"droptop telephone"

so, after yesterday's hellacious trainride i finally made it to durham safe. turned out to be a four hour delay, as they were working on the tracks. it didn't startle me much, as i vaguely remember kaleb (abe's 17 year old son) encountering a simmilar problem on his way up to maryland. i spent my time in a simmilar fashion to my plane-trips; sleep, watch a movie, listen to music, sleep, sit and ponder, get of the train. watched the thelonious monk movie 'straight no chaser'. it was good, as a mater of fact yesterday was february the 17th - exactly 25 years to the day that monk died. trippy, huh? that left me phased for a little while. spend the last 3 hours hanging out with these little spanish/english speaking kids from washington dc. watched them fill up a coloring book, played some 'knock knock who's there?' with them and just spieled for a little bit. kids are a trip to be around, i had a good time. this one boy felt bad for me, because he thought i looked so skinny. 'don't you miss your mother?' 'you should go back to your mother, so she can put some fat on you.' 'is that all you're eating?' (pointing at a little piece of raw acorn squash i was munching on - my only food for the day.)

i'd bought the new norah jones record a the night before and spend my time digesting that quite a bit. must have listened to it three or four times all the way through. it's real good, i like it. have always liked norah jones' music. even though one might consider it popular music, it's got a real organic, natural sound and vibe to it. which is especially rare in major label records these days.

scotty picked me up at the train station and took me back home. we spent some time talking. feels good to be back around scott again, reminds me of what's good and true, gets me centered. it reaffirms what i'm doing as being just.

got up early in the morning, as per usual - and at the same time in spirit of old times, and worked on some lyrics. the night of the 16th, after i got home from baltimore, i sat down with abe for a lil' while, waiting for a cd to copy, and i just started playing these chords that felt really good - a tad bit different from what i usually do. the thing that feels most like work is actually sitting down and writing up some lyrics, but it felt pretty good all the same.

reading back on some of these previous entries i realise this interesting irregularity throughout them. going back and forth between heavy slang and somewhat regular speech. it almost seems like just bringing the message in an entertaining way. it's a bunch of fun man, playing with words like that.

as some of you may have heard by now already, i'll be leaving for japan the 27th of february. yes, that is a day after my birthday. i do believe i wrote up a big chunk on that on the train yesterday, but i have yet to get it off my 'puter and put it up here. on that note, though, i'll include a picture of me after i finished moving a bunchload of hay. might not quite capture the magnitude of the task, but it's allright all the same. did that work for blane in exchange for my one-way ticket to japan.