their houses or how their home-made irrigation systems are doing. They build everything themselves.

We woke up this morning and I took a shower, turning off the water in between sudsing up to conserve, and then we ate tofu scrambler and Katrina and Jeanne cut my hair outside, on the mountain - with a breath taking view of Taos, below. Sarah, did I mention you'd love it here? Yesterday we went to go with Katrina and Erin while they got tattoos and wandered around town. Today everyone is at Rumsfeld's ranch holding up signs and we are going to get Thai food and go to see some sacred grounds, an art opening, and have some sort of fantastic vegan burrito with mashed potatoes in it.

I'll say hello to the prairie dogs for you.

Traveling with Jeanne is fantastic. I love that she is excited about seeing and doing things and isn't ever hung up on timeframes or anything else. I also like getting to spoon my best buddy at nighttime. On Sunday, all of us girls are leaving to start our Road Trip up to Portland. We're driving and camping through Utah, Colorado, and Idaho - and wherever else we think to stop!

misses and kisses from the road, buddies!