NYC

We arrived this morning in New York without mishap and made our way safely to Long Island on the LIRR to meet Christina and Brian, friends of ours who kindly offered to let us crash on their floor and show us around NYC a little bit, especially to the MoMa for the Tim Burton exhibit. Which was amazing, by the way, but I'll get to that later.

It should be said that Christina and Brian are amazing. It was snowing all yesterday in New York to an accumulation of about 5 inches, which none of us were expecting. Nevertheless, they shoveled out their car and drove on slippery roads to meet us at the train station when Jeff and I arrived. Honestly, I'm so sick of snow at this point. You'd think that at the end of February we wouldn't have to worry about it, but there you go.

Brian ended up going to work today, but Christina had already elected to take the day off to hang out with us, so we made our way back into the city (again using the LIRR) and towards the MoMa. New York is huge. HUGE. The surrounding areas are huge. Jeff and I had talked recently about where we could/would possibly want to live. We were talking about how my brother's girlfried, once she is done with college, would move somewhere to persue her love of book making and that my brother, as he wants to either be a librarian or work in a bookstore (quite the bibliophile, he) could move with her wherever she went, since there are libraries and bookstores everywhere. In contrast, what I want to do (international advocacy and the like) lead me to one of two places: Washington, DC (where I already am) or New York City. And going in from Long Island in to NYC today reaffirmed what I already know: New York is way too big for us.

Due to the weather the trains were delayed, so we ended up standing on the platform, in the snow and cold for well over half an hour, and so by the time we took the LIRR into NYC and then the subway to the MoMa it was already past 2. We purchased our tickets (hooray for student rates!) and went up to the Burton exhibit. If you haven't been to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, you should. It's gorgeous. Not only does it house some of the most amazing works of art (Starry Night by Van Gogh, various Pollocks and Warholes and such) but it is by itself a work of art. Exposed staircases and high ceilings and balconies overlooking other levels. It's really beautiful and I cannot reccomend it enough.

The Burton exhibit was a madhouse. An absolute zoo. And we weren't allowed to take pictures, which is usually fine, but as Jeff said later we were so busy concentrating on everything that it's hard to recall exact pieces. I wish we had pictures to show you besides the one with this entry (which is me, Jeff, and Christina in front of a huge Burton charater balloon, just fyi). Suffice to say that Tim Burton is an amazing artist, with not only a vivid imagination to rival that of the brothers Grimm, but he also has an astounding talent. He has the ability to create caricatures that capture not only what is visual but what is mentally striking about his subject, while also developing and mastering his own style of doodling. He is a master of lines, always with clear composition.

Jeff is a huge Tim Burton fan and this visit to the MoMa was really for him (visiting Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhole later was for me) but I'm so glad we went. I really now want to go and watch all the Burton films I can get my grubby little hands on.

After the MoMa we walked around a little bit (I'd outfit my home in things from the MoMa gift shop if I could. A rubber vase! Ducky magnets! Stylized cutting boards!) and then made our way back to the LIRR and back to Long Island itself. Now we're waiting on Chinese Food. At some point I need to get a huge thing of Ranch Dressing for my friend Mads (one of the many things that isn't available in the UK) and then get my nose repierced (I lost my nose-ring about a month ago and never got a new one, so now the hole is mostly closed up) and a couple other things, but I think for the moment we're just about done for the day.

And so it begins!

Though published later, this post was written at 6:30am.

________________

So we’re on our way! Jeff and I have started on our adventure to the great muddy wonderland of the UK. We’re going via New York, ostensibly in order to make sure that we have our wits about us when we catch our flight at butts o’clock in the morning, but in actuality we’re visiting friends and the Burton exhibit at the MoMa.

Right now we’re on our way up to NYC on our Amtrak train, and the first leg of the journey has gone without a hitch. It’s early, though, and I’m drinking a particularly goodish cup of coffee from DD. Oh, and it snowed last night. I think it’s still snowing now, but we’re traveling at such a speed that the only thing I can see outside is rushing trees and flowing landscapes. The snow is blue, almost a turquoise in the very early morning light. Passing by a snowy field is a fleeting glimpse at an artist’s dream, the suggestion of life without the presence of it.

I’m rambling, but again, it’s very early.

In our original plans we were going to head up to NYC on Thursday, spend the night with our friend Christina, see New York, spend the night again, and then Christina (who is a complete doll, by the way) was going to drive us to the airport. And most of that is going to happen still; we just got a later start than we thought due to my father’s service.

It was a lovely service. One of his sons and his sister spoke, as well as business partners, friends, and friends so close as to be family. They spoke about sides of my father I never knew, but wish I had. He was old before I was born, and simply continued to get older the longer I knew him.

And my mom met Jeff’s parents for the first time at the service. Strange? Perhaps. But I met Jeff’s parents for the first time when they were sitting Shiva, so it seems only fair, I guess. And they really like each other. Jeff’s father, Steve, is a lot like my own father (also Steve) in more ways than I can mention, and I wish they’d met when my father was in his prime. I think they really would have gotten along and been, if not great pals, then great acquaintances. They say that women look for their fathers in the men they date, but I think I’m far luckier to see my father in the father of the man I love. Much simpler that way.

But yes, we’re on our way to our next great adventure and I’m so excited I can barely stand it. It doesn’t quite seem real, after all our planning and talking about it. I remember telling Sandra, one of my closest friends in Scotland, that it’d only be 2 months, 6 weeks, one month, two weeks, next week… tomorrow! And now it’s time.

Jeff’s asleep on my shoulder, my cue to stop typing and let him rest. More later, of course.

Packing, Planning and Pff-waiting?

I have all my clothes packed for the most part.  I'm having trouble deciding if I want to go for more Euro-Trash look or more straight forward teeshirt and jeans.  Ill post some packing photos later.  Got to keep the bag count low, I hear AirLingus is pretty mean on that kinda stuff.

Got the camera my father lent me, Pretty in red. Leica Lumix G1 which might I say is quite amazing!  It has quite a few features loaded in it and I'm taking two lenses (Wide-angle and a Macro).  He also is letting Kari borrow a Leica Point & Shoot; same one he let me borrow for Israel, actually.

Took a few test shots, like every Leica based camera I've held the color depth is fantastic.  I'm still having trouble getting to a comfortable shutter speed though.  Lucky for me, while I'm in the UK its suppose to be pretty light rain / some overcast which makes fantastic contrasts for photos.

Started to workout again to get me feeling pumped and good.  Oh, I also showed off the rock-climbing gym to a few staff members at my gym, might I said they were quite impressed!

Plans for when we land
Pudduh is taking Kari and to our first (at least my first) rugby game.  Seems like fantastic way to start off the trip! (Of course after we drop off our stuff)

One-Day Delay Today

Due to unforeseen issues as described in Kari's previous JK-take-UK post we will have a slight delay.  We might not be able to do a full day in NYC like we thought, but at least we can take still take the same flight times and take the train up in the morning (instead of the evening like previously planned).

On the bright-side of things, we now have gone live with auto-posting to Twitter/Facebook.  Hey Brits/Scots, If you follow Kari on twitter and want a twitter updates, to simplify things and not double post, please add me on Twitter. Sorry if we end up over posting / not posting enough, but no way to explain how much fun we plan to have.

Haven't packed yet and not sure I have enough sweaters for the trip but I guess I will have to find out the hard way.  My dad still has to find my passport at the house as well as lend me his fancy camera equipment.  I think he is hooking me up with his mini-SLR Leica. So excited! For those who haven't looked at our agenda. Here is a brief summary, We are spending a few days in London.

Day 1: Friday, February 26th, 2010 - Baltimore to New York City - Our NYC adventures include Christina and Brian going with us to see Tim Burton's MoMA show.  Maybe a few other friends from the NYC/Jersey Crew might join us?

Day 2: Saturday, February 27th, 2010 - NYC to Dublin
I know to keep ourselves occupied on the long flight, Ill be trying to finish Dune (took 2 years to get 2/3s through it) while Kari will probably be occupied with this for a while.


Day 3: Sunday, February 28th, 2010 Dublin to London

This is officially the first day of the trip!  Where we will be entertained for a few days by another internet friend, Pudduh (BTW, congrats on the success of your webcomic!).

Day 6: Wednesday, March  3rd, 2010 London to Scotland
Staying with one of her closest Scotland friends and sometime in there we will be seeing Melissa as well.  I'm excited to meet you all!  Also, Kari promised me I can steal one of her guy friends and go to the world's indoor largest rock climbing gym.

Day 11: Monday, March 8th, 2010 - NYC to Baltimore
Hopefully I can get sleep thru and correct my jet-lag to get back to work on Tuesday.

Ill see if I can re-skin the site before the end of the day.  Personally, I'm digging the green, but that might be wishful seasonal thinking.  Well, any-who, I'll find a good balance for a theme today.

Also, those who subscribed to us previously Via RSS Feed, please resubscribe, I've decided to use Google Feed Burner instead to using Blogger's default RSS feeder.  Oh, Google, you complete me!

-Jeff

Getting ready!

So, with the passing of my father yesterday, I set upon cleaning my room. Half in order to find his old clothing for donations, and half to organize my own things so we can pack it all up and get going!

Well, so far I have uncovered one half of three pairs of shoes, a myriad of pants I haven't fit into since middle school, and a dress I had made while I was in China for my high school graduation that I never ended up wearing. None of which is particularly helpful.

So my room looks like it was torn through by a tornado and I am no closer to finding anything useful to take with me. Let's hope I don't leave it off until the last minute like last year!

Wish us luck!

"Hello World" and "hello Highland Coo"

This is the first of many posts of our travels to the UK. Please be patient and pardon our digital-dust. Expect more of many posts next week.

This is the first blog I've actually planned to keep besides a semi-active LJ. Our travels are from Feb 25th thru March 9th. If you want to be especially creepy you can even follow our every footstep...

-Jeff