So Coraline is opening soon and Jen bought tickets for it – I think we’re seeing it in 3-d. This makes me happy. I started thinking the other day about stories where someone wanted a different life.  You know:

1. run away to the circus
2. run away from the circus
3. want a new family
4. get lost in some enchanted land
5. get swept up in some twister and stuff
6. ride a train and get a bell
7. fight dragons, witches, demons
8. talking critters
9. maybe meet a few “others” and make friends
10. wake up and you’re home…

Those types of stories and I couldn’t think of one where the character went to a new land and wasn’t able to return. Jen said tonight “Pan’s Labyrinth” and she’s right, but that character died.

Anyway, this has gotten me started on a few ideas for story – as I sometimes write and then never open the doc again. I’ve also started thinking about writing a story from a pet’s point of view like Woolf did with Flush.  We’ll see what comes of this.

We’re going to see Hedda Gabbler this month, Kathy Griffin, and Coraline. I’m excited.

I didn’t realize it’s been this long since an update was made here.  During the holidays I spent a lot of time relaxing and just being a little bum.  I had from Christmas eve to Jan 4th off and saw a bunch of friends, didn’t spend too much time on the computer other than to update the NYC Shiba site, and spent my mornings drinking coffee, watching tv, and snuggling on the couch with the cats.

Jen had to work so she didn’t get to have a break, then again, I don’t think Jen has any vacation… grrrrr… that sucks and means we don’t know when we get to take a vacation. We haven’t taken a real vacation since 2007 when we went to Thailand and we’ve been burned out since then. We have small long weekends and things but we haven’t gone away, haven’t had days in a row off, and haven’t had time to just… be… since then. I want to go away this summer for a week but we don’t know what’s going on so far with our jobs so we have to be somewhat careful.

Anyway, we spent New Year’s home and had a good night of watching some tv and movies. I think we went to bed around 4am and slept in the next day.  That weekend we went to the Bklyn museum and then had to return to the usual routine of 9-5 blah blah bite me working.  I felt somewhat rested but really not up for any intense stuff for the first day back and I was lucky.  The whole first week was low key for me but still tiring just because… However, I feel a little better lately and this past weekend I went on a mini-trip to North Carolina and that helps.

Jen’s cousin got married and I flew down on Fri night to see a few college friends who live there. We’ve tried to establish some sort of yearly get-together and somehow at least some of us get together.  It’s hard to get the whole group – some of us have kids, work schedules that don’t match up well, and we’re all scattered.  We’re also all paying rent or mortgages and worry about that junk so we sometimes just can’t spend the few hundred to fly to one place to meet up. However, this spring there will be a trip made to upstate NY and maybe a summer trip to NC again or NYC.  Who knows.

On Sunday I checked out of the hotel to meet my friend Kim for brunch and right outside the hotel were 5 ducks walking around. It was odd, they were in front of the main door as if they might walk in. I just stood there – I hadn’t been that close to ducks in a long time. For a second I wondered if the one coming near me was going to bite me but it didn’t. We drove around a bit through Durham, Chapel Hill, and eventually made it to the airport. My plane took off a few min early cuz everyone (FIRST TIME EVER) boarded in a decent manner. We also landed about 30 min early but had to hang around for a few minutes till we were allowed to get off the plane. Since I was early and not too tired, I took the airtain to the subway home. It wasn’t bad and took 1 hour total, cost 7 bucks, and avoided the crazy cab drivers who make you wanna vomit.

Jen had a worse trip home. Her plane was leaving a little later than mine and it had begun to snow here so they had delays. I think she was 4 hours late and then exhausted. She stayed in NJ and went straight to the office this morning. I imagine she’s tired and wants to just go to bed. I guess tonight will be a pizza night and stay inside night.

Friday when I was waiting at the airport, I was wandering around the new terminal they built at JFK for Jetblue and it’s totally insane. It’s not your usual setup with gates and shopping/food divided up. They made it more comfortable so you don’t have to walk a long distance to buy something, or worry about missing your boarding call. They also have these kiosks set up for you to order food and they bring it right to you, which are set up near all the gates on these countertop/stool setups. It was really neat. I sat at one to see if there was anything appealing to eat. I really only wanted soup which they didn’t seem to have, so I charged my phone and surfed around youtube. Two stools away from me was this guy who was on his phone and had his laptop open. He was trolling around on the internet and talking to his gf, apologizing for being mad at her. I think they must have been on the phone for a long time because there would be long periods of silence and then “So you’re doing what now?” I think they were just both doing their own thing and on the phone to pass the time.

The overhead music was playing random 80s song and at one point a Michael Jackson playlist must have been called up cause I heard several songs… one of them being Beat It. The dude two stools away started singing it. In a high-pitched, “I can’t sing but I will anyway” sort of voice.  I had the urge to throw something at him. At least he stopped when he couldn’t remember the verses.

A few min later he hung up with his gf and I thought he’d be nice and quiet. But then he called his buddy and started talking about their on-line gaming shit. Yes, on-line gaming is this serious people. It’s not simply about advancing your character, winning a few battles, and maybe expanding your kingdom. It is about strategy, and armies, and talking about these characters you create as if they were your children. Now granted, I had my headphones in and was watching 30 Rock, I could hear him… cause he was screaming into his bluetooth ear piece. These are the kind of people you wanna place into institutions to study… and prove that chimps are smarter than humans.

So anyway, at one point I hear him talking about his knights and asking his buddy to help with a few things and rename a knight. He had called his knight “dark knight” and couldn’t think of a better name. His knight was part of his clan and leader Loki. Seriously?  Really? Then he was typing something, I heard the word Manifesto… I heard the words, kingdom, knights, pillage… AH… then I uttered the word, “Loser.”

Now ok, I have several friends who play massive on-line games like WoW or the Star Wars one or City of Heroes… but I’ve never had any of them get this serious about it.  There are even a few people I know who have advanced really far in the games and they still seem to be able to have a life outside of it. I also have played sim games and have a character in Second Life, but never have gotten so serious as to whip out the credit card to buy shit.  So… I had to laugh, and had to twitter it… Then he was on my flight, standing behind me as we were entering the plane and kept hitting me in my back, arm, head with his shit. I had the urge to turn around and punch him. Or at least grab his laptop and throw it on the ground.

When you walk down a gate to the plane and the person in front of you is standing still, here’s a tip:  don’t walk into them. If they take two steps, don’t take three and then him them with your big fucking gut that smells like ham.  If they don’t move at all, do not advance… they aren’t invisible and they won’t magically move.  Pushing me doesn’t make the 15 people in front of me move… it’s not like they forgot to walk.  They’re just slow at getting their bags in the compartments and sitting down. Then there’s always that person who suddenly needs to take out a book, ipod, magazine, water, socks, whatever out of their bag before they put it away… then take off their jacket and fold it up nicely, then stare, and then sit down… and yes, those people might need a little cattle prod. But most of us are trying to make it a quick process.

So “Loki” didn’t sit next to me thank god… I would have lost my shit.

The rest of the trip was fun but always make me somewhat homesick for the college gang. It was nice to live in the same town within 10 min of each other and have the ability to just walk over, walk into a house, and see who was there… I especially liked when there was a couch on the front lawn of the house on Maple, just making it more white trashy looking than it already was and we’d sit on it, sleep on it, and waste time. I swear we went to class. I graduate in 4 years with a few extra credits… so we didn’t always do nothing. It’s the nothing times that were the funniest.