Travel Plans, Inter Alia

I'm home now. 5469 Chico Way NW, Bremerton WA 98312-1245, USA, Earth, System Sol, Orion Arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Universe in Which I Think I Live. I think my parents would be upset to discover I've posted our address on the internet. We shred every piece of paper that has our address on it. This makes no sense to me because we're listed in the phone book under E E Dahlberg. Oh well. Being home is comfortable, but remembering some of the rules is difficult sometimes. Like shredding the mail; opening letters with a letter opener; flushing the toilet after every use, even if I only peed in it; and letting the day's dirty dishes (except some wood-handled knives that get washed immediately after use) accumulate until, once each day, they're washed after my dad finishes his shower, at about 1825.

I plan to leave here in a few days, though. It'll begin with waking up at about 3:10AM on Monday 07 June to take a 4:25 ferry from Bainbridge Island to Seattle, where I'll meet up with Evan at about 4:50AM to drive to Wyoming. I think I'll stay in Wyoming until the middle-ish of July. Then I'll head back (not sure how yet--bussing, flying, and hitchhiking are all on the table) home before going on a two-week cruise to Alaska with my extended family. I think the cruise will be a really interesting experience for three equally salient reasons:

1. I feel a bit uncomfortable with people doing things for me.
2. It's a small cruise ship, and my family will make up about a third of the guests. Some of us haven't seen each other in years.
3. We're going to Alaska! I expect it'll be beautiful.

Oh, incidentally, here's a music recommendation: "Sun's Gonna Rise" by The Wailin' Jennys. Put your headphones on, turn the volume up high, and wait for some gut-wrenching high-pitched vocal harmonies. Follow that up with "Heaven and Earth" by Blitzen Trapper.

Our flight from Alaska to SeaTac arrives at SeaTac on 14 August. My flight from SeaTac to Seoul leaves the morning of 16 August. I anticipate a hectic 48 hours in which my mother will become frenetic, my father will keep to himself, and I'll pack and respond to my mothers inquests with short, terse answers.

Then, if everything goes according to plan (but then whatever does?) I'll be in Seoul on the 17th and begin teaching on the 21st. I think it'll be a fun ride.

I've been updating my journal/scrapbook, and I came across this gem:

07 July 2009 1124
By the airBaltic Ticket Counter
Līdosta Rīga
Rīga Latvia

I wonder why beautiful women seem to congregate in airports.
OR: What is it about traveling that makes women seem beautiful?

(Līdosta is the Latvian word for airport)

That was updated a few months later in the following entry:

26 December 2009 between 2120 and 0925
Seat 36G. Boeing 767 ER(G)
Somewhere between New York City and Dublin
Atlantic Ocean (Over it)

Addendum to a previous entry about women in the airport: what seems to make the proportion of women wearing brightly colored fleece sweatsuits skyrocket in airports?

HOLY-ISTIC COW

im thinking of being creative. being creative is pretty bogus though. im sitting on my bedroom floor looking at all the blank white walls and the pile of trash i swept up that has to-do lists, empty cider bottles, and old hi-lighters all raked into the same corner. i forgot to mention the box of cheerios. that pretty much sums up my semester. i took all of my tapestries and klimt photos down so now the room (no longer MY room) seems so... sterile. so boxy. i havent had the urge to be creative in a long time -- i sort of gave up that aspiration in high school because i figured it was a phase everyone goes through. i mean, c'mon everyone knows the best little token to get in LIFE is "you write a best-selling novl, $50,000." so cliche; it's in a board game i mean. nuff said, right? anyway, every five minutes of cleaning my room warrants forty-four minutes of breaking, since that's the length of an episode of the o.c. i swear i don't like it, but i stayed up the night before watching it until five in the morning. but hey, it's summertime and the livin's easy. what else do i have to do? maybe that's the wrong attitude though. there's only so much bad tv i can rip from the internet to prove my retaliation to all things educational (suck it willamette), but i also don't want to spend my entire summer holed-up in my room and embarrassed of what im doing. think holistic, think wholesome. re-reading favorite books, maybe journaling and maybe not, making new book lists, playing some ultimate or taking a hike by myself.

practically my only memory of finals week is walking outside from a library binge and seeing stina lounging in the sun on jackson plaza engrossed in the last hp book. god, that's the right attitude.

by the way, creative mission accomplished. i mean, did you read my title?

yeah, it's a dog's life

written on a Southwest Airlines napkin en route to New Orleans

What is this technology that so swiftly takes me between lives? Sandwiched in the atmosphere between space and the top layer of clouds, I sit in my chair, listening to my ipod and making faces at the baby in front of me who is looking desperately for entertainment. I feel you, baby. Sitting here, my mind phases between anticipation for that old familiar place and sadness for leaving a place which has recently become so familiar to me. I can't decide which one to follow and if by choosing I betray one or the other.
It's a balancing act that I no longer want to entertain. It's a life that is finally being left- no bridges burned. It's an independence that I will finally claim. I will take my car. What a symbolic act. I will cook for my family the rosemary chicken recipe that I have recently perfected in my own home. What a symbolic act. Who knows where I'll end up but what is important is where I want to be now. This trip home is a last hurrah in which I will finally tip the scale into my own hands and place the weights into my backpack to carry with me where I want to go. What a symbolic act.

*the 8 hour flight home always makes me a little nostalgic and a little dramatic. do i still feel all of these things? well see.*

Korea, Korea, Koreeaaaaa. I'm Going to a Place Called Koreaaaa.

On Wednesday I accepted a job offer to teach debate to gifted middle- and high-school students in Seoul, South Korea. I'll be there for at least one year, and no more than three. I leave from Sea-Tac on August 16. Cool.

The Brian Breakfast Sandwich

Briefly:
Fry two eggs with pepper and basil.
Spread avocado on two pieces of bread, leave open-faced.
Salt the avocado, then add cheese and tomato slices.
Puncture the egg yolks, then turn each egg over (top facing down) onto each piece of bread.
Done. Eat.

fre-fre-fre-fresh out the salon, i take her to milan.

well kids, it looks like we might be in for some more roaming here. sitting in pdx waiting to board my flight to boston-amsterdam-glasgow. thinking to myself that im a wee bit crazy for this- but in a good way. it's like after having missed glasgow so much i'm going to know exactly how to appreciate it and to absorb every second. can't wait to see all my friends, especially my friend shirly. im so tired.

ok. passengers 1-15. gotta go.
love yall