MyVacation (3)

So, here we are. I am sitting in the back of a Ford Expedition rolling down highway 28 through the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The air is clean, dry, and cool. There is not a cloud in the sky as the breeze whips the smell of pine and honeysuckle through the air. It's exactly what I envisioned. Red barns and white picket fences, small general stores and unspoiled wilderness. It's beautiful, it's perfect. I haven't even exited the carm and I already feel refreshed. I sign just wizzed by that read "scenic view", which just seems so redundant, since, well, compared to the sprawling suburbs of Washington DC, everything is scenic. i cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like to live up here... to wake up every morning and see nothing but mountains and woods and lakes. Soon, we will be in Wolfeboro, our destination, where we will stay on the shores of Lake Winnepesaukee which, at least according to my dad, it crystal clear... I have never seen a crystal clear lake in my life, and I cannot wait. This is a vacation of firsts... the first trip to Connecticut (where we had an awesome dinner with my friend Julia Varona in Danbury), first trip to Massachusettes, Maine, and Rhode Island (Lunch in Kennebunkport and college visit in Boston on Thursday), and, of course, first trip to New Hampshire which, already, has provided me with the first time the air has smelled consistently like flowers... amazing.

As we drive on and catch a view the lake for the first time, I look forward into the rear view mirror and see my Dad's eyes squint into an obvious smile. Welcome to New Hampshire, the land of sweet smelling air (I still can't get over it), old rustic houses, white picket fences, eternal sunshine and 80 degree weather, quaint hosptals (i.e. Huggins hospital), and an open, free feeling in a small town. A place devoid of cookie cutter developments and strip malls, where walking and golf carts overpower cars, where rush hour happens at 1:30pm, where seeing another car from Virginia is an exciting event, where a Verizon store sticks out like a sore thumb, where American flags line buildings instead of Confederate flags, and where they fly in pride rather than protest, where the view will take your breath away, and where the water TRULY IS crystal clear. Welcome to Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. I might not leave.

MyVoice

THIS IS MY VOICE

_Shane Koyczan

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This is my voice, there are many like it, but this one is mine.
and it’s a fine line when you’re trying to define the finer points of politics.
politics being a latin word. “poli” meaning many. “tics” meaning blood sucking butt lumps.
but too many live in countries where it’s bullets instead of ballots.
where gavels fall like mallets when held in the hands of those whose judgments can be bought as easily as children can be taught to covet.
and the only ones willing to speak up are forced to live so far beneath the radar that the underground is considered above it.
this is for the Ho Ci Min’s and the Michael Collins. for marquis de sades and the muted gods.
This is my voice, there are many like it, but this one is mine.

And this time it’s for the sons and daughters who watch their mothers and fathers drown in shallow waters while panning for the “American dream” in the polluted creek called the mainstream.
This is for the homeless people sleeping on steam vents, making makeshift tents out of cardboard and old trash,
trying to catch 40 winks in between the crash of car wrecks. risking their necks by surviving another day so that they can starve. so that famine can carve their body into a corpse before their heart stops beating. so that men in a boardroom meeting can make it harder for them to get welfare, health care, it’s no wonder some of them pawn off their own wheelchair. and every time I walk ‘em by, I can’t help but feel at fault, that maybe I didn’t search myself hard enough for the control alt “s” so that i could save the world. Or at least this little girl curled up into a ball. I’ve spent most of my life throwing compassion back like a fish that’s too small. Gotta cash in my reality checks. drop her some spare fantasies. cause I’ve got three separate degrees from different universities, but the most valuable thing i ever learned was to believe people when they say “Please.” This is my voice, there are many like it, but this one is mine.

You ever been real, been reemed out, picked on, put down, ever been rowdy at the sound when your own heart breaks, not to take the time, to take the time. listen.
ever been seen and not heard, you ever blurred the lines for those who tried to find some way to define what you are, as if you were far from them, at least at the heart of them its more than a part of them.
you ever been told you’re too young or too old, and there’s always that line when you’re willing to walk by, and you gotta receive and then beat the deadlines. so don’t try to define us cause this time we’ re fine. We’re pissed and we’re loud and now you know why.

Don’t tell me there are no heroes. This is for them, the women and the men.
For Helen Keller who against all odds found a voice. For the choice Veronica Guerin made. For Martin Luther King who stayed just long enough to share a dream with us. This is for that day on the bus for sister Rosa Parks. This for the Joan of Arcs who believed even in the face of sparks becoming flame. The political game that Louis Riel refused to play. This is for the day the Dalai Lama finally goes home. For Dr. Jeffrey Wigand who alone stared down big tobacco. For Nelson Mandela who continues to go the extra mile. This is for the trial that finally found a man guilty of shooting Medger Wiley Evers dead.
This is for everything Malcolm X said. Remembered by athletes who left the Olympics double-fisted.
For Arthur Miller, blacklisted for calling a witch hunt what it was. For Galileo locked up because he said the earth was round. For the Two Live crew who found the sound that got them banned in the USA. And imagine if we could still hear John Lennon play. This is for the someone who stood up today and said, “No!”.
For Edward R. Murrow who shut down McCarthy. For Salmon Rushdie, Mahatma Ghandi,.
You, me, this city, this country.
We will always have a choice.
When you stand up to be counted.
Tell the world, “This is my voice, There are many like it, but this one is mine”.

MyBeat

Dance.

I am no dancer.

Well, no GOOD dancer.

But, dammit, I love it. Both watching it, and doing it.

To move, to feel, to create art with your very body and soul is amazing.

People seem to put dance down, to spat upon the genre itself, with almost instantaneous neglect. Why?

Dance is not some jumbled mess performed with frivolity... it is breath, beat, being, belief.

It is taking the welling up of anger, excitement, sadness, joy, and allowing it to manifest itself in movement. It is the absence of inhibition and the epitome of freedom.

Dance makes you feel, makes you live, makes you love, makes you laugh.

You take the pounding of your pulse, the acceleration of your adrenaline, the looseness of your limbs, the explosion of your emotions, the beauty of the beat, and go with it, run with it, fly with it.

Dance is art.

It is the definition of what makes us human... or at least what used to.

The enjoyment of life, the complete and utter liberation of simply breathing and being is what dance sets out to encompass.

So... enjoy it. Move, be free, be HAPPY. Find your beat, and dance your heart out.

I don't know what inspired me to post this. Perhaps it was the beauty of routines like those of choreographers Travis Wall or Mia Michaels or Stacey Tookey who take concepts of family tragedy, addiction, and fear (respectively), and turn them into a living, breathing spectacle.

Whatever the reason, I encourage you to dance... just to move, to live a little. I'm not telling you to get down to the music in the elevator (well, maybe I am), and I am CERTAINLY not saying you have to be good, but just do it, enjoy it, enjoy life. There is a reason why music makes us want to move, and why that movement can move us to tears.

So... dance...

You'll live longer.

"Dancing is the loftiest. the most moving, the most beautiful of the arts, because it is no more translation or abstraction from life; it is life itself."

MyVacation (2)

Okay... so I completely forgot to disclose the "winner".

We each, as I said, came up with our various vacation ideas for under $2,000.

We were supposed to present them, and then have a vote... fail.

Dad booked a trip on his own accord... that's the beauty of actually having money I suppose.

So... we are going to (drum roll please!) New Hampshire... please contain your excitement.

On July 25th we will be road tripping up to Lake Winnepesaukee... stopping midway in Danbury, CT (what's up Varona and hopefully Brady families?!) and then, on the way back, spending the day in Kennebunkport, Maine and then stopping in Milford, CT on the way back (Milford... screams excitement right).
So that is the plan.. and we should arrive safe and sound back in Manassas on July 30.

I CAN'T WAIT!

MyVacation

The Contest:

Each year my family and I try to take a trip somewhere. We always have dreams of doing something different, of breaking the mold of the outer banks or the shores of South Carolina, but we never seem able to do it. Whenever a new place is offered up, the same problems always arise:

We can't afford that!, What about the dog?, I don't want to go there!, What do you mean there is no pool?!, I can barely see the ocean!, It's only 3 stars?!, I'm not sharing a room with you!

Pathetic isn't it?

So this year, we have settled on a different strategy, and made the vacation planning a contest.

On July 17th or 18th, we will set off for some trip to some place for some pre-determined amount of time, and it will cost no more than a pre-determined amount of money. Sound vague? Good. These are the only parameters that we have set for this vacation, and it's up to each of us to figure out the best place for the best price.

The Rules:

1) Each of us must come up with our own idea for a trip. It can be the same place we have been to every year, or it can be a place that none of us have even heard of, we just have to plan it out.

2) It must occur during the third week of July, i.e. we have to depart either July 17th or 18th and must be back home by the 25th.

3) We must stay within the budget of $2000, which only covers Travel and Lodging (unless you pick Disney World or DollyWood or some other theme park based trip, in which case it must cover admission prices as well)

4) NO CAMPING (not that I would mind)

5) We have to be finished and ready to present by 8pm on Wednesday, July 7th.

It's that simple.

So, we are all "scrambling" to plan and come up with ideas in hopes that our vacation is chosen.

Four will fall. One will rise. Stay tuned to find out who will win

The 2010 Great Getaway Gauntlet

Yes, I named it. Why should I not, it was my idea.

You don't like it? Be quiet.

MyAmerica

Good morning America, and Happy Birthday!

You are officially 234 years old, and you have never looked better!

You are the epitome of grace and elegance, and the poster child for justice and strength.

You have endured many trials, and enjoyed many blessings.

You are a dream maker, a mold breaker, and a risk taker.

You are inspiring and enticing.

We live because of your freedom, and we would die to preserve it.

You blood pulses through the streets of our cities.
You breath flows across our heartland's plains.

Your smile shines upon our golden coasts.

You are why poets jam, why musicians play, why children dream, and why flags will sway.

You foster students.

You inspire creators.

You honor soldiers.

You are a beacon of hope, a vessel of light

You are always growing, always discovering, always teaching, always dreaming.

You are the home of the truly free, and the land of the truly brave.

You give us pride, and instill in us a sense of endless possibilities

You have made us champions.

You have lifted our heads up.

You have given us a reason reason to celebrate, reason to sing, reason to wave our flag in your honor.

For this, and so much else, we thank you, we honor you, all that you stand for, and all those who have fought to preserve all that you have stood for for the past 234 years.

God Bless You, America.

"Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country; emotionally I know she is better than every other country."