My brother got my tag and listed Faure’s Requiem and that’s one of the pieces on my Canterbury Cathedral cd from Aunt Carol. It was very weird because I was listening to it when I read his blog. Last night I talked to my son Ian–he called me because my daughter had alerted both my sons that I had had a bad day (school=repression and intimidation). We talked about music and I told him that I wish I would have put down Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from WEST SIDE STORY. He said that he had noticed coincidences with some of his friends, too. Sharon read mine and emailed me hers–she didn’t know I liked Delbert McClinton! Joe and I saw him at the Kentucky Theatre and I was hooked. Then Brian Dewhurst found out that I liked him and made me copies of all his cds. YAY! Multiple coincidences. The other thing that Ian told me was that he is going to read FORGER and I knew I had heard of it somewhere, but I couldn’t remember where, and then we remembered that John had been virtually enchanted by it. Ian owns it so now I want to read it. One good thing about making some changes in my life might be that I could have some time to read. I can only read in the summer when I’m teaching. I’m going to each meatloaf at Michele’s tonight; I’m excited. Then we will walk it off, and I’ll have my therapy session with her. Last night I had two sessions (not to mention the ones with my kids)–Sharon at LiveWire and Deb over sherry, cheese&crackers, and sliced granny smith. I can’t begin to stay down with such good people in my life. Oh, and in case you didn’t know, KK’s into wearing tights under her pants and can’t give it up.

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your Livejournal along with your seven songs. Then tag (at least) seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

1. Lucinda Williams–Essence
2. Soundtrack–The Secret Garden
3. Minstrel Woode–Driftwoode
4. Male Choirs of Wales
5. Anything Delbert McClinton
6. Canterbury Cathedral Choir and Orchestra
7. Peaceful Journey–Mary Richards

1)Caitlan 2)Uncle John 3)Nancy 4)Deb 5)Mombo 6)Bob and/or Carol
7)Sharon

Have you had a confrontation with someone and for some reason, even though both of you know that it will have absolutely no effect on the outcome, you must keep the confrontation going for an interminable length of time because somehow you must end it with both of you saving face? I have. I did. Today. Afterwards I was emotionally drained and yet felt that I had accomplished nothing. Emotional energy is a terrible thing to waste. KK’s using hers to stew. She gets that from me. I want to take it back so she won’t have that inclination any more.

My friend Deb sent me today’s issue of Writer’s Almanac. I love Writer’s Almanac. A poem by Joe was in it, even though the poem was not written by Joe. It was published in Georgetown, KY. I knew Joe went away, but I didn’t know he went to Georgetown.

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

Caitlan got an interview to study at Oxford! This is extremely exciting, whether or not she gets an appointment and whether or not she takes it. Just the fact that she got the interview is wonderful and is the result of lots of hard work. You go, KK!

Went to church this a.m. and sang with the choir at Mass. I like doing that–I feel close to those with whom I sing in worship. Then back to Kelley Ridge for the rest of my work weekend. After I tried to clean up a little inside with all the drywall dust and spackling compound everywhere, Jeffrey came and we discussed Joe’s land on the Kentucky River. He had journeyed there with Bobby E. to see the 6+ acres, at least half of which floods during part of the year. Jeff seems to think it would make a good Clan Campground. Jay, Glenda, Joey, Jerry B., and Michele arrived. We went to Betty Jo’s to get two wood stoves, insulation, a barn vent (ma-shu-ga-dare), but forgot the boat motor, so Jay will go back to get that later. Then back to Kelley Ridge to play musical woodstoves and trade them between trailers so that one went inside K.R., Jerry B. took one to his house, and two went to the Valley. Michele helped me move my clothes upstairs out of the drywall dust. Joey took away more scrap metal, and Glenda took away canning jars. I drove the woodstoves to the Valley and ate supper with Mombo. It was a productive day.

Well, I thought I would start it, but then the week went bonkers and here I am at school on a Saturday in order to talk to my daughter on Skype, and at least add SOMETHING to this blasted blog. The week went bonkers because a revolution is fomenting at my workplace, and I’m right in the middle of it. It would not matter so much, but having recently endured the mother of all empty nest experiences (children all leave, sell house, get married, priest leaves, husband dies, dog dies, son goes to California, daughter goes to England, dead husband’s family deserts me), I have coped by burying myself in my work while relying on my clan and best friends, and now my workplace/worshipspace has morphed into something I don’t recognize and is inhabited by pod people with alien mind sets from Pennsylvania, Texas, and Massachusetts. (I mean no disrespect to those states.) So it’s like I don’t have that anchor any more either.

But today I slept in (7:30 a.m. is that for me) and had hazelnut coffee with milk that Joe introduced me to when I first met him, and half a burnt bagel because I had to toast it in the oven because Joe didn’t believe in toasters and a half because Greg Brown needed a morning treat, and a banana because my mother and I are trying to be more alkaline. And in the middle of that yummy fare, my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew arrived to help haul away the Murray graveyard. So we loaded the truck and trailer and stopped by my mother-in-law’s to check out what Joe still has in her basement, and ate at the Country Diner. Their pork tenderloin is incredible.

I was going to start this blog on November 1st, All Saints’ Day, but then I realized that November 2nd, All Souls’ Day, would probably be more approppriate. But I was nowhere near a computer on that day. So now, here I am on November 7th, thinking that I should wait until December 1st or some other memorable day to start. But it’s time now.

Ate breakfast, after shower, with Bob and Carol. Had oatmeal, prunes, toast and grapefruit juice, tea with milk. Walked to American Express to get checks cashed and to internet cafe to check e-mail. Mine was very slow so I didn’t get to read them. I did send a message home. Then we walked to Somerset house and the Courtauld Gallery (silversmith family). It was wonderful! I bought the catalogue. Saw Manet, Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, Cezanne, Mondigliani, Botticelli, Rubens–WOW! Then ate fruit that Sharon bought as we walked to St. Martin in the Fields Church on Trafalgar Square. Heard the South End Girls Choir sing beautifully–several spirituals, also solos of Summertime, Panis Angelicus, and Pie Jesu. Really wonderful. Ate in the crypt at the church–red lentil soup and bread pudding with custard. Shopped at their book shop/brass rubbings gallery. Bought Ian a coaster. Took lots of pix in Trafalgar Square. Went to National Gallery for a little while but got lost trying to find my way out–it’s huge! Then we got a cab to the Tower of London. Didn’t have a whole lot of time there, but saw the ravens and the Crown Jewels. Took a picture of a Beefeater. Walked across the Tower Bridge and ate at River Bar–had a Greek salad and a beer. Then we found Donald Rumblelow, a friend of Sharon’s sister and brother-in-law, who is the world’s authority on Jack the Ripper (he wrote the definitive book). We went on a London walk with him through the neighborhoods where all the murders happened. I really didn’t know all the gruesome details. Sharon bought his book, and he signed it for her. He was really very nice. He would not let us pay for the tour. There were about 60 people on it. Then we took a cab back to the hotel and talked about tomorrow. Oh, I forgot that we stopped for ice cream at Haagen Daas–I got coffee flavored. It was delish!

Travel is intensified living–maximum thrills per minute and one of the last great sources of legal adventure. Travel is freedom. It’s recess and we need it. . .

Affording travel is a metter of priorities (make do with the old car). . .in many ways, spending more money only builds a thicker wall between you and what you came to see. Europe is a cultural carnival and, time after time, you’ll find that its best acts are free and the best seats are the cheap ones.

A tight budget forces you to travel close to the ground, meeting and communicating with the people, not relying on service with a purchased smile. Never sacrifice sleep, nutrition, safety, or cleanliness in the name of budget. Simply enjoy the local-style alternatives to expensive hotels and restaurants.

Extroverts have more fun. If your trip is low on magic moments, kick yourself and make things happen. If you don’t enjoy a place, maybe you don’t know enough about it. Seek the truth. Recognize tourist traps. Give a culture the benefit of your open mind. See things as different but not better or worse. Any culture has much to share.

Of course, travel, like the world, is a series of hills and valleys. BE FANATICALLY POSITIVE AND MILITANTLY OPTIMISTIC. If something’s not to your liking, change your liking. Travel is addicting. It can make you a happier American, as well as a citizen of the world. Our Earth is home to nearly 6 billion equally important people. It’s humbling to travel and find that people don’t envy Americans. They like us, but with all due respect, they wouldn’t trade passports.

Globetrotting destroys ethnocentricity. It helps you understand and appreciate different cultures. Travel changes people. It broadens pespectives and teaches new ways to measure quality of life. Many travelers toss aside their hometime blinders. Their prized souvenirs are the strands of different cultures they decide to knit into their own character. The world is a cultural yarn shop. And Back Door Travelers are weaving the ultimate tapestry.