I have been obsessed with the Merry Old Land of Oz since I was a kid. Not too uncommon across generations, really. But my drive to want to BE there, in that childlike world-of-pretend sort of way, that way where you make every recess game another world, where you live it in your thoughts and…
Category: Wandering
Random Fruit
When you encounter a certain thing once, it is considered a novelty. When you come across a similarity later, in a different place, it becomes a running trend and you start to wonder if there is something going on…some under-culture or something that you just don’t know about. In all my years of beating the…
Old Bull Lee’s House
“We bounced the car up on the Algiers Ferry and found ourselves crossing the Mississippi River by boat. ‘Now we must all get out and dig the river and the people and smell the world,’ said Dean…” (On the Road, Part 2, Chapter 6) I’ve always lived where Jack Kerouac has been. I didn’t plan…
Portrait of a Sunday (and a Monday Morning)
The rain was blowing sideways off the Mississippi River when we got in line to get into Cafe du Monde. I turned my red umbrella sideways to block it, and waited patiently with a dry head and a drenched grey skirt. The trick to sitting at a table in Cafe du Monde, you see, is…
Playing Tourist
When you move to a city that you used to be your go-to Happy Vacation Place, occasionally playing tourist is an important thing to do. Think about it – once upon a time, you had this one place you were completely in love with, and would escape the day-to-day drudgery of your real life by…
Cast of Characters
Rolling Gospel She’s flashy in sequins and gold spandex, and fluffy in tutus. You can’t miss her when she rolls by you down the street. Her bicycle has a canopy with bible verses painted around the trim, and Mardi Gras beads swish and sway to her pedaling rhythm. Never seen with a dour face, she cycles with her own groove,…
The Way Home
For the past year (YEAR!), since J and I moved into our place and I commenced my commute to and from work via foot and streetcar, I’ve been keeping up a pretty stalwart gallery on Facebook called, “On the Way Home – a gallery for things I see on the way home from work.” A…
Street Art, Literally (Sidewalk Edition)
If you take a glance up at the featured image there, you’ll get a feel for why, some days, you feel like you can only navigate by foot if you stare consistently at the ground and cast your eye nary another place. Nature tends to prevail, here. The ground isn’t really solid, and the trees…
Breaks in the Routine
You have to have them sometimes. They shake you out of the daze of your daily grind. Even changing at what part in your morning process of getting ready for the day you decide to brush your teeth helps. Recently I made some larger daily changes, revolving around my work schedule, that completely adjusted my…
Follow Your Crazy 