Miles from Nowhere, continued

If you haven't already read the first installment of this blog post, I suggest you do that first. I'm narrating my epic month of moving to Los Angeles...

But after that, it went a bit like this: 

(You can make these bigger by right clicking and choosing "view image")

why these pictures won't line up I don't know.

   

And now, today, it's a month since I left London. ONLY A MONTH. I can't even remember London, but when I do cast my mind back, it usually recoils with a stab of melancholy, despite the fact that getting here had exactly the effect I knew it would: 
The effect of inspiring me with everything that's exciting about this new chapter that I was having trouble getting excited about while I was still bidding farewell to the last few chapters of my life.  NOW though I am ready for the liminal stage to come to an end! After being tantalized with the possibility that my apartment could be readied before the Oct 1 move in date, it's looking like that was just a tease and I'll have to wait it all the way out, meaning an Oct 1 move in (around a teaching meeting UCLA that day) and an Oct 3 first day of teaching. I've been feeling so impatient and excited to get my stuff back-- that is, to get it out of storage at the moving company. To get my boxes from London off the ocean. To get the suitcases and random boxes out of my car. To start nesting. To feel like this adventure is finally, truly begun.
....

National Talk Like a Pirate Day

I have been reminded that it is national talk like a pirate day. In honor of this, I will tell you the story of National Talk Like a Pirate Day 2006. It was early in my first semester at Brown and in my undergrad-level Anthropology of Japan class I was wearing an outfit I really like. It consists of tight black and grey striped trousers and a very old tuxedo shirt meant for a very big man-- maybe 18" neck? Because it is a real tuxedo shirt, it requires shirt studs to close--there aren't any buttons. So I wear it over a tank top and use a big black hipslung belt to keep it closed.  I feel extremely Patti Smith in this outfit, probably with ankle boots of some variety.
And, sitting next to the two adorable freshmen who were my seat buddies in that class. One was like, 'Oh are you dressed for National Talk Like a Pirate Day?' and I was like, "What?"
And then, poor thing, she was really embarrassed but I thought it was awesome.  And also I learned about the existence of National Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Miles from Nowhere

It's still not yet a month since I left London, which is one of the most surreal realisations I think I've ever had. Because so much. So so much has happened and is happening. I left 22 Campbell Road on the morning of August 25 and took a taxi to Gatwick airport.

Much much more --- after the jump