Writing

Japan 2017: Departure Day

/ ceckman / Leave a comment

I suppose I could just start calling this a travel blog since thats when I post most often. You’d think now, having almost an entire semester of my MFA in Creative Writing under my belt, that I would be posting on a regular basis – bestowing beautiful words upon all of you at my leisure. You’d be wrong!

Sorry that information is classified

Hover over the image to find out where its located

 

I AM looking good

Thanks Classified bathroom

We drove to Newark last night and stayed in a hotel next to the airport – our flight leaves at 11am this morning so we figured it would allow us to sleep a little longer this way. Wrong again! We were invited to dine at the hidden restaurant Classified as part of Tim’s affair with United Airlines. I would be jealous, but I’ll never be able to compete with United, so I just let them give him nice things like exclusive restaurant access and Polaris business seating, as long as they’re willing to include me in the deal. So we booked a reservation for 8am and had a quiet, delicious breakfast.

We take off at noon which is 2AM tomorrow in Tokyo, and although we should try and go to sleep right as soon as possible, that would mean missing our four course dining service which we simply couldn’t do.

Chilled Appetizer
Smoked nori-wraped salmon, edamame, radish, edamame hummus

 

Salad
Cabbage, bok choy, carrot, mango, served with dressing and assorted breads

 

 

Spicy Chicken
Thai-style coconut-ginger broth, udon noodles

 

 

Signature Sundae
Served with a choice of toppings

 

And maybe just a little buffalo trace, since they put my favorite bourbon on the flight for me and everything. I couldn’t just NOT drink it I mean, that would be inconsiderate. Right?

Lay flat seats! Pillow Mist!

Polaris Cabin

 

Then likely a nap. I’m sure when we get into Narita we’ll be lagging, but we only have to stay awake for, what, 7 hours? Yes, we’ll have to fight through 7 hours. So I’ll have plenty of time to post about our first day, which means if I don’t you can complain.

All for now – bon voyage!

Groundhog Day

/ ceckman / Leave a comment

Dear Readers,

I’ve been asking myself lately, “Do you even blog, bro?”. I used to know the answer. I used to be SO confident, like, yeah bro, I blog. But lately, I just don’t know bro, I just don’t know.

Pouring over the last few posts the dates don’t seem to line up with reality. In Chris World (which can be an intensely frightening place – I’ll try to keep you as far away from it as possible) we have just moved out of our temp living apartment. But in Real World, we’re already coming up on our one year anniversary of living on the mainline outside of Philadelphia. In Chris World, all of my friends and family have been out to see me in the last few weeks, but Real World these weeks are actually months. Months and months of jumping through the moving hoops like finding new places to buy groceries, new doctors and vets and places to wash my car, new banks and new restaurants, new new new! Who ever knew everything could be so new!

Anywho, it’s still pretty quiet on the friend front. I seem to be digging up and polishing old friendships instead of crafting new ones, but given that our 5 year plan is in motion I’ll let that stand for now. The one or two new friends I’ve made here in the last year (why is everything rhyming today?) have sort of fizzled out unimpressively. Disappointing, but if I remember right it took me a good two years to make friends in Denver, so, par. Feels like double bogey, but probably par.

I start my Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Rosemont in a few weeks and I couldn’t be more excited. This will be a place to make friends, maybe a whole writer community I can grow with. It’s a small program and a small school, but as with most things I think if I put a lot into it I should be able to wrangle a lot out. Who knows? I mean you will, probably, because I’ll blog about it, but still.

Things are going OKAY with my whole grieving process. I can’t say it’s something I’d like to do ever again, even though I know someday I will. Some days are easier, and some are harder, and some seem like they’re going great and then the grief monster leaps out from behind the corner and mauls my face so it looks like I just saw titanic for the first time and I can’t explain what set it off I am just so sad. I usually call my little sister on those days and she has been great support. Everyone needs a little sister.

I think that’s about good for now. I’m punxsutawney Chris, peeping my head out from my proverbial winter to let you all know that no matter how long it lasts, spring is sure to follow. Hopefully the next update will be sooner instead of six more weeks.

Love Always,
Christopher

Standard Report Form as Expected

/ ceckman / 4 Comments

I figure I’m already overdue for an update. Do you figure that as well, faithful readers? I think you do. If not, you’re getting one anyway.

Adventurer’s Log – Day 9
We have established a small base in the enemy camp and they seem to have accepted us as a variation of their own. No one knows I am from the midwest and appear to believe I could be from Provincetown, or something, probably. The dogs are more conspicuous, barking at neighbors and threatening to blow our cover. We have resolved to keep them on active probation, with some reservation. There is not much space in our temporary base, so we have already been looking to expand our operations. Unfortunately there are not many options currently equipped with out list of requirements for such a task, but we persevere. It seems there may be a possible match and we are moving to claim the area in the coming days. I must now update my superiors on our progress, they will be anxious to hear of the invasion…

Either way, we can be certain. I do not have a hopeless love affair with Philadelphia the city itself. This is no Julia Child moves to Paris scenario, at least not yet. It has less to do with the friendly people in the city and more to do with the russian roulette driving, the beautiful but ultimately disappointing old homes we’ve looked at, and just the side effects of packing so many people into such a tight area. And probably none of it is really that bad, it’s just difficult to move to a new city, go to new places for everything, and just generally not have any of the bearings that I established over the last 10 years.

A delicate balance of lane and curbcheck

Moving can be difficult, even with close friends. No friends yet, but the plan is to meet some new friends at some meetups or something in the city or more hopefully out in my suburbs, although just trying to keep the dogs and I afloat in the apartment right now is taking considerable energy. If we do put in an offer on the house we’ve been looking at, it will be soon and hopefully we can get more settled by around Halloween, which is – lets be honest – more exciting than my own birthday. Whether this happens or not, I am devastated to think that I might not be able to swing my murder mystery party for the first time in… is it 3 or 4 years? I guess I could always do a make-up party (not that kind of makeup Matthew and Anastasia. This isn’t Ru Paul’s drag race, it’s “A Murder Gone To Wong”) in November once we’re settled in. We might be in Keystone over thanksgiving instead of Japan this year and in that case I’m sure I would have some people willing to attend. Its difficult to say where we’ll be and when, especially as I haven’t even found a place to board the dogs here yet. It’s that weird sort of culture shock… the kind where everything is ALMOST the same, but little differences unnerve you. Like not being able to buy beer at the same place they sell wine and liquor. Or curbs on the right side of roads that have no sidewalk. At least when you enter a completely different culture, you give up having any idea how to navigate and put yourself at the mercy of the locals. This is hard because you have directions which you think you can navigate with, but when you try to use them you sometimes end up with unexpected results.

All in all, we’re doing pretty well so far. It’s difficult and scary and still a little sad, but for me – I came up with an analogy for this, but you’ll have to wait until next time. Love to all –

Chris