January 2023 Part Three (Jan 16-Jan 18)

January 16 – Magic!

To be perfectly honest, today was one of the big highlights of the trip, something I had been looking forward to with much anticipation. Today was the day Troy was coming to get me and we were going to Disneyland!

We’d discussed this over the past few months, me explaining I really wanted to see Star Wars and Avengers stuff and anything else would be a bonus. He agreed. We decided on getting a 1-day, park hopper pass (the two things were in different parks) and then we figured that the 17^th of January, the day after the MLK holiday, would be ideal (and also, the least expensive) day to go.

Of course, once we knew the dates, I contacted a few friends to see if there was anything else we could do. For example, Troy had never been to the Magic Castle, so I called my friend Michael, who’s a member, and asked if he was free to join us. He was. So we made plans.

And now the day was finally here!

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January 2023 Part Two (Jan 10-Jan 15)

January 10 – It all disappears… like Vegas in the rain…

Tuesday morning I woke up early and started making myself breakfast before I ventured outside. Good thing, too, since the alarm was on and even though the folks had left me a note with the code on it, I didn’t see it (and even if I had, I had no idea how to use the alarm system. So, thankfully, mom got up, helped me find the various things I needed to finish making my eggs and coffee and then showed me how to turn off the alarm so I could venture out back to get started with what was my main purpose for this trip.

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January 2023 Part One (Jan 6-Jan 9)

For the start of this story, we need to step into the “way back machine” all the way to 2010. Back then, due to circumstances, I had been applying for jobs in Europe. One of the gigs I applied to was teaching English to kids in Hungary. I got the job and the deal was I had a one-year contract with a mutually agreed upon possibility of a 1 year extension.

So in the late summer of 2010, I packed up most of my worldly belongings, shoved them into a storage shed (originally a pay as you go deal and then in my folks’ backyard) and headed off into parts unknown.

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Palanga Trip 2022

After our recent trip to England, we weren’t sure we’d get another chance to go anywhere this summer. Rasa certainly wanted to maybe take a day trip to the beach, or we could hit the labyrinth park again, or really, just anything to get out of the house. Thing is, with the economy the way it is, not to mention our work schedules, it just didn’t seem likely anything major would happen.

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And so it ends – England 2022 #6

Day 7 – June 30

Thursday was the last day we had anything planned or pre-booked. Today’s adventures were a boat ride to explore the “Jurassic Coast” and then meeting up with Rasa’s colleague Dai and his wife. The boat was leaving from Poole, a little bit further along the coast than Bournemouth (where we had been a few days earlier and where we would be meeting up with Dai) and since it had a precise departure time, so did we.

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Questions about History and Culture – England 2022 #2

Day 2 – June 25

Waking up in Nottingham, we had to figure out our plans. Before we had parted the night before, I had declined John’s offer of attending a birthday party for the child of a friend of his so we were definitely Oxford bound, it was just a matter of how and when to best get there. We would spend the next few days staying with my old friend Amy and her husband Clive. I met Amy somewhere around 28-30 years ago when we both worked for the Groundlings in LA. I was a booth jockey and she was a stage manager. Since then, we’d kept in touch over social media, even managing to see each other once or twice since she’d moved to the UK. Now, she had graciously offered us all a piece of futon covered flooring in her craft room and we gladly took her up on the offer.

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And so it begins – England 2022 #1

Prologue

Back in February or March, Rasa was informed of a conference in her field coming up in Manchester, England at the end of June. We talked it over and decided it would be a good idea to go. It would be her first in-person conference as a PhD student (due to the pandemic) and was scheduled to include a number of big names in her field as participants, including her unofficial supervisor (whom she would be able to meet in person for the first time).

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Birthdays: 2021 Edition

Day One

This year, our joint birthdays started on Saturday the 10^th of July. Since we had booked a trip away to start on the 12^th, and since Monki wanted a party of some sort, we decided to do it on the Saturday before. Rasa got a Barbie cake and we invited most everyone Monki knew to come and help her celebrate. Continue reading “Birthdays: 2021 Edition” →

How do you prefer to travel?

travelling How do I prefer to travel?

Is “for free” an answer?

No? Okay, then. Let’s take a look and see what we’ve got here. There are two different ways to answer this question, the first is by looking at modes of transportation and the second is by looking at the travel experience itself. Continue reading “How do you prefer to travel?” →

What are the top 5 things that you and your spouse have in common?

When you stop and think about what you have in common with anyone, let alone the person you have chosen to spend your life with, it seems like it should be a no-brainer, right? Here, the question is looking for the “top 5 things” which implies there are at least 6 and probably many more. Of course, after my recent post about the qualities of friendship, this seems like a rather strange topic to me. Continue reading “What are the top 5 things that you and your spouse have in common?” →

Who are your favorite artists?

“What is art?”

“I can’t explain it, but I know it when I see it.”

It’s an old joke, to be sure, but it’s kinda true, especially for me. I know very little about art, especially intrinsically. What I mean is that everything I do know, I’ve had to seek out and learn on my own. I have no built-in sense of the technicalities of art beyond the most basics. I think this is partially true because I have no artistic abilities, pretty much at all. When I was directing my short film some 25 years ago, I tried my hand at doing storyboards and they ended up looking like anemic stick figures. Even longer ago than that, I tried to teach myself special effects make-up* (thanks to Tom Savini’s seminal books) and was so excited when the sculpture that took me days to finish looked vaguely like a cat person (which, to be clear, was actually my goal). Continue reading “Who are your favorite artists?” →

Where Did You Go on Vacations As a Child?

Compass 01 This week’s question is another one involving travel/vacations. That’s okay, I like traveling and vacations. This one, though, is about vacations as a child which, by default, implies they were family vacations. At least in my case since the folks are still married, to each other, so there’s no inter-family drama involving who gets to claim Disneyland. Continue reading “Where Did You Go on Vacations As a Child?” →

Home, I’m Darling – Day 7 London 2020

Jan 28 – Home I’m Darling

Tuesday morning I was up bright and early. Lin once again made fried egg and bacon sandwiches and we joked about the reviews I would leave regarding her hospitality. Truth be told, she was an amazing host. She took absolutely great care of me and Cecil, her wonderful cat, even slept with me a couple of the nights (and the less said about the hardness of the fold out bed, the better). Continue reading “Home, I’m Darling – Day 7 London 2020” →

The History Boys – Day 6 London 2020

Jan 27 – The History Boys

Craft Beer for all people.jpg Monday was my last full day of this trip and there was still some shopping I wanted to do. To that end, I arranged to meet my friend Tim at Forbidden Planet, just in case there was something I wanted to get. Turns out there was. I ended up picking up a really cool Spider-Man journal for notes and writing and then, when Tim showed up, had a fun time showing him around the place. Continue reading “The History Boys – Day 6 London 2020” →

The Vagina Monologues – Day 5 London 2020

Jan 26 – Vagina Monologues

Cyberdog at Camden Sunday was the one day I didn’t have any shows planned. We’d thought about trying to get tickets for something else, but the only things available for Sunday were outrageously (for us at least) expensive. This left us open for other endeavors and without any time constraints.

First up was meeting with friends from Lithuania. Continue reading “The Vagina Monologues – Day 5 London 2020” →