June 4th, 2008 writerspice
I love the United States. The country is full of grand vistas and great people.
And even though lots of Canadians complain about the tough process of getting across the border these days, I’ve never had a problem.
More often than not, I find the folks working the conveyor belts and waving me through the metal detector professional and often personable. Yes, getting through customs is a longer process and the lines are often peppered with panicked people anxious that they’re going to miss their flights, but what can you do? Get there early. Take a deep breath. Leave your liquids behind.
But with today’s news from ABC that “citizens from countries in the VWP [Visa Waiver Program], which allows travelers from certain countries to enter the United States without a visa, will be required to submit their travel plans and personal information before their day of travel,” I’m not so sure I’ll be visiting nearly as much after the requirement comes into effect next January.
Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing to hide. But the thought of logging my passport number into a computerized system 72 hours before I’m set to go, to wait as my name is checked against a terror watch list, raises visions of all those zombie-like automatons wandering around that fictitious world of George Orwell’s. According to the article, the Europeans are balking, too, with concerns about what will happen to the collected information and how long it will be held.
And there are other questions, as well. Who is on that list? What is the definition of a ‘terrorist’? Does someone attending a hunger strike outside the U.S. consulate to protest American military policies end up on that list? Stranger things have happened.
Posted in Issues, News, United States | No Comments »
May 14th, 2008 writerspice
This morning I jumped out of bed at 7 a.m., realizing we forgot to put the garbage out.
My husband took the dog for a walk as I scurried around the house, sweeping every paper receipt, toilet paper roll and stray ice cream container (hey, it’s been a hard week) into the recycling bin. The garbage was easier – tied the bag up, plastered my neon orange city-certification sticker on it and rushed it out to the curb just as the truck was pulling up.
It’s funny the things you never think about when you’re a long way from home, living out of your backpack and steadily disposing of any accumulated waste as you go (or shoving it in your journal to be either scrap-booked back home or thrown out a decade later). I probably desperately need a vacation, but that’s what I was thinking as I breathed a sigh of relief, poured a cup of tea, fired up the computer and entered my Gmail account.
Needless to say, it was nice to move from a meditation on garbage (and, believe me, I could talk a bit more about that if I had the inclination…) to the news that my blog made Travelhacker‘s list of the top hundred travel blogs.
I’m up there with such esteemed bloggers as The Lost Girls, three twenty-something New Yorkers who just, well, took off, Slow Travel, a blog by writer Ed Gillespie who took a flight-free trip around the world, writing columns for the Guardian along the way, and Nerd’s Eye View, where she’s written a great post about how to keep your travelblog alive when you’re not traveling… NOT on the list: talk about the monotonous chores that bind us to home.
Oh, well.
Posted in News, Recommended, Writing Life | 1 Comment »
February 14th, 2008 writerspice
Okay, Okay. I know. I know!
I have fallen prey to the blogger’s disease, procrastination, abandonment, evident in the long delay between posts, that vacuous sense of time that must greet any of my regular readers as they wander over to my site only to see that, no, I’ve yet to update and haven’t for nearly one whole month. Where is she?, I imagine someone wondering, sitting in a cool adobe hut in South American summer or cranking up the generator to get on-line somewhere around James Bay.
But perhaps that is simply my ego and these words actually unfurl into a void.
Whatever the case, here is my update.
My computer crashed a couple weeks ago, just before J. and I began gradually, slowly dismantling our house in the constant pursuit of renovation. In an empty space that joined our bedroom and my office we, well, actually, he and his dad, built a wall. You know, dry wall, plaster and hours and hours of puttying and sanding and puttying and sanding… Needless to say, currently my office is a mound of desk-books-chairs-computer (minus the box, which is still in the shop) shoved into a corner and covered in plastic. I am writing this at my alternate work area – the bed, a cup of tea beside me, a newly-caught cold gripping my chest.
And then there was Arizona.
Four blissful days exploring the desert and indulging in Phoenix during a press trip. There is something magical about Arizona. Not to sound new age (been there, done that) but the energy seems somehow clearer. New ideas and understandings ricocheted through my mind. I just felt so grounded.
I love that.
And so I’m back. More or less. Ready to pop open a few more cans of paint today and keep on going. But, dear reader, propped on a wooden platform in a forest swamp or tucked into a 300-square-foot office in a city centre, I will do my best to keep the accounts a-comin’.
Even without my own computer…
Posted in Contemplations, News, Other, Writing Life | No Comments »
