All Aboard

I want to share my trip with you. 

Here is the first entry of my travel journal that I'm posting:
(Pretty please keep in mind that the only way I could post this was to do so by typing it all in on my iPhone. We all know how autocorrect can bite us in the bum, so just giggle and keep on reading if you don't mind. I'll correct what I see as soon as I have a normal set-up! Oh, good news! Late last night I finally found my lost mouse plug-in! I was ecstatic! Writing operation glitch fixed.)

6.13.2011
I'm on the train, boarded and looking to my right- only vines draping the trees to make a curtain of green foliage. My view straight ahead- the seat back of a  grouchy passenger who promptly slammed his seat to its farthest reclining position possible. His head and moppy brown strands of hair tilt to the right. He is trying to sleep with his head mashed to the wall of the train. To my left sits Nicholas Cassini, my husband, in a navy blue and plaid button up Lacoste shirt that looks modern and not dated as plaid so easily can look. He has his earbuds in already. I didn't even notice what was behind me, aside from my seat, until a man just now started coughing. He apparently has an itch in his throat that won't be satisfied. 
We sit on row 11 on an Am Trak train in 2011 on June 13. 
As the train rolled on its track, aimed north, I got to see the entire station due to the fact that our train car was located all the way at the very front of the train. I know that it is the front of the train though because our seats face South. So the green curtain of foliage is quizzing past us in the opposite direction of typical "forward"motion. I do believe some people get sick at this sort of backward zooming. But, not I. I've done it on a jet too and I thought the blast off was fantastic. 
After waving to my parents, who stood outside waving to the train and couldn't see me at all through the tinted glass, we gained speed and are now moving along quickly. I was surprised when I looked up from the page to see that we were going much faster than it felt. 

~
I took a sort break to send and receive messages to/from a friend. She is losing her beloved black lab Sadie right now. Her dog- and best friend, as they most often are- is having a very tough time lately and has shown the signs of a dog who knows she will leave soon. I've cried twice and haven't yet fully stopped all this time later. I feel sad Sadie has to leave. I feel awful for Katy, who loves her so much and is expecting first baby in September. And I feel awful about the whole situation in general because I know what that feels like. We lost the brilliant and beautiful charmer, Shakti in February of 2009. It was one of the most painful moments of my entire life and so, to go there mentally and think of Katy and Sadie, it hurts enough to get sick. All the while, I remind myself of my thoughts and beliefs which should take the sadness away and I find I try and share them with my friend, but I also know words can't reach that place to help and I sob like a baby, mascara streaked face and all. Which is why when Nick asks how I can stand it, referring to the gentleman (I use this term loosely) behind me who has gone from coughing his nasty breath past my right ear to snoring so loudly Nick hears it through his movie he's watching and listening to via earbud. My answer to him was, "I need the comic relief."
Oh... I got cobbled on the train...
Two snoozers takin their sleep deprived states out on me in true man-fashion. Big Recline- Big Snore. And I don't care. I'm in row even on a train headed toward the trip of dreams. I'm happy about that. Aside from Ms. Sadie, who I saw on Friday evening and petted and gave a mini massage to as I said bye-bye to her, everything is well- green. 
Golf courses, lakes with boats and green lily pads, trees and some kudzu or other rapidly spreading vine. 
Onward I go. 

~
It's 10:00- spot on. 
We are pretty far past the lovely train station in the Richmond area that I admired. It was brick, tall and elegant. It looked as if it had been built during the period of time when train stations were modern hubs and the 'it girl' of the transportation world. I have to note that the coughing "gentleman" behind me has perked up and his energy that he gathered while asleep has turned to chatty babbling with his every acquaintance. It may seem as though I do not care for the passenger behind me, but I find myself liking him okay. For one- as I said earlier, the snoring was just enough to make me laugh while sad over lost pets and more than enough to embarrass him horribly  if he were aware of it. He also spoke to me to ask if I thought he could de-board the train, smoke a cigarette, and board once again. This I did not have an answer for, but thought it was mighty kind that he cared for my thoughts about it. When he decided to ask an Am Trak employee he got up, stretched and proclaimed, "Man!! I got some food sleep in!" I nodded and secretly knew that fact all too well. 

Oh my goodness!! We just moseyed past the largest lily pad pond I've ever seen and never imagined!  It was completely covered with white blooms and it made me gasp. So I reached for my iPhone to take a quick shot and I was too late. Disappointing. It would have been one for the books. 

Oh- passenger update. 
Sleepy, smash-my-head, grump has changed seats across the aisle. He hS even made uncomfortable eye contact with me. It was when the friendly Indian looking and speaking gentleman,who snatched the seat when grouchy left for the restroom, relieved me of the recline factor on his own accord and the seat slammed forward such force that my coffee, resting on the let-down table topi am writing on, jiggled and almost splashed and bounced off of the surface and on to me. But Nick, acquainted with the various harmful outcomes of the contraptions and their adjacent seats, was quick and grabbed my hot beverage, setting it back down safely. This is when grumpy made eye contact and then hurriedly looked forward again. 

Speaking of my coffee- I am reminded of three things I need to tell you about. 
1. Norah Jones is on. I grabbed her when the chatty man behind me started telling his "peeps" about how he not-so-accidentally took his roommates cell because he forgot to purchase minutes for his. It's his first time on an Am Track long haul too. I know that from his different conversations. (He is super sweet to his girlfriend, mother of his daughter, but not wife yet, even though his dad , being old-school doesn't dig but is okay with- fortunately.) 
Nick looked at me and asked, "Is there anyone on the line?" I cackles at that. It was perfect. This man hadn't given a pause or released the so called conversation one bit for another person to join in and actually qualify it as a conversation. This was a monologue. The way Nick timed the remark to note it almost me cry again but from laughing. He's already held my hand, put his big paw on my leg (which is what he does when I'm so sad and need my hands to cover my face or dry my hands, and he's even asked "do you need to talk about it?" which is the biggest sacrifice a dud can offer right? I said "no thanks" because this isn't really my sadness to claim. It's Katy's. But, Katy being a good friend- the kind of friend who shellacks vanilla beans for your home-made birthday cake and does it twice because the first turn-out wasn't good enough in her opinion- tries to not say anything about her sadness because she wants me to to "viva la Italia". She's that kind of friend. She brought me coffee as I kept the store on Friday because we normally meet for coffee on Fridays. So, she brought it to me instead. And Jennifer, our coffee companion as well, was there too in a way because it's her store. Even though she was actually in Chicago. Anyway, very thoughtful, she is. And with that comes sensitivity. I know she is heartbroken. And I know she will take a while to mend because I'm still mending from Shakti. I can become a dribbling, drooling fool in a second and I grab her photos in frames (in whey room) and kiss her face all the time. Friends like your pup, and friends like Katy- they matter and they make me emotional. So this led me to Norah Jones ( yeh, I did almost forget I was talking about Norah) and her song "Sunrise". This was a soothing choice and when paired with the motion and rumble under me, and the streaks of scenes out my window it is healing on many levels. I send thanks to artists like her. They can make a moment perfect. It's why motion pictures have sound tracks, I presume. It is this invisible but hugely present backdrop with the power to change the tone of others' words or the lighting in which you see the world. 
Norah Jones+Train Ride = a dream come true. 
One down already!

2. I went to get my coffee in this cafe located at the very opposite end of the train that had previously been a mystery to me. In several ways. The first way was me wanting water and/or coffee and thinking, "how does one find beverages on a train?". The second mystery came in the form of me transporting the water and two coffees back to the seat. I was able to perform this longed for task of walking a train. 
"how does Tom Cruise do that? How does John Travolta do that? Can you really walk in between rail cars as the train moves? How do they open the doors? They don't lock when in motion?"
Well, now I know and not only do I know that they do,in fact, open- but I myself have made them open and have walked the line- the jiggling, unsteady line. Me. I did it. With hot coffee and water in my hands b
"Yes!"
Two down!
The mystery, the mission seemingly impossible... No longer. And I did play the Mission Impossible theme song in my head, barely humming it as the doors opened and I was there alone in the limbo of train cars reaching for the next door. 

3. By now I can't remember what 3 was, but I'll go with this observation and hope it's the right point. We have passed towns and stations, courses and courts, ponds and pastures- all gorgeous. But one really cool thing to see is the line of traffic that is waiting on us, the train, to roll through their intersection. The line we passed was already snaking with length and the big arms were down holding cars back and I was right next to the big RR stoplights and thee they were... all of the disgruntled car drivers holding their heads up with the palm of their hand, elbow propped on car window sill. I felt their pain and the anguish of having  to have patience you don't have time for. (my version of funny) But why I felt more- was my excitement! I have the good kind of anticipation. It is matched with leisure and possibility, almost promise, of relaxation. It is the childish kind of anticipation. When safety is felt and worlds are waiting to be discovered. Hope and marvel sit winking at me from the horizon. And I'm taking my time to meet them. Not racing, but walking and enjoying the view toward them. 
Andiamo piano.