chicago, minneapolis, seattle

It has been a hell of a trip so far.

The first leg of my trip has been a tour through the states containing some of my very dearest friends. The ones who have moved on to greener pastures,had children, gotten married, found jobs in the midwest metropolitania, or are street performing in brooklyn and the other normal things that happen when you are pushing 30.

The people i have met on the trains and planes have left their marks and are helping to fill in and color my picture of america even better. I really like the idea of getting a random sampling every few years of a random assortment of americans and to see a good sampling of cities to get the pulse. The presidential candidates must feel mixed about this. They have to do this to the extreme. Im sure it is very rewarding at times and downright awful and awkward in others. People pouring their hearts out about whatever it is they are going through at every stop... people sure do this to me on the train!

The flight from minneapolis via Las Vegas and Phoenix was grueling but fun. I had never been to "Lost Wages" before and I must say it was actually very pretty flying over the rockies then catching a spectacular sunset as I flew out en route to phoenix. The sheer amount of barren desert that you can see from the air between Iowa and colorado always astounds me. The panoramic view you get from a plane usually keeps my head craning sideward. The view from the plane coming into seattle was amazing as well. There was a tiny bit of fog on the ground and it made all of the lights of the city appear as glowing orbs... my digital camera could not reproduce it unfortunatley so i didnt post the pictures i tried to take.

Currently Im in seattle heading for vancouver... and I STIL HAVE MY PASSPORT. Amen. For those of you who did not know this, I was freaking out right before I left about misplacing my passport. I explored replacing it before I found it and basically got feedback from the passport folks in DC that this is the WORST time in years to have lost a passport and expedited forms are being processed at a rate of 4 weeks while regular passport apps will get processed at the glacial rate of 6-8 weeks. I remember getting my expedited passport beofre heading to italy in 3 days for the low price of 120$. Oh well Thank god I found it.

I would also like to shout out a thank you to my roomates who decided to move away while Im on vacation. Thanks pals. Murphys Law baby!