England Day 2...

A single photo summary of the last 3 days
in Cambridge with Bee and Byron

Day 1 & 2, Caimbridge UK.

March 27th 1 PM I left America, but my adventure started with my ride to the airport. One of my favorite people in the world, Ruth, picked me up promptly at 8:30 PM. Ruth has made it into my previous crushes of the week. She is a master of Karaoke Rap and is one fo the funniest women I know. We grabbed coffee and chatted abotu the last few months of life. It had been a while. It was good to see her again and made for a lovely begining to my British vacation.

On the first flight I sat next to a nice man with the last name of Nelson. In three hours we had talked about everything from the northwest in the 80s to the digraceful treatment of war victims in America. He worked for Catapillar in Pieoria, IL. So even though I wanted to ask him if he kew the story of Rachel Corie(SP?). She was an Evergreen student who went over to stand up for human rights in Palesteein. She was killed when a Catapillar tractor/bulldozed drove over her as she defended a house that was to be demolished. He was a nice fella and seemed to be enlightened So I decided to keep the deiscussiona little lighter than that.

Crushes: 6' tall stewardess riding along just for the flight. She was gorgeeous rather Lauren Jackson-esque character who was very pretty. I met her eyes several times. But there was no interest.

This was a 3 hour flight and was late so I had to run from terminal to termail to make my connection.

On the second leg of the flight I met a nice man named Yan from Namibia, which by the way is a country on the West coast of Africa and world's 5th largest producer of Uranium. He invited me down to visit his beautiful country someday. He was a pilot who spent asked his rich Birtish and European toruist for extra clothes and medicines to donate to his mother who at 70 was retired and providing doctor's services to the poor. Thsi was a 7.5 hours flight and I could not sleep. But the flight was empty so I stretched out and watch Stanger than Fiction and Dreamgirls. It was quite pleasing.

this flight was filled with beautiful ladies and despite the fact that we were all exausted and run down, I tried to at least recognize them all. I am on vacation. o i let myself off easy and mostly watch the videos.

From Gatwick I had 2 hours of train rides to Caimbridge, where I am at now.

The first train from Gatwick was painful. I was overdressed and had to take a comuter packed 1 hour long train ride to King's Cross station. I stood amongt packeed folks the whole time, sweated and tried to sleep standing.

Once at King's Cross I waited for the second train . I had stayed in this neighborhood the last time(2003) I was in England. I recognized Paddington well. And was glad to get out of there. On the train I was overwhelmed by several crushable ladies. And even some Eye contact. I had forgotten how little ee contact they make in England. The also have very little interest in the chubby boys. So i am ofen barking up the wrong tree.

Upon arriving in England i took a taxi formt he station with a bloke that lived just outside the aria. H had a caucney accent and i was remndind of a detail that is always prevelant in England. Accents here refelect your class. The more pasch the accent the more wealth and class and status you refect.

i gave the driver a 2 pound tip though I was told later that tipping is improper in England for taxis and Bars. How weird.

Bee greeted me that day and I was quite happy to have a place to sit down. Mina and Aubrey were both home and for an exhausted man who had just bearly stayed awake the whole trip, I was a bit overwhelmed. But I knew talking with mina might be my best hope of staying awake. I went straight to the computer and began checking in on email where BRrett and othrs had said hello. Byron arrived home and we went into downtown Caimbridge via foot to get coffee and pasties. Pasties are these lovely high fat breaded pockets filled with meats and vegetables. The were concocted by the working class English folk as a sort of edible lunch box for storing food on the way to work. Tasty!

Walking throuhg downtown Caimbridge through all of the archaicschool buildings and churchs was amazing. The whole town is a gorgeous old village where most folks commute via bicycle. There were many gorgious ladies everywhere. All of which had masters degrees and PhDs. Thus a bo who loves smart women such as myself was in heaven. I also quite enjoyed meeting every pair of eyes I could to buck the cold EEnglish trend. As we walked around Byron kept pointing out famous places where basic scientific concepts were discovered. We passed Newton's Aplle Tree, Darwin's house. The building where the electron was discovered. Sylvia Plath and some other literary folks went here as well.It was all so academic. This place is crawling with folks who are the best thinkers in their field. But there is a downside. These people often have absolutely no social skills. Thus we found ourselves surrounded by beautiful and intelligent people you actually might not want to talk with.

As the evening approached I grew weary. The kids wanted my attention and I had bearly enough straength to keep my eyes open. But in the interest of lessons learned from past trips I fought through. And by that I mean I curled up on the wooden floor, On the vinyl chair and just about anywhere I couldd to sleep. The kids jumped on me and stoel the pea coat I was using for a cover. But the was no petrol in the tank. I fell asleep for 30 minutes or an hour.

Bee made a lovely dinner for us all and we fought over the DJ selections from the computer.

The adultish folks went out to a lovely smokey pub called The Pickerel. We drank wine and Jack Daniels and chatted with Byron's colleagues Josh and Gretta. One of the was form Pennsylvania and the other was from Russia, but had fought in the Isreali military for a while. Both with mathematic geniuses. They were plenty fun and Bee and I sat on the other side of the table and chatted about people and humanity whilest I oggled the ladies and surveyed the scene. It was a typical college bar scene. Plenty to look at.

We stumbled home behind Byron's bad back snd I was directed to the long boat in the Cam River where I would be sleeping. This is where I drunkenly fell into the boat during the dreadful first step. The interesting thing about thsi boat is that you are actuall encouraged to pee in the sink in the boat. I slept deep. It was my first recovery after the travel. We woke up ad went to coffe in the Market Square. I bought a black scarf so Bee , Byron and myself would match. We were quite a sight! 2 6'5"+ man in black following Bee who was also wearing black highlighted by three sets of thick black rimmed glasses 3 black scarfs 1 porkpie hat and one pair of lips hiding behind bright red lipstick.

It was raining. We were all soaked, but it was so beautiful, I could not help but enjoy it!
Byron pointed out the greens where people would get drunk and make out and smoke pot. I made a mental note. I was up for two or three of these activities if the opportunity presented itself and would need such a place. Bee went on to pick up Aubrey from school. Byron took me to the Caimbridge university Library. It was massive and we went to a small music exhibit where some original Handel pieces were displayed. It reminded me that I would love to Sing some opera in a church shile I am here. We went to little St. Marie's Church Where I was foudn to be petting a small dog. I met thsi 70 year old woman there who worked with mental patients in the social services system. We spoke of all the kids coming back form the war who would be intering America and Britain with little support for the physical and mental health problems. She the went on to tell me all of her friends were patients and that she was one tired nuturer. She was obviously religious, but in an interesting way. She remarked"I look up at God and i ask him why I am doing 70% of his work. I am old and tired. And he looks down at me and says you are only 70. I am 1000 years old and I am much more tired of taking care of people. So I go on with my duties." It was such a sad statemn that really reminded me of my mother's experience in the social services. But she presented a beautiful tragedy and explanation of the gap between belief the reality for the poor and working class.

She kept talking for a half an hour about how he hated the Caimbridge folks. They were selfish and cold. Bee and Byron rescued me but not befor we got to hear the organist bellow forth some devine and major chords.

At Byron's Office I met several nice people at Mic rosoft Research. These folks were living the pascch life the woman I had met before was never going to see. I forced Byron to explain to me some of the basics concepts behind The Terminator program he had developed. We wwrote things on the white board. I think I amd finally getting it. I remember geometric and logical proofs in high school. And this was some of the most advanced thinking in proofs that I had ever scene.

We walked home with an extra bike for me. A beautiful old eanglish 3 speed. Byron had bought it from the bike man: a bicycle purest who uses all of the original pieces to rebuild bikes for the Caimbridge community. At the market we also had met the coffe man, the cheese man, the bread man, the produce lady and many other folks who were completely defined by their job.

That evening we took Aubrey and went out to dinner at a delicious Sushi restaurant on the Cam. We were eves dropping on a cell phone call which seemed to be a woman who was talking baout work and possibley leaving her boyfriend. When we sat down next to her and the crowd we realized the boy she was sitting next to was the one she was about to dump.

Later we wandered back to the Pickerel to meet Bee's friend John and Paul .two serious queens wwho stuck out like gorgious sore thumbs amongt the jockish crowd of college drinkers. John instantly talk to me about how loos ehte women in England were. and then he cupped his hand in from of his motuh and said "They especially like the Connilingus. Just put on your wet suit and dive in." It was fabulously rauncvhy conversation. Both John and Paul wwere great characters. They even attracted a fag hag or two who molested byron made saucy comments and invited us out to an after party. the party sucked. We walked in and out within 30 second and left our lovely gay party friends there. we continued to Bee and Byron's house where we consumed wine and Nutella bread and I worked on this very blog. I wondered back to the boat for rest and woke up to a swan floating by my window. instead off feeling a sens eof wonder and beauty I remembver how mean swan and geese are. They honk and hiss and snap at you. That mornig I got to do some of my first cycling as we took Aubrey to school and hit the market for cheese and coffee. We then attended Easter services at Grand St. Marie's Church where Aubrey sang a solo song and some preecher man tried to ecplain to me that I was worth more that 70 bars of soap, 2030 pencils, 2500 matches and more than 40 litres of water. All in all we consisted of about 60-70 pounds worth of material. But because outr parent and god loves us we are worht more. I looked at Bee and said " I am worth at least 100 pound sterling for sure". Byron and I texted back and forth and embarrassed bee who was scolded from the coffe that had spilled on her minutes earlier.

A few other thing s happend, but I will try to break this all up into shorter blogs form here on out. Here's crossing our finger hopeing for a nice Britsh snog for Jeffrey!

Heart,
me

God Dammitt!

Yeah you heard me right... I love my friedndss soo much. They deserve all of the atention I waste on crushes. Except the girl at the coffee shop this morning wwitht he realy nice posterier. Tonight was spent with good firend in sometimes deep conversation and sometimes light hearted tomfoolery. Delicious cucumber martinis and shoe string fried in garlic aoli.We then wrote song about the new west side story that is Seattle. The integration of the city and the suburbs. City and eastside. What will this town be like in 5 years? We all wonder. Too drunk to continue. I hope you ahd a good night!

Spring is thick....

OK. Tonight I spent thte evening with 5 gorgious women at a Spiga. Lots of conversation and simulated flirting. It was fun.

But here is my problem. It is Spring. And until I get laid again I will be drinking myself into oblivian. i wish it was a choice, but unfortunately it is not. At the Bus Stop tonihgt I met this girl named Brooke.. she was gorgious hot funny and I generally found conversation with her pleasing. Plus she had this cute thing she did with her lips. She was very flirty and I quite enjoed that and recipricated. Then when I asked the dreaded question "so what is the situation with all you guys?" The couple off. hr boyfiredn is pretty damn awesome. So I stepped away and just tried to drink more while I was friendly and tried to act oblivious to the situation. I also think my friend jake is in love with my crush susannah. I think she likes him back. And I pretty sure that if they have not hooked up, that they will soon. While I love them botha nd think it is perfect, it also makes me sad.



Anyways... back to Spring. The blossoms are out and it is time to make out with some random person against an alley wall. Grrr....

medication

While talking with my friend Alyssa tonihgt I was reminded of rreason for medication. When most people are in pain or even worse feel nothing at all they look to medication to quell or stir something up. I will abandon the indirect nature of my first too sentences. i have often avoided tradtitional medicines. Medication for physical and emtional pain. And tonight i thoguht back over the self medicated measures I have taken over the years. When I was a teenager, I wanted to feel less. Emotions and hormones were driving me mad. I turned to video games and reruns of three company to numb. Under a blanket of inactivity and cathode ray intoxication I made it through my parent divorce and puberty. Which just happened to occur at the same time. Thus I had little knowldge or interest dating. Other than the romantic concept I had built up in my head.

During the 90's I was happier. I had an outlet for developing talent in music and theater. And I absorbed every activity. This is where I really developed a sense of self. And I didn't even know it. But unresolved anger at my father and the depression my mother and the poverty I found myself in permiated the nights. I turned to my friends and caffeine asnd 8 hour conversations about nothing at Sharis.. And then pot. my mind was racing, but for cirmcumstance, I could not find direction. I fell in love many times and never once confessed or revelaed my feeling. Then drinking. the final stage of self medication.

To to numb the feelings of loss. to enhance one's sense of courage and conviction. For love. For lack of love. To survive to the next change. To resist that change when it rears its ugly head. To blur the lines of opportunity. Converting conversation to action.

Philosophy be damned. These are the words of spring.

But This was a conversation about self medication. And I learned from a supressed spirit of a mother at a young age thatmany if not all instantanious sorrows and joys can be resolved with food. Eating. Not eating. And feeding others. Fat Suger and Salt coursing through the vains with opiate consequence.

Ice Cream with nuts and chocolate sauce now home made prozac.

Cheese... Ecstacy.

yes I have a crush. i have several. As I said,it is spring. I am remembering loves and lovers of the past. Gathering memories while meeting many lovely people every day. The warm stormy weather turns me on. The momentary sunlight on my back massages just before darting behind another cloud.

I love you. And i might just actually do something about that.