Philly Part 1

Despite leaning quite heavily in the direction of I-absolutely-need-to-move-back, I am still not sure Seattle was a mistake.  I learned a lot of things by moving there, including what I was taking for granted.  One thing I am sure of:  its not any kind of fear of travel or new places that keeps me from living all over the world.  I say this because before flying home I slept in an airport.  The reason I slept in an airport is that my flight east on Christmas Eve was at the unholy hour of 7am.  That makes boarding time 6:30, and if you add two hours of walking between security theatres trying to figure which one will be least likely to involve getting sexually assaulted by a male TSA agent, that takes you back to 4:30am.  No trains were running at that time.  I did not want to pay to keep my car in a lot for 10 days.  That exhausts my travel options, because the bus tunnel doesn't go all the way to the airport, and since I think surface street buses are a waste of space, money, and raw materials, and the scum of tranist, I would only take them if I had no other choice.  Picture the way Gandalf looked in the snowstorm saying "I would not take the road to Moria unless I had no other choice."  That's me and [surface street] buses.  They're gay.

Anyway.  So I took the train and got there at like 2 am and then discovered that all of the ticket counters were closed.  There was no way for me to print my boarding pass.  I had been planning to sleep at the gate, wake up, and shuffle on to the flight.  Instead, I slept in baggage claim for 2 hours, woke up, got through security without being fondled, and  then slept for like half and hour at the gate.

The point of all that was, I was not put off by having to sleep overnight at an airport.  It is definitely something I would have never tried unless I had to, (or unless I was under the intoxicating spell of some girl) but now that I've done it, it seems like no big deal.  I think I could handle travel.

I think the real barrier to moving away is all of the people I know here.  Wherever I go, I am always going to want to find my way back eventually.  Maybe its not Seattle;  maybe I've just spent a lifetime on the East Coast separating out all the cool people from the losers and I am just being impatient that I can't replace the friends I made in 9 years of high school and college.

So, I want to both:  travel, and move back home.  A rough plan is forming in my mind...something about staying in Seattle until next december, traveling (Europe/Russia) for a month, and then coming back home.  I don't know where exactly I will live, but I needs to be close enough to the Philly area to have frequent and awesome parties.

I was planning to take a cooking class.  Tonight I got the bright idea that cooking awesome food would be a great way to get people over and build up enough friends/acquaintances to have good parties.

Also, I want to be in a band.  I watched Scott Pilgrim vs the World, and while I was a little disappointed that the main character ended up with the girl of his dreams, it did make me want to be in a band.  I don't know what I have to do...but I love music and I want to make some, and I can't write any on my own.  The best I can do is rewrite the lyrics of songs that other people have written.  Whatever.  I want to be in a band. It looks like so much fun.

So...I need to learn to cook, join a band, find a job on the east coast and plan a trip to europe which preferably includes learning a foreign language.  Cool.


[Part 1.5]
The salsa combo from wednesday night:

Cross body lead, guy does left turn under her arm, lands facing away from her, her hand in your left
on 1,2,3, step across her to your left, pass her hand to your right behind your back.
lead an inside turn into a hug check  (your left to her left shoulder, your right to both her right and her right shoulder)
hug check goes into a right turn, you're leading it with just your right
pick up left-to-left on top

then the hard part:

on 1,2,3, you to a half turn to the left, and swing your RIGHT arm over your head to your left shoulder.  you should end up with your left arm going over your right shoulder to her arm and your right arm on top connecting over your left shouulder

you are going to the left--maybe its a cross body lead, Idk.  Pull her around with your left hand / right shoulder.

then...right somes off somehow, and you go under the left, then you turn to your right, breaking the connection with your right hand over your waist and picking it up again, then you go to her left and pull her into closed position (her left arm goes over your head).  Yeah, I wish I remembered this better.