Getting Out of Bed is Hard... (Prepping for Zurich and Venice)

Day of travel, here I come!

Not really though, as I am still lying warm and cozy in my blanket cocoon. I did, however, manage to do most of my packing last night while listening to/watching fantastic Alfred Hitchcock film Notorious. It is one of my favorites and is notoriously... good. Hahaha... I am tired still.

I realized that I still haven't said anything about Hunger Games (da film), and that makes it seem like it was bad or forgettable. It was actually very good. A little on the longer side coming in at 2 hours and 20 some odd minutes, but all minutes well spent. The thing that surprised me the most (in a good way, mind)  was how little the characters talked. Given that the book is mostly told in Katniss' internal monologue (I just typed "brain narration" and thought: no, you're an English major and there's a word for that) there were a lot of ways they could have shot the film to handle that. I think the fact that they chose a "few extra lines and y'all better act good" as their strategy was great. Some very nice cinematography and overall a very close follow of the books. I thought it was good fun.

Now, this trip... Before I go on trips I get nervous. I get nervous in the same way that I get nervous standing in line for the biggest roller coaster at the amusement park. I'm excited and I know it will be fun, but I'm also afraid I might die. It's mostly unfounded because generally people don't die on roller coasters (or airplanes), but ohmygodwhatifIdie! Still, if I really think I'm going to die before I get there I shouldn't waste my time packing but, guys, I have packed so many things. I have packed a ton of stuff because in my head Venice might be so great that I will decide to stay there forever, and I'll need extra clothes and books for what will become a transitional period in my life. Also, you will all be needing passports to come visit me.

I'm going to get up now and take a shower. Unless I get extremely bored in the airport this is the last time you'll hear from me until we reach Zurich, where assuredly things will be nice and Swiss. Hoping to find cheese, hot chocolate and someone who can point me toward the gate to my transfer flight in at least 3 of Switzerland's 4 national languages. Will try to learn Romansh during the layover! I promise my next post will have pictures too. I know words are so dull all on their own.

XOX


Books I'm taking with me, in case you were wondering (not counting the ones on my PC Nook reader thing, which are all the ones that it came with anyway; I just cant convince myself that eBooks are something I want to involve myself with yet. ANYWAY):

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I started this book several months ago and then got distracted by life and other books and had to put it down. Very ready to pick it back up again. Sherlock Holmes mysteries are some of my favorites.

Travels with Myself and Another: A Memoir by Martha Gellhorn

Similar to Hound, I was reading this book right in the middle of a lot of things and I had to put it down and attend to life. But now I have time and I'm so looking forward to it. I'm in the middle of an early chapter where she's in China with an unidentified companion (my guess is Hemingway) and her descriptions and stories are incredible. She was a travel writer and novelist and so fascinating. When I read this book I always feel like I need to don a shirt dress, get some of that 1940's verve, and go on some grand adventure for greater purpose. Martha Gellhorn was a bad ass.

The Best of Nancy Drew: Classics Collection Vol. 2 (including The Hidden Staircase, The Ghost of Blackwood Hall and The Thirteenth Pearl) by Carolyn Keene

I love Nancy Drew. I have since I was little and I will until I die. Her mysteries are fun and not so scary that I can't read them before bed (I'm looking at you Hound...) And, as a character Nancy is just so charming and absurd at the same time. Her dad buys her everything, she gets into trouble and no one cares, she hardly ever goes to school and she solves mysteries with her two best friends who aren't as smart or pretty as her. She's like the Barbie of YA literature.  If you have any love for Nancy Drew then you should check out these comics with haste. Kate Beaton's interpretation is hysterical(ly accurate.)

Quick Hits on Some Absolutely Fabulous Things!

No time for travel lately (and with a jaunt to Venice just around the corner I have no money to travel, even if I did have time); however, I have managed to immerse myself in a few things that I need to recommend to everyone who stumbles across these lonely little posts. Ready? Here we go:

1. "The Art of Video Games" exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Category: Sort-of travel): This exhibit at the Smithsonian was a lot of fun. It was very interesting to get a glimpse at games that have defined and redefined video gaming and art. The exhibit isn't very big; there are only 3 rooms, one of them is specifically set aside for game play (only 5 games are available to play, in no particular order: PacMan, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst and Flower.) There are plenty of interesting videos with interviews from designers and creators, and there are plenty of soundbites about individual games themselves. I'm not sure they form the most cohesive exhibit I've ever seen, but if it's a topic you're interested in there is probably enough information to satiate you. Is it worth a trip all on its own? Maybe not. It just isn't big enough to be its own day trip. If you're game (aha ha!) though, and headed to the city, or looking for an excuse to get out to a museum, it will certainly do. It leaves DC and heads on the road in September. For more info, click here:  http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/
   
2. Sherlock (Category: Television Show): Dear Lord in Heaven. There is no end to the good things I could say about this show. If you haven't seen it and enjoy fantastic writing, great acting or a wonderful mystery, then you are missing out. Set in modern times, this Sherlock Holmes retelling is practically perfect in every way. It has just enough inventiveness to stand out and allow its actors and creators plenty of room to play, while still pulling enough material from its source to please even the most voracious Conan Doyle fans. Steven Moffat (of Doctor Who fame) and Mark Gatiss (author of the Lucifer Box series) write and co-create like a dream, somehow managing to make every episode harrowing and heartfelt. I could gush all night about this show, and if it becomes clear to me that no one reads this blog, one day I may do an episode by episode review of it to satiate my own need to watch and rewatch this show. You can watch the first season on Netflix Instant Watch. The second season has already aired in the UK, and begins airing on your local PBS station in May in Masterpiece Mystery.
   
3. Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute (Category: Novel): This novel is third in what will hopefully be an extensive series by author Jonathan L. Howard. If you haven't read the first two, you should (Johannes Cabal The Necromancer, and Johannes Cabal The Detective, respectively); however, you'll be able to manage this one just fine if you haven't. You do need a sense of humor and an appreciation for the macabre; once you have that, you'll be ready to go. This third foray into fiction with our eponymous antihero is steeped in the lore of H.P. Lovecraft, and it comes out all the more delightful because of it. Having not read much (hardly any, though it is on my list) Lovecraft I still felt perfectly at ease in the world Howard creates/borrows. While the plot twists and turns, it's easily graspable and by far one of the most fun I've had reading in quite awhile. Though surly and sarcastic Herr Cabal is, it doesn't take long to realize that there is no better guide to the Dreamlands, and no one you'd rather have take you. You'll have to order this one from the UK though because (as of this writing) there hasn't been a US publish date set yet. It is entirely worth the extra $3.00 shipping. 

Well, that is it my darling darlings. I have to pop off to bed now, as I will be up late late tomorrow for the midnight showing of The Hunger Games. Expect a review to follow, and then that will most likely be it until I am en route to Venice. So good night all, and enjoy!

With all my love. XOX

The Case of the Maple Syrup and the Mysterious Box in the Lake

I saw my ex-boyfriend while I was stuck in traffic on the beltway on Friday. This is in no way pertinent to the rest of the weekend, but it did make me giggle an inordinate amount. I tried to look at him as much as I could without him seeing me, while we passed each other over and over again in the stop and go traffic. It's a strange experience watching 5 years of your life drive past you in a raised pick up truck, smoking a cigarette with one foot out the window. While I'd like to draw some grand conclusion about what it means about life and traffic that we found ourselves trapped together on an inescapable beltway of 5 PM on a Friday doom, I don't think there are any conclusions to be drawn. Much like this whole weekend, it just happened. A blur of giggles and trying to avoid being seen by the bitter eyes of responsibility shirked. And who drives with one foot out the window, honestly?

The Maple Syrup festival was DA BOMB! It was full of tiny children, pancakes, syrup and big rocks to climb on. I love climbing up onto big rocks. I love it. The pancake and sausage breakfast was fantastic. The pancakes were big, thick and covered in sweet light Maryland Maple Syrup. In the dining hall, seats were scarce and everyone crammed together at folding tables. We ended up sitting next to a grandma and grandpa and two little kids, a boy and a girl who were determined to manage gigantic pancakes without the help of their adult caregivers. Not pour the syrup all over everything? You may as well not eat pancakes. The dining hall was only heated by a giant round fireplace in the middle of the building, and the cold mountain air ate the heat like it was an extra sausage patty, but it hardly mattered. Eating a delicious pancake breakfast surrounded by many (mostly tiny) strangers was more than enough to give us the warm fuzzies. The food was good. In spite of a 2 hour drive to get there, everyone was happy, and we had a fantastic time. 

After breakfast, hot coco in hand, we wandered over to the maple syrup making demonstration. Watching people boil syrup is about as interesting as it sounds (read: its exactly like watching anything else boil,) but we did learn some maple syrup facts. 

1. This has not been a good year for Maryland maple syrup. So far this season, they've only managed to collect 40 gallons of sap. Boo.

2. Vermont is #1 in maple syrup production in the US. New York is 2. Maryland is 10 (or 18th, depending on which sap boiler you talked to.)

3. One gallon of sap will only get you a baby food jar's worth of actual delicious syrup. It's a lot of work for not a lot of pay off, but man if syrup is your thing, this syrup is some of the best damn syrup I have ever tasted. 

After the demonstration sort of petered out we went and climbed on some rocks by the beach and wandered around the area in general. We spent a good portion of time hopping around on rocks in streams, climbing big rocks, and sitting on rocks (I am not over-exaggerating the number of climbable rocks we experienced.) As we made our way around the lake and rocks, we found a mysterious box in the shallows of the lake. It was just sitting there, water drifting lazily over it, tempting us. Good Lord, I have never seen a more tempting mysterious wooden box. Our theories about its origins (aliens, pirates, old man Jenkins who runs the abandoned amusement park) were endless, and eventually, in spite of the temperature (icy chill) and due in large part to our cajoling, Mitchell agreed to wade into the lake and get the box. 

Look at how shadowy it is! We couldn't just leave it.

I almost don't want to tell you what was in the box. Isn't it better to have this level of mystery in your life than find out that we found a cache of abandoned pirate gold in the lake in Cunningham Falls State Park? We couldn't leave well enough alone, we had to mess with what wasn't ours and now we're cursed forever by... a block of wood with two screws in it. According to Mitchell, "As soon as I was in the water I could see what it was." I doubt that sincerely as he did go further in, grab it and bring it back to shore, but if that's what he's telling himself to mask the soul crushing disappointment, then so be it. It was disappointing, and we had long since finished our hot chocolate, we left. 

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out, eating dairy queen and cheap pizza and making each other laugh, mostly with impressions of one another. Sam and I always get intense giggles when we're together, and Mitchell generally has to tolerate the two of us giggling and trying to explain why at the same time. His impression of this action, which I will at some point videotape, is enough to set us falling all over each other in fits of laughter which generally end in tears. The drive back to Baltimore (read: Responsibility Land where your ex-boyfriend lives) was far more somber, but the end of trips always seems to be that way, doesn't it? 

Stray Observations:

• Sam is an art teacher in training, so when we weren't driving or climbing on things, we were helping prep projects for the kids in her class. I got a blister from coloring. This makes me feel like I am an incredibly good, intense, master color-er. Crayons are my medium of choice. 
• All the men in Frostburg and at Maple Syrup Festivals are very hairy. Particularly in the face. This has led to the coining of the acronym WMDM (Western Maryland Moustache). Finding one, much like finding a regular WMD, is often both horrifying and exhilarating. Occasionally, you can find them on ladies.
• Eww, what? I just found traces of maple syrup on my Blackberry!

Rock Climbing!!

The Scoop

Tomorrow, I head up into the wild blue yonder (read: Appalachian Mountains) with my compatriot laptop and fellow adventurer Sam G. We're going to Frostburg to visit fantastic boyfriend Mitchell and partake in the Cunningham Falls State Park's 42nd Annual Maple Syrup Festival. The website promises sap boiling demonstrations and pancake breakfast, which is really all I need to entice me out of bed at 8 in the morning.

I feel it's only fair to note that I have been to the Maple Syrup Festival once before when I was younger. I don't remember much about it, except that my family forgot our coats. A dreadful mistake because March is one of those months where, though it may be relatively warm where you're sitting, it probably isn't very warm on top of any nearby mountains. Then you have to stumble around on top of a mountain with nothing but someone else's dad's windbreaker and a tiny disposable mug of hot chocolate to keep you warm. Thinking back, on some level I was probably mortified, although I might have been too busy pretending to be a hobbit to take much notice of any cute preteen boys around. Pretending to be a hobbit was (is) generally my M.O. whenever I end up hiking anywhere. All of my unfortunate friends can attest to this.

So far I have done absolutely nothing to prepare for this trip, excepting this blog, which should really be last on my list of ways to prepare for a trip. Somehow it's at the top of the list, and here we are. All I've done is remind myself to pack a coat, and gotten a little excited about being able to pretend that I'm a fictional creature. That's exactly the sort of spirit I was hoping to infuse this blog with. General unpreparedness and misplaced enthusiasm. Instead of making a list of things to pack, I'm going to chat about my impending trip to Italy (which I am also unprepared for) with this friendly (and chatty) military veteran sitting near me at Starbucks. Huzzah and cheers all! 

XOX,

Em