KC loves having her picture taken

More recent examples below.

KC continues to enjoy photographs

KC has always been an excellent photo model, and that has continued recently!

Big Sur: photo highlights

The Return to New England

I endured a 15 hour train ride from Ohio to the Berkshires yesterday in order to return to my home state, disembarking in Pittsfield, MA (of all places...) some eight hours behind schedule thanks to the Amtrak train that kept pulling over for freight and then going at frustratingly slow speeds before pulling over again and so on. It probably would have been more interesting if it hadn't been raining the entire day across OH, PA and the northern cities of New York State. The train pulled into Pittsfield a little bit after 7pm in the rain.

The transportation center had already closed for the night as one other man and I got off the amtrak train. I didn't want to hang out with him after he said that he'd been on the trains since Provo, Utah, and had come to the Berkshires to find God. I thought they did that just fine in Utah. So instead I decided to walk along one of the main streets in Pittsfield to see if I could find a coffee shop, since it was only 7:30pm. Fat chance. There were lights along the road, but they were all tied to stores that already had closed for the day and 1-2 upscale restaraunts that weren't ideal places to wait for potentially up to two hours. Eventually (quickly) I ended up at a Brooks Pharmacy to buy a card and get cash back a minute before it closed at 8pm. The girl behind the counter called me a cab to take me over to my cousin's school in a different part of town. I stood outside in the light rain with my baggage and awaited the taxi's arrival.

They said it would take 15 minutes but it was there in five. Oddly, the driver even stopped the ride mid-way so that I could get smaller bill change, since he didn't want to make large change for me. But he carried on anyway and $11 later I was dropped off at Miss Hall's School, right back into the uppercrust world of New England boarding schools. I rang the bell with my bags and a prickly-looking older woman said, "How can I help you?". I said "I'm Nellie's cousin." She said in a disbelieving tone, "How should I know that?" I replied, "Well...her father is my mother's brother..." and she said "That would make you her cousin. Let me see if I can find her." A few minutes later Nellie appeared and all was righted; within the hour we made it back to the house in the continuing rain.

I didn't realize how exhausted I was after the travel yesterday, and slept soundly through to nearly noon today. It was refreshing to get a full sense of the continuing fall season by gazing at the Connecticut hills after lunch. The afternoon took us into New York state just over the border to Millbrook, driving by my mom and aunt's old college campus, which, sadly, is now a creepy-looking (but mysterious, not foreboding) complex of old buildings that have fallen into disrepair and await eventual development renewal. But when that actually will happen is anyone's guess, since the college closed in 1978 and the buildings are still there looking exactly the same, but neglected. Sad.

Am moving on again tomorrow back to Hampshire. The Empress, The Crazy Pitches, friends, nostalgia, video editing and a taste of the Amherst fall are all awaiting there.

California Love

Have arrived in LA, after one of the best airplane flights I've ever taken. Something about the combination of perfect weather, having a window seat, being on a cheap flight and getting to chat with the rest of the passengers in my row (one of whom was a professional stage manager in NorCal!) made it memorable and fun for me. Saw a ton of landmarks across the country including a bird's eye view of my neighborhood as we left Boston, Lake Erie, Lake Michigan, a bird's eye view of Interstate 80 in Nebraska that Russ and I will be driving through in about two weeks, the Continnental Divide, the Utah desert, the northern reaches of the Grand Canyon, the southern area of the Hoover Dam, and metropolitan LA's mountainous borders.

Now am here in LA-Land for a day and a half, seeing friends and doing my best to get around the city without a car. We'll see if that's successful or not. It is off to a chilled out and good transitional start hanging around Whittier College with my cousin before shifting gears to Pasadena tonight and the gliteratti of Beverly Hills and Santa Monica tomorrow.

Analytically

Why is it always a challenge to write about myself analytically? Like this question in a job application: PLEASE PROVIDE A STATEMENT OF YOUR PERSONAL QUALITIES AND EXPERIENCE THAT YOU BELIEVE ARE RELEVANT TO YOUR SUITABILITY FOR THIS POST.
... I kept putting the answer off, but now I don't really have time to, as the form is due tomorrow. I feel like I am writing a term paper again.

I finally got myself and KC (my cat) into the same picture frame tonight:

Back in Beverly

and glad to be here.

test

Vineyard Vitality

MV was spectacular, as always. .

Martha's Vineyard keeps calling me home

Heading down to MV today for the weekend to see family, friends and the beach. Should be a welcome change from the home monotony and a good way to get my mind off wanting to be there with you all in Amherst.

We must always return to the sea....