P.S.........from D.C.

Well....I'm home from D.C. ....scary trip back. It was flawless.

Caught the Subway....caught the Marc train to Baltimore/Washington Airport...caught two flights home that were not only on time but my home flight was early by 10 minutes. Spooky.

Hub stays on in D.C. till Sunday and already texted me that it's snowing ....so looks like I made it out on time. Whew!

Thought I'd share a few pictures as a post script to my trip.

Worse Carpet in the World Award

Although the Marriott by the Zoo is a very nice hotel, who the hell picked out the carpet for the lobby???? The rug covered the first and second floors. Acres and acres of flowers a foot wide in wild unsettling colors....I kept thinking ........Little Shop of Horrors?? Little Hotel of Horrors??

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I believe they should post a warning sign: Do not look down. The carpet has been known to induce nausea in susceptible individuals. If you have been drinking or taking drugs (legal or illegal) please note you are not hallucinating.

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The Obligatory Panda Picture

Of course I went to the Zoo. And of course I went to look at the Pandas. Bit disappointing. You know all those cute black and white Panda pictures??? Well this panda needed a bath. His entire rump was dirty brown. I'm sure they'll probably Clorox him before the spring tourists arrive.

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Harass children you have left behind. More good things to do with your Iphone.

Occasionally throughout the day, I would email a photo of myself or hub to the boys who were home alone.....with captions like......Did you go to school today? Did you take the dogs out? Are you doing your chores? And my personal favorite: Mom knows all....don't even think about doing what you think I won't know you did.

Unfortunately the last message didn't work. Right now, I'm waiting for #2 son to get home from school. He's in BIG trouble.

Got into my convertible this morning and noticed: the seat was all the way back, the rear view mirror was adjusted up, most of the gas was goine and there was an alien hard rock station on.

No one is supposed to drive my baby especially without my permission. I'm actually looking forward to hearing the creative fib/excuse he will make up.

Poor Guy Award

Geez, how old can this joke get for this guy....year after year after year..........

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Maybe Zurich?

I have been sitting in this damn computer chair for so long I am sure I have a flat butt. I marked this day on my calender as a day to start looking into Slovenia. I'll be leaving towards the end of June....so suddenly there doesn't seem much time left...especially without airline tickets.

Obviously I can't fly from my little city in the South to Slovenia....so I spent a long time looking at options....all with wonderful sounding names.....Amsterdam, Dublin, Munich, Barcelona and Zurich. I have a zillion frequent flyer miles so I have to fly American Airlines. To my big surprise, the flights out of New York City (where I had hoped to leave from) were nasty. Fly to Boston, fly to London, catch this catch that. I had hoped to go to New York before or after Slovenia in order to do research for my next book....(I know I don't even have the first one finished....but.. I absolutely already know what the second one will be.....which makes me either eternally optimistic here or extremely deluded.) Now...New York doesn't seem like a good option.

As it happens, Zurich out of Dallas......is the easiest possibility....Zurich....my god that Switzerland!!...The thought of passing through Switzerland seemed mildly amusing and interesting......but as I studied Adria Airlines (the official airlines of Slovenia) I realized I hit another snag.....the flight in and out of Zurich did not match.....when Gina needed to come in and out Slovenia.

And so the thought occured to me....rather than go through my painful acclimation to a new time zone in Slovenia why not in Switzerland? Where in a hallucinogenic state I could face streets called...Krahbuhlstrasse and Bahnkofstrasse. Wouldn't that be fun? I can imagine myself falling asleep before I even pronounce the avenue.

Jet lag is a real concern for me. My body holds on to the central time zone with a death grip. In Paris, I laid in bed those first nights with my heart and head pounding in the dark..I would even sometimes "accidentally" kick my hub...so he would wake up and keep me company. I tried Lunesta or whatever the new sleeping pill was....only to discover I didn't really remember any of Paris till about 2PM........which sort of takes the thrill out of visiting a new country......in the Museum D'Orsay....I actually got so weird I thought of lying down on a marble pedestal off to the side... to take a nap.....even though the marble pedestal was already occupied by a marble woman. Hey..I've slept with strange women before.... (I actually do have a great story about sleeping with a naked French woman in Thailand).

And so why not Zurich? If I'm going to be miserable and dopey....why not be miserable and dopey in a beautiful city....not that Lake Bled in Slovenia doesn't sound pretty.....but if I was going to take a few days to acclimate ...why not in Zurich? I guess I'll sleep on this.....do a little more Googling.....and then best get a move on it.....I found a little hotel in Switzerland...that is basic and clean and in the old section of town.....and has "writer's rooms".....rooms with a view of some cathedral....which for some reason makes folks want to write something down about the experience....sounds right....or....write? And really after Africa where spiders rained down from the ceiling in one of my hotels....isn't everything else a real upgrade?

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Am I imaging things or do you get a Disneyland feeling when you look at Zurich?

I wonder if this is where Walt got his inspiration?

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I'm Going to ...Slovenia ....Really!

I'm going to Slovenia in June.

I'm going to pause here for a few seconds....so you can finish laughing...and then say...."What...is there such a place?" Those of you who are compulsive may feel the need to dash to Google....so go ahead. I'll still be here when you return.

Talk about life turning on an innocent email. That's exactly what happened....I opened an email from a former Professor who teaches at a local university. He teaches at an MFA writing program in the northeast during the summer. Apparently, the grad school writing class had a few open spaces after the students had registered and he was sending out feelers to some former students whom he thought might qualify.

When I read the program was in Slovenia....I just laughed. Slovenia?...."Where the hell is that?" Google said it was tightly sandwiched between Italy, Austria, and some other new Slav nations and pronounced it legitimate, quaint, interesting, picturesque and peaceful. Me go to a peaceful pretty country instead of one that required knowledge of AK47s? The concept of traveling someplace safe and secure was mind-boggling.

In a rather spooky coincidence, a couple weeks ago, I remember sitting in my reading chair late at one night. I was thinking about how much more work I had to do on the Africa book....when this very interesting thought arrived....isn't it time... Gina..... you went someplace pretty? Isn't it time you considered going someplace where an overactive adrenalin pump and a freshly updated will weren't the prerequisites?

Africa slapped me around. I know I have an edge now....I know I have limitations. I had to learn how to receive in the Sahara....me the tough woman on the block who carries her own 50 lb mulch bag, cuts down a tree, and goes for lessons on how to fire a semi-automatic rifle. I had to depend on someone to be my guardian angel to keep me going...."Gina ...get up, get your backpack and get in the car." " Yes Diana." "Which car?"

So here comes Slovenia....Slovenia.....A country whose name you can't say without laughing.....a country who has a writing program in the Alps in a beautiful lodge on a lake...where the only tough circumstance you have to face outdoors is fending off mosquitoes which take a little blood and don't insert deadly diseases as a thank you gift.

This is almost as terrifying as crossing the Sahara desert .....comfort, beauty, intellectual conversations, good food, reasonable temperatures, a soft bed........

Oh My God what have I gotten myself into?

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Leaving Long Island and It's Wicked Addictive Rice Pudding

Well Gina's little adventure is finished for now......I'm home from Long Island....where I stuffed my bags full of last minute treats from Fairway Grocery. If I didn't get home soon, my butt would have mushroomed from late night visits to that store to indulge in the most wonderful rice pudding. It's not that I'm such a rice pudding fan...in fact....I can't remember when I last ate the stuff....but I bought it on a whim....and it tasted just like the rice pudding my folks used to buy at a store in my old neighborhood....yes...the proverbial relic of childhood....all in a little plastic tub. I even bought a small container of regular milk to pour on top of it....(not 2%, not Skim, but oh my god regular milk!!)

Which brings me to another sin I indulged in at Fairway. Butter. Yes, since I went to Paris.....and tasted the most excellent butter....I've actually had a craving for the stuff. Not a lot but a little bit on good quality bread...which of course Fairway was all too willing to supply....Do you see a pattern here ? Thank God I got out of Long Island before I couldn't zip my jeans up!

Pictures in the next couple of days of winter cheching....and a motivational tombstone!

Pass the Lobster and Clams on Cape Cod

I'm sitting here in a big white wooden rocking chair....enjoying the fading daylight and appreciating the white and grey feathered clouds....hard to believe I'm in Logan/Boston airport . Whom ever thought up the idea of putting these rocking chairs along this glass-wall was a genius. How many rattled nerves and rushed itineraries this must help......

I'm heading back to NYC....feeling like some big shot jetsetter... flying to THE CAPE and heading back to the CITY.....I will huddle down on Long Island again.....finishing my research...and hopefully going home with the data I need to complete my writing. I was real lucky and found that someone at Columbia University in New York did a whole dissertation on the tribe I need some information on.....and I guess I'll tackle the trains and head into the city to find the work. Sometimes when I get discouraged about writing....I think how many fortuitous things have helped me continue to do my research and I hope that is a SIGN.

Cape Cod was wonderful..it was great although strange at first to see Diana from my Africa trip..seeing someone outside of the place you know them is a bit strange..but she has the same energy and dynamism..and so although the setting was different.....the person seemed the same. Buddy seemed different and the same in his environment too....and is obviously an enthusiastic tour guide..we took some great hikes with invigorating winds along the cape which was wonderful. Buddy and his wife surprised us with a feast of fresh lobster and clams.....the lobsters were huge....and they showed us how to open the clam, drench it in broth....then dip in butter.......wow.

We took a ride into Provincetown which is at the very tip of the cape...quaint and interesting town ....small cottages...old white frame homes....narrow narrow streets....complete with seaside funkiness. I sometimes try and imagine what it must be like to live quaint instead of normal...but all the houses I've lived in have been normal..in normal neighborhoods....with normal views.

The sun is setting and the pink/lavender color is rising in the sky..I can't help but think how wonderful connections are.....how people and knowing people present us with so many opportunities.....to enjoy and expand.

Now if I can just get my rental car and maneuver myself out of LaGuardia airport .I'll consider it a good day ....a very good day.

On the Road and In Another Scary Hotel Again!

Well...this ain't Dogondoutchie....but maybe I'd be more comfortable there than here. I'm on the road again and found myself in one of those weird situations were you accidentally get yourself into a scary hotel....near a big city....even though the rates would suggest that you should have a NICE place.

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I'm somewhere near Lagaurdia airport in a Ramada Inn that was supposed to be next to the airport (but it was a 10 minute shuttle ride away !) and at the stroke of midnight will become a Holiday Inn. There's a light bulb hanging from the lamp.....and there's a couple next door...who have been.....huh.....how shall I say this delicately.....having intimacies like rutting pigs for the last hour....plus somewhere down the hall there is a dog.....a yipper barking....needless to say I have bolted my door calculated how many hours I have before I have to leave the place and fly out tomorrow to Boston.

And So It Begins.....

23 Days to Go...

I decided to keep a blog... a diary....of the comings and goings of what I jokingly call..."Gina's Big Adventure." Those of you who remember Pee-Wee Herman...know I've stolen the name from his movie. Unlike Pee-Wee, I hope my adventure doesn't conclude with me being arrested for masturbating in public. No... I'm sort of hoping for something more grand than that...maybe a book...or two? or perhaps a few great essays or articles. But even if I didn't write a word about my upcoming journey...I'm at least hoping for transformation...and a bit more texture in my life. I like texture... and transformation always sounds hopeful.

Just so we're on the same page...I'm leaving in 23 days for Paris and then I'm going to cross the Sahara desert starting in Tunisia and ending up in Togo. For the record, before this trip, I'm not sure I knew Togo was a country (Do pogos come from Togo?) and quite frankly although I knew the Sahara was the mother of all deserts..wasn't it mostly sand? and somewhere south of Morrocco? Okay...I didn't realize I was so completely ignorant about Africa and there are some days I even admit to not knowing exactly what signing up for a 30 day camping trip across this rugged environment might entail ...but a life too sane and safe ends up ....just that ...safe and sane....and who wants those words to be inscribed as your epitaph on some urn? (For those of you going for a "green " burial...picture a discreet cream colored printed card pinned onto your canvas shroud.)

So that's the kernel of this big adventure....a week in Paris... a month in Africa...but to tell you the truth I think since the first day I've signed up for this trip the adventure started....so that's what I'd like to talk about and share over the next couple months.