smoke and combustable mirrors

Being inside of a machine such as a car or a train can suddenly become very frightening when you begin to smell something burning. At least for me. At first you wait for it to pass but as the smell lingers you internaly, slowly start to panic. God help your insanity if the stench grows any stronger. This happened to me on the train today. I was in a car with maybe ten strangers only three stops away from my home when the unspecific burning smell loomed into my car. Must be something outside. We travel to the next stop. The smell remains and is getting stronger. I look around and see no smoke or signs of distress nor destruction. None of my fellow riders have broken their idle stare that seems to last their entire commute. Their noses remain uncrinkled and apparently, unaware. I sit in my seat moving my head and eyes in tiny darts searching for evidence of disaster. Nothing. If TV and movies have taught me anything it's that at any moment my train is about to explode. Without warning and I will be faced with the decision of whether to save myself or someone else. One more stop to go. No one smells that? I study my fellow travlers faces for signs of recognition. Either no one smells it or they don't watch the same movies as me. It's my stop. I'm safe. I seem to suffer from paranoia that I think manifested itself inside of me after breaking my leg. If I pass a construction site while in my car and take in a burnt tar odor, my eyes automatically go to that "H and C" gauge on the dashboard. Without any knowledge of cars I simply assume that if my car is about to blow up, the little hand will shoot dramatically toward either the H or the C away from where it permanently rests (in the middle). I constantly think that my whereabouts is suddenly going to burst into flames. Heater making a funny nose? My house is surely about to combust. Milk not steaming properly? This old cappucino machine in Clio is clearly seconds away from igniting my latte on fire. At the Bed and Breakfast in Ptown our room was freezing because I wouldn't allow Rachel to remove the iron gate infront of the fire place. Why not? The fire was obviously going to leap out and burn the whole town to the ground. I did however have a breakthrough last night. I allowed the candles in my house to be lit while I ran down to the basement to grab the laundry. Adventurers unite! -lj

10 more days

I would start by apologizing, but I'm assuming that after my ever repeating offense of desserting the blog, my apology wouldn't hold much ground. Rachel and I just fine, just busy and just about outa here! I'm sitting on my couch, new tiny laptop in, well, my lap, and reveling in the fact that I was just cut from work and get to spend some "me" time alone on this chilly Friday night. On way home I was able to read a chapter of the new book I just started "Medium Raw" by Anthony Bourdain. (I have to laugh that if I were in high school I would get points off this blog for not underlining the name of a novel. Only short stories should be in quotes however, underlining doesn't seem to be an option on this blog program). Anyway, I came to my stop on the train, shut my book and headed home. On my walk home, by the way its freezing outside, I was thinking about how I wanted to blog as soon as I got home and I then got to thinking...why? I haven't wanted to blog in the last two weeks, why such an urge today? And then I realized that when I suffer...you suffer. Two days ago I finished the book "Tuesdays with Morrie". The book had come highly recommended by several people whose taste in books I very much respect, but I gotta say... I struggled. You know I'm reading a good book when I'm blogging a lot. I read good writing, I want to write. Very simple. Well I finally finished the book, am on to Anthony Bourdain and have a feeling, you'll be hearing more from me. Last we spoke, we were going to Ptown. Ptown was fun even though apparantly the big party was the night before Halloween. We finally found one bumpin' place and I spent the next day extremely hung over. Rach and I have seriously decreased our alcohol intake since Denver and my body now rejects large quantities of it, go figure. Since then, fun events include me driving to New Haven, Connecticut to hike with best pal Christina, a really great dinner at a restaurant called Aura, the New England Aquarium and just this morning the much awaited...Harry Potter. The Aquarium was great even though the only "petting" part was a shallow tank full of starfish. Just so we're on the same page...that is NOT as fun as feeding stingrays as was the case in Denver. Once again, Denver wins. The aquarium did however boast signs that advertised a big petting portion that will be installed in April. Sorry we missed it, but I wouldn't even come back here to pet sharks. Well..maybe just to pet the sharks but only to pet the sharks! Speaking of sharks there were also signs up informing us that the sharks from the "open ocean" tank were currently at another aquarium because they were ridding the tank of some bacteria. We asked a staffmember when the sharks would be back. ..."tomorrow". Damnit! I asked a co-worker how she thought a shark would be transfered from one aquarium to another. She said they were both near the harbor and that they channeled the sharks through the harbor! Tell me thats particulary awesome. I hope its true, cause that sounds very very cool to me. Also in the past two weeks, we've mapped our trip to Florida which includes nights in Delaware, Viriginia, North Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia. It also includes lunches in Providence, Philly, and D.C. We also chose a route from North Carolina that drives along the coast. 1650 miles and we absolutely can't wait. I'm also very very much looking forward to our three days in New York where my family awaits. Rach is going to Buffalo for Thanksgiving so she'll get to see the Popson fam then. Thankfully I got to see them when they came to visit us two weeks ago. I unfortunatly had to work most of the time and didn't get to spend anywhere near the amount of time with them as I'd like to. I hate when I don't blog for along time because I have to spend the whole blog catching up. You'd think I'd learn my lesson. But there's the catch up. hm (happy mom)? :) -lj