7 posts tagged “north carolina”

Home Sweet Home

2 comments

I just purchased a train ticket, and will be headed to Wilmington via the railroad of lies [aka Amtrak - they are never never ever on time, hence the nickname...] on Thursday at 6:15am.  Not for any reason in particular, but I need some sun and ocean and fresh air.  [AND TEA!]  I need to get away from work for 10 days, and see my family and friends and all our animals. 

I'll be in Wilmington on Thursday and Friday, and then Saturday my family is headed to the Outer Banks for a few days.  It's just about my favorite place in the entire world, so I'm pretty happy about that.  We're staying south of Kitty Hawk and all the tourist stuff, so it should be fairly quiet.  Especially this time of year.  Then Tuesday or Wednesday, we're going back to Wilmington, and I'll be there until Memorial Day, when I ride the rails northward again. 

I need a break so bad.  I asked off from work about three weeks ago, and no one's said a word about it.  No yay or nay.  My feeling is that we all dislike one another so much, they'll probably be happy to have me gone for 10 days.  At least, that's how I feel about the whole thing.

I am really excited.  Excited for the short week at work, and excited to be in North Carolina for 10 days.  As much as I love New York, I miss North Carolina like crazy.  And despite the fact the train takes forever, I'm kind of looking forward to the ride.  It's kind of fun to watch the country pass by, and best of all, I'm not in the air.  No planes for me! 

Show us the best beach you have visited.
Submitted by Marko.

Wrightsville Beach, NC

Ain't nothing better than a North Carolina beach...

If you were told you could relive a moment in your life, which would you choose?
Submitted by Slight Diffusion.

Relive in what way?  Do I get to go back and live it all over in the way it happened?  Or go back and relive something with the knowledge of the original outcome and the ability to change that outcome the second time around?  Go back and change a decision you made?  See where you end up?  I like this question.  I suppose I'll answer it both ways.

If I was going to go back and relive something the way it all happened, just for the sheer enjoyment of that moment, I would probably pick from April to June of 2005.  My best friend, Chaundra, and I look three fantastic roadtrips together with hardly any money and had the best time ever. 

First we went to Asheville to see Ryan Adams, stopping for a night in Charlotte to stay with her uncle.  We coasted into Asheville on fumes, literally, and had pretty much only enough money for gas back the next day.  But we had a blast.  We saw Ryan Adams, we met some really cool people from Minnesota who we hung out with all night; we just had the best time.  A few weeks after that we headed to DC for the same reason [we have a little bit of a thing for Mr. Adams].  It was so hot, and Chaundra's car didn't have AC, and we were stuck in rush hour traffic in 90 degree weather.  It was terrible.  And hilarious.  We stayed at this creepy hostel on a hill in DC for eighteen bucks or something, and spent the next day walking all over the city just looking for something to eat that we could afford.  We took our picture in front of the White House. 

Shortly after that we spent a few weeks housesitting in New Jersey for a friend of Chaundra's who was going on her honeymoon.  We drove to New Jersey all night from North Carolina, trying to keep each other awake.  I fell asleep and woke up as we were going over a bridge in Delaware, the sun was coming up and it was so incredible.  Then she made me - a born and bred Southerner with a genteel way of driving - drive on the New Jersey turnpike during morning rush hour.  We are lucky to be alive.   We stayed in a nice little house about 45 minutes from New York City, and took the train into the city almost everyday.  That was the first time I ever visited New York; that's when I decided I wanted to move to New York.  We got into trouble, but had a fantastic time.  We went to some good shows; we met lots of cool people; we went to a carnival in New Jersey and rode the scrambler until we thought we were going to puke.  It was an incredible trip.

I look back on those trips so fondly.  We were 21 and crazy and broke, and we probably did some stupid things, but it's part of being young and reckless.  I know I would never do that now; I'm too settled and calm.  I don't party anymore.  I could never go back to living like that, nor would I want to.  But I wouldn't mind reliving it all again.  The good and the bad, because it was an epic adventure. 

Now, to answer this question in another way.  Suppose I am going back and reliving a moment, aware of what I am reliving, and able to change the outcome.  What would I choose then?  No contest:  I would have stayed in Ireland.  I had the oppertunity to stay in Ireland for longer, but chose to come home.  I often wonder what my life would be like had I stayed.  What would have changed.  I had a great time, but I think I let being homesick cloud some of my enjoyment.  I was, afterall, thousands of miles from everyone I had always known, living with strangers.  Fantastic strangers, who I adored and who became family, but strangers nonetheless.  I wish I hadn't let myself get so homesick at times, and just enjoyed that time for what it's worth, and I wish I had taken the oppertunity to stay.  Of course, that would have most likely altered the entire course of my existence.  I most likely would not be sitting in an apartment in Manhattan with my dear Russian.  And I hate to think of an existence without him.  But it would be cool to be able to get a glimpse at what my life would have been like had I stayed.  Not necessarily live that alternative life, but just see where it would have led me.  Which is, of course, a dangerous game, because then you could be resentful of your current life situation if the alternate life was much better or exciting or whatnot.  Or I may be thankful for my life now, because maybe everything would have gone to shit. 

It should be of note, however, that there were signs everywhere that I should have stayed.  Literally.  And I am often a person who believes in signs, and tend to sort of live my life by them.  On the way to the airport, the car blew a tire.  After some nice people stopped to help fix the tire and left, the car wouldn't start.  It just wouldn't.  For no apparent reason.  Rebecca, my Irish "mother", looked at me and said, "I don't think you're supposed to go."  And I just ignored her and said I had to go, and finally the car started.  I made it to the airport as my plane was boarding.  The flight was uneventful until we got to Baltimore, where I was flying into for my connecting flight to Raleigh, and we encountered severe storms.  The landing was terrible, and I spent about 12 hours at the Baltimore airport, because no flights could leave.  With only Euros in my pocket because the currency conversion office had closed already for the night!  I sat in the stupid airport and cried and cried and cried and thought, gosh, I probably should have stayed.  I wonder all the time what would have changed had I stayed. 

I'm alive!  The plane was, however, extremely bumpy.  And I did cry like a little girl when we took off.  Luckily I had my wonderful Russian to take care of me for the duration.  I am now in sunny, fantastic, WARM North Carolina. 

Thank you all for your kind words concerning my fear of flying.  I'm still terrified, and I will still freak out when I have to get back on that plane again on Friday, but what can you do? 

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!  I am thrilled to be spending the holiday in one piece.

I haven't written all week; I've just been insanely busy.  And this doesn't look to be much of a post, as I haven't finished getting ready and we leave for the airport in 35 minutes. 

Ugh.

All night I dreamt about planes having a hard time taking off, luggage mysteriously drifting in the sea, emergency landings.  Well, emergency landings aren't so bad... they are, afterall, landings which is much better than, say, crashings. 

Alright. I'm going to go... get on a plane now.  Maybe.  Probably.  There's a 97% chance I will get on the plane. 

[...And if the worst does happen, all I ask is not to have any hymns at my funeral.  Play some Whiskeytown, and have the after-party at Lula's.  I think that's a reasonable request.]

Merry Christmas!

...Well.  Not really fly, as I have a terrible, severe fear of flying.  But drive or ride the rails or something, anything.

I just loaded my Google homepage, only to be told that it is SEVENTEEN degrees. My mind cannot even comprehend seventeen degrees. I am so cold; our heat isn't working properly.  We have no control over it, our landlord decides when to turn it off and on.  It wasn't working at all when I got up this morning.  After my shower I just stood in the bathroom trembling, so cold I couldn't even move. 

Snow showers are rumored to be headed our way, depending on where you get your forecast from.  [Google says snow tomorrow; Weather.com says maybe snow on Friday.]  The only thing that could possibly make this kind of cold bearable is some snow.  I am dying for some snow. 

The terrible thing is that this is only the beginning.  I thought about that this morning while I was standing at the bus stop, wrapped in five layers and still freezing; the wind making my nose numb.  How am I supposed to make it through three or four more months?  Will I get used to this?  I don't know how this works.  I'm new at winter.  It is very rarely seventeen degrees in sunny, warm, fantastic coastal North Carolina.  [Can you tell I'm a little homesick right now?]

I just don't know about this whole winter thing.  I just don't think I have what it takes.