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December 31, 2010Din exklusiva förhandstitt på vår Nyårsrea är härSKYNDA DIG, nu har du chansen att få en förhandstitt på vår NyårsreaI’M THE KIND OF GALwho uses the word “gal.” I’m also the kind of gal who likes to get up and go, when I’m not parked on my butt on the couch covered with cats. And did I ever go this year. WHERE OH WHEREhave The Ax Files been? That’s what the drove of one or two people has asked me over the past year. In hibernation. Rather their author has been. I simply got tired of blowing my brains out on this page. Felt like I’d said everything I had to say and it was time to move on. I had a lot of projects on both the front and back burners, but sadly I was burnt out and they’re just black gook at the bottom of the pot now. I took the whole year off, for the most part, from writing. In its place I took thousands of pictures. Literally. It was a relief to lay down the burden of words. I HAVE JUST LAID DOWNmy burden of baggage in Room 211 of The Lamothe House Hotel, New Orleans. Nestled in the ancient oaks of Esplanade Avenue, this 1830’s townhouse makes the perfect spot to begin and end my days of French Quarter discovery. I hope the gurgling fish pond in the courtyard doesn’t infiltrate my dreams and wake me up to pee.
IN THE SEAT POCKETof US Airways Flight 1137 from the Christmas from hell, I found a boarding pass for one Lake/Erica who had flown in seat 11E earlier this day from Philadelphia to Punta Cana. I wonder if I will ever get up and go to Punta Cana. But first I wonder where it is. Ah, the Dominican Republic. I think not. Beach destinations are not high on my list. I prefer cities, history, cafes, urban hiking. MY LAST POSTwas in January 2010, and I decided it would be appropriate to bookend the year with another. Previously in The Ax Files, the author had just rolled into town from her annual cross-country train trip, from Philadelphia to Washington DC to Chicago and onto the California Zephyr to San Francisco. Someone once told me she’d promised herself to always take the month of August off. My promise to myself was to start each new year off by reacquainting myself with my country. The holidays require at least three days of decompression soothed by the dodes’ka-den of the train. IN THIS EPISODE OF THE AX FILESI am about to embark on 2011’s rail adventure. I would have taken the train from Philly here but I couldn’t get a sleeper and I’ve already done Philly to New Orleans in coach. Not, like biking the hills of San Francisco, my idea of fun. My friend Phrnk, designer of the very web page you’re reading, invited me down here and hello! New Orleans on New Year’s Eve? No-brainer, so I decided to skip the snowy routes this year and revisit The Sunset Limited. It will take me three days hence from “NewO” as a friend calls it, through Louisiana, Texas, Texas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California to Los Angeles. I had the good fortune to ride the Sunset west to east from LA to Jacksonville, Florida before Katrina wiped out the Mississippi-Alabama-Florida leg. I find it rather insulting five years later that the stops are still listed on the timetable, with the fine print note “The Sunset Limited service between Orlando and New Orleans has been suspended. Future service has not been determined.” I mourn it because it was the only three-night no-transfer cross-country train trip in America. Get it together, Amtrak. THIS IS THE LAST HURRAHfor impulsive trips. I quit my job in 2006 and the party’s still on but the lights are dimming. I need to tighten y’ole belt and act like there’s tomorrow (as opposed to like there’s no tomorrow). In 2010 I did the January cross-country excursion, spent a week at Cary Tennis’s writers’ retreat at Tomales Bay, took a road trip with friend Tina from SF to Los Angeles, Indio, Los Angeles and back, flew to New York and Philadelphia for a Mother’s Day surprise, and shortly thereafter inadvertently flew around the world after friend Mao Pei invited me to visit her family in Beijing. Beijing led to Mongolia and Russia on the Trans-Siberian Express, to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Helsinki, and a drive around Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. From Riga I flew to Arlanda and had lunch in Sweden before heading for London to pretend I live in Notting Hill, and finally home.
The Tin Goose Pub, London Heathrow MY COMPANIONpointed out that because I flew from SF over the Pacific and home to SF over the Atlantic, that I had gone around the world. Hey, yeah! But wait, there’s more. A lovely weekend road trip to Dos Rios for my friends’ wedding, then I flew to Denver to attend a Woody Guthrie Festival, and still later, a discount hotel coupon spurred a flight to San Diego plus a train trip to Los Angeles and back to San Diego. Still later, I flew east for Christmas and will greet 2011 in New Orleans, then back on the rails. I did not, however, go to Burning Man, though I’d bought a ticket just in case. Asia and Europe were sweltering and Black Rock is too darn hot. KEEP LIVING LIFEthe way you do, someone told me. I can’t imagine it any other way, I told her. I have all sorts of plans for pots on the burners this year, but tonight’s plan is to hit the B (bed) so I won’t miss the B (breakfast). OH YES,in 2008 I got up and went to Sweden and I still get emails, like the one heading this column, from Hotels.com Sweden. I smile when I see them in my box, because it reminds me that no matter the situation, I can always get up and go. THE NICEST THINGanyone said to me in 2010 was, “Thank you for taking me to the Baltics!”
The author wishes one and all an ass-kickin’ new year! Did ya miss her? Did ya? ------------------------------------------------------------ Stop and smell the roses
No wait--start before you decomposes. copyright Alexandra Jones 2010 |
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