it's been a long love affair

...between me and transit. I've never had a driving license; I take the bus (or bum rides, errk) wherever I need to go. Or walk. Or bike. Or take the train. I love mass transit, public transportation: what it is, what it means, what it's like. So this summer, an adventure. I'm thinking Greyhound. I'm thinking Amtrak. I'm thinking me, alone, without a computer, back to just the notebook and pen and the wide-open sky as we hurtle westward along another old favorite--the American highway.

Music for the journey--I imagine: Bruce Springsteen (yes, how could I turn down anything about that heady freedom you have at seventeen when you haven't yet realized things can kill people your age, and do?); and probably Josh Ritter (who makes such beautiful music and does the compliment of writing good lyrics); and Iron and Wine for the slow parts, the sad parts; and Natalie Merchant for the waking up and the spooky late-at-night. And Jackson Browne, and Cat Stevens (for crossing the desert, my first time), and Badly Drawn Boy, and now (thanks to Lisa) probably some Neil Young, and I'm sure Ben Folds and Fiona Apple would pop up in there, too--Ben Folds as the stars rise over Nebraska? I can't turn it down! --And always the sounds of other people breathing and the sound of the wheels or the track.

I've looked up prices. Emails have been sent to exotic locales like Portland and Taos and Vancouver. I didn't used to be much of a planner--but I like the way this feels a lot like hope. I like the feeling of thinking to do something and then doing it. I'm getting used to it in my life, these days.

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Oh, and since I said I would give a heads-up: There will be four birds up on this weblog on Wednesday morning: a blue, a pink, a yellow, and a teal, all with their very own arrangements of paper flowers, milliner's trims, ribbon, etc. So if that's for you, keep an eye out.