is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.

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SF to Philly to NY.

I flew to Philly from SF on Monday. Man, it was a long and terrible trip. Supershuttle was an hour late to get me, so I had to run to my flight, and wasn't able to buy any food. The flight was scheduled to stop in Chicago and then continue to Philly. But, due to weather in Chicago, the flight circled and circled until we began to run out of fuel so we had to fly back to Omaha, Nebraska, land, refuel, then go to Chicago. Then to Philadelphia. And we were not allowed off the airplane at any of those moments. So I was STARVING and it took like TWELVE HOURS to get from Roderick and James' place in SF to Gus's place in Philly. Also, the flight attendants and other various crew members would not give us any information. Sure, maybe they didn't have information. But they could at least have said THAT. Oh, how annoying and saddening it all was.

Gus is a dream, and came and met me at the train station in Center City, and had some lasagne waiting for me when I finally got to his place, at like one in the morning, ugh. But yay for lasagne, and Gus.

On Tuesday I went to my heart doctor and got a long lecture about hydration and excess salt intake, and was assigned a new appointment for an echocardiogram in a couple of weeks. At least he's attentive.

Then Gus had to go to DC to attend to some family stuff, and I stayed at his house overnight, hung out with Thurgood the cat, and watched the rest of last season's The Wire. Man, what a great show. When all the critics say that the show is "electrifying," they aren't lying. I could hardly make myself leave his apartment today and get myself back to NY to TCB. I still have two episodes of this season to watch at some point.

I took Amtrak instead of my usual SEPTA to NJ Transit, because I had a huge suitcase and it is terrible to have to deal with the irate conductors on both trains about how my suitcase doesn't fit anywhere. Plus it takes half the time, so it's worth the occasional splurge (it costs double, at least, depending on the train you take).

On Amtrak I continued to read The Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian. I have a friend in the publishing business who gives me books whenever I visit him. This is one of the latest. Often I don't have time to read the books he gives me, at least not right away. But this gifting caught me in a moment when the reading I needed to be doing was all stuck in my house in NY while I was in SF. So I started reading one of the novels he handed to me... and man, is it good! It's smart, and funny, and inventive, and strange and interesting, and so well written, so imaginative without going too far into fanciful. I'm so glad it ended up in my lap at the right time. You should seek it out. (But be forewarned... it is LONG. I am hoping I'll be able to finish it before the impending semester steals my brain.)

But already... I'm home again and so much work hangs over me. Must... read... the... novel.

9:39 p.m. - January 09, 2008

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