It all started after leaving Boston. With a brief stint in Woodbury, CT with my aunt Penny and cousins, we left to seek further refuge from the wintery mix in Philadelphia, PA. Our first encounter with the Big Apple was fleeting. As I was shakily following road signs, directing Rosie where I saw needed, I yelped, "We're in the Bronx!"
Matt laugh nervously and said, "I didn't realize you'd have to drive in New York City. Oops."
But we made it safely through the Bronx, then New Jersey and into Philadelphia, receiving a warm welcome from the Harkins.
Leaving early the next morning, early if you consider 9am early, for New York City, all was swell until the flashing lights by the side of the road signaled that there were urgent traffic conditions. A broken down bus in the center tunnel of the Lincoln Tunnel-right where our little Rosie needed to go.
"Expect hour long delays" the chipper female voice instructed over the radio.
We continued vigilantly, hoping for the best. Our only delay upon nearing the tunnel was the $6 toll.
Once through the tunnel, Matt clutched the wheel tighter as all conceivable traffic rules flew out the window. In a left turn lane only? No matter, turn right anyway. Have to get over three lanes? Don't worry, just turn your car perpindicular to the road, stopping traffic in three lanes until you can situate your car. Street signs? No one needs them clearly labeled, your guess is as good as mine.
A huge sigh or relief escaped from the three of us; Matt, Rosie and I as the Icon Parking sign appeared before us. The parking garage on the corner of W. 49th St and 10th Ave seemed a welcome resting place. The attendants, connoisseurs in cramming cars into spaces that can't possibly hold them, took our precious Rosie down under.
We turned away, claim ticket in hand, to meander on the streets of New York City.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
A Sad Day
Yesterday was undoubtedly the toughest day yet for us here at The Rosie Chronicles...for those of you who haven't heard, Katelyn and I experienced our first car accident. Don't worry, neither one of us were hurt - but we wish we could say the same for Rosie.
On Sunday we were on our way from Rochester to Boston, where we had the book signing and interview set up with Dave Isay, the founder of the immensely popular StoryCorps. Because of some worrying weather conditions, we decided to stop over in Schenectady for the night with Katelyn's aunt and cousin. They took great care of us, but on Monday we still had nearly three hours to drive so we left early.
The bad luck began when we checked our E-mail that morning and discovered that at the last minute our ten-minute interview with Mr. Isay now had to be a FIVE minute interview with Mr. Isay. We attempted a weak argument, but there was no budging, so we figured we just had to take what we could get.
Most of the trip was rather uneventful. The roads weren't too bad, snow started to fall...about 20 minutes away from Boston we discovered we didn't have anywhere to go because the woman we're staying with, Kelly, works downtown and told us that if we were to come and get her apartment keys it would take us hours to navigate. We were grateful we didn't have to do that, so we decided to head straight for Brookline, where the bookstore in which our event that evening was supposed to take place. Naturally, we got a little lost...roads in Boston aren't exactly well marked, and it seems like every mile they keep changing names. Basically, about two miles from our destination, we were headed down a tiny side road in front of residences with a long row of parked cars on the right side of the street. We were going to make a left turn that would bring us out on the main road, when we started to skid.
I was driving, so after my instincts kicked in, I remembered what I was raised to do when your car starts to skid: turn into it. No luck. The entire road was practically one huge sheet of ice. We weren't going very fast, but the words from my mouth became increasingly more...ahem...unacceptable, as we rather ungracefully slid the front right of Rosie's bumper right into a parked Jeep Cherokee. Oops.
A bit less calm than usual, we got out to assess the damage, which really wasn't too terrible. Rosie sustained a slight bump over her front wheel, and the Jeep had a slight ding in the door and a paint scratch. Katelyn attempted to ring the bell for the apartment where the Jeep was parked while I tried to move the car. Unfortunately the ice wouldn't let the tires move too much, and I didn't want to try to move forward and risk hitting another car. I was able to at least get our car off of the Jeep, put the hazards on, and put it in park until we could get the owner's attention or leave a note.
That was probably the move I'll regret the most. Not even five minutes after the owner of the Jeep came out and we began to exchange information, I hear another crash. Actually two; a white car (a Honda, I think, I have the info somewhere but don't remember it) tried to make the same turn we did but ran right into Rosie's back driver side bumper. THAT collision, of course, hit our car BACK into the Jeep, and now our three cars are locked on this huge grid of ice outside a row of apartments on a fairly busy one-way street somewhere in Boston.
If you're laughing, I understand...I might laugh about it too...one day.
So anyway. Now the three of us (four including Katelyn) are standing outside, exchanging info, calling the police, et cetera, and are now smart enough to stop traffic coming towards us and tell them that they better not try to come past us and risk hitting one of us again. Cars pile up for a while, but some of them can't turn around; the ice is so slippery a lot of them can't get any traction. A man in a construction van tries to make it up a side street directly behind us, but he gets stuck. Some other men parked up the hill a ways come and try to pull out, THEY get stuck. More and more cars keep coming down this road and we're running back and forth, telling them they should probably turn around and go another way until the police come and assess the damage. Which, by the way, never happened. But I'll get to that in a second.
I don't remember exactly when I went around to look at the back of Rosie; at first I thought it wasn't that bad because her front was relatively unscathed. The driver's side door had a long dent and scratch in it where the white car side swiped us. But the front headlight of the Honda completely dented the back fender of our car, not to mention it broke the covering of both of our tail lights and left the lower part of our fender hanging a few inches off of the rest of the body of the car. It also re-dented the front wheel bumper, driver's side, AND caused a dent and some paint to come off the back passenger side, behind the door.
The police were taking forever to come; John, the owner of the Jeep, called them again and they said that such accidents were happening all over the city (THEN WHY DON'T YOU SALT THEM?!?! HELLLOOOO!) and there was really nothing they could do unless someone needed to be towed. Well, thankfully all three vehicles seemed drivable and with a little help from our...er, friends...we were able to make it to the bookstore with about an hour to spare. Needless to say, I'm totally nervous trying to drive around this city now and have spent the rest of our time on the road driving about five miles UNDER the speed limit...which, in Boston, is practically a federal offense.
Anyway, we filmed the book signing event, in which Mr. Isay talked a bit about the new StoryCorps book and played some excerpts from the interviews he used, had our five-minute interview (I'd be damned if we weren't going to squeeze every second we could out of that one, considering what we'd gone through to get there) and on a much lighter note, got some free books out of it! Brian, the guy who's in charge of special events at the bookstore, said that if we found a few used books we wanted, we could just take them. So, thank you, Brian, for granting us a small bit of happiness out of an otherwise crappy day.
This morning I filed my claim with the insurance company (two separate claims, actually) and tomorrow we have to take Rosie in to a garage and have her looked over just to make sure she can make it the last leg of the trip. I can't believe we've come all this way without incident and now, so close to the end, this happens.
Oh well. Katelyn and I were just very grateful that the damage wasn't worse than it is (at least she can still drive) and that no one was hurt. I imagine that if one of us had been in or near the car when the white Honda came out of nowhere and hit us, this blog (and invariably this entire trip) would likely have an entirely different outcome.
On Sunday we were on our way from Rochester to Boston, where we had the book signing and interview set up with Dave Isay, the founder of the immensely popular StoryCorps. Because of some worrying weather conditions, we decided to stop over in Schenectady for the night with Katelyn's aunt and cousin. They took great care of us, but on Monday we still had nearly three hours to drive so we left early.
The bad luck began when we checked our E-mail that morning and discovered that at the last minute our ten-minute interview with Mr. Isay now had to be a FIVE minute interview with Mr. Isay. We attempted a weak argument, but there was no budging, so we figured we just had to take what we could get.
Most of the trip was rather uneventful. The roads weren't too bad, snow started to fall...about 20 minutes away from Boston we discovered we didn't have anywhere to go because the woman we're staying with, Kelly, works downtown and told us that if we were to come and get her apartment keys it would take us hours to navigate. We were grateful we didn't have to do that, so we decided to head straight for Brookline, where the bookstore in which our event that evening was supposed to take place. Naturally, we got a little lost...roads in Boston aren't exactly well marked, and it seems like every mile they keep changing names. Basically, about two miles from our destination, we were headed down a tiny side road in front of residences with a long row of parked cars on the right side of the street. We were going to make a left turn that would bring us out on the main road, when we started to skid.
I was driving, so after my instincts kicked in, I remembered what I was raised to do when your car starts to skid: turn into it. No luck. The entire road was practically one huge sheet of ice. We weren't going very fast, but the words from my mouth became increasingly more...ahem...unacceptable, as we rather ungracefully slid the front right of Rosie's bumper right into a parked Jeep Cherokee. Oops.
A bit less calm than usual, we got out to assess the damage, which really wasn't too terrible. Rosie sustained a slight bump over her front wheel, and the Jeep had a slight ding in the door and a paint scratch. Katelyn attempted to ring the bell for the apartment where the Jeep was parked while I tried to move the car. Unfortunately the ice wouldn't let the tires move too much, and I didn't want to try to move forward and risk hitting another car. I was able to at least get our car off of the Jeep, put the hazards on, and put it in park until we could get the owner's attention or leave a note.
That was probably the move I'll regret the most. Not even five minutes after the owner of the Jeep came out and we began to exchange information, I hear another crash. Actually two; a white car (a Honda, I think, I have the info somewhere but don't remember it) tried to make the same turn we did but ran right into Rosie's back driver side bumper. THAT collision, of course, hit our car BACK into the Jeep, and now our three cars are locked on this huge grid of ice outside a row of apartments on a fairly busy one-way street somewhere in Boston.
If you're laughing, I understand...I might laugh about it too...one day.
So anyway. Now the three of us (four including Katelyn) are standing outside, exchanging info, calling the police, et cetera, and are now smart enough to stop traffic coming towards us and tell them that they better not try to come past us and risk hitting one of us again. Cars pile up for a while, but some of them can't turn around; the ice is so slippery a lot of them can't get any traction. A man in a construction van tries to make it up a side street directly behind us, but he gets stuck. Some other men parked up the hill a ways come and try to pull out, THEY get stuck. More and more cars keep coming down this road and we're running back and forth, telling them they should probably turn around and go another way until the police come and assess the damage. Which, by the way, never happened. But I'll get to that in a second.
I don't remember exactly when I went around to look at the back of Rosie; at first I thought it wasn't that bad because her front was relatively unscathed. The driver's side door had a long dent and scratch in it where the white car side swiped us. But the front headlight of the Honda completely dented the back fender of our car, not to mention it broke the covering of both of our tail lights and left the lower part of our fender hanging a few inches off of the rest of the body of the car. It also re-dented the front wheel bumper, driver's side, AND caused a dent and some paint to come off the back passenger side, behind the door.
The police were taking forever to come; John, the owner of the Jeep, called them again and they said that such accidents were happening all over the city (THEN WHY DON'T YOU SALT THEM?!?! HELLLOOOO!) and there was really nothing they could do unless someone needed to be towed. Well, thankfully all three vehicles seemed drivable and with a little help from our...er, friends...we were able to make it to the bookstore with about an hour to spare. Needless to say, I'm totally nervous trying to drive around this city now and have spent the rest of our time on the road driving about five miles UNDER the speed limit...which, in Boston, is practically a federal offense.
Anyway, we filmed the book signing event, in which Mr. Isay talked a bit about the new StoryCorps book and played some excerpts from the interviews he used, had our five-minute interview (I'd be damned if we weren't going to squeeze every second we could out of that one, considering what we'd gone through to get there) and on a much lighter note, got some free books out of it! Brian, the guy who's in charge of special events at the bookstore, said that if we found a few used books we wanted, we could just take them. So, thank you, Brian, for granting us a small bit of happiness out of an otherwise crappy day.
This morning I filed my claim with the insurance company (two separate claims, actually) and tomorrow we have to take Rosie in to a garage and have her looked over just to make sure she can make it the last leg of the trip. I can't believe we've come all this way without incident and now, so close to the end, this happens.
Oh well. Katelyn and I were just very grateful that the damage wasn't worse than it is (at least she can still drive) and that no one was hurt. I imagine that if one of us had been in or near the car when the white Honda came out of nowhere and hit us, this blog (and invariably this entire trip) would likely have an entirely different outcome.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
snow snow snow snow-snow!
Well, yes it is snowing. I stated that in my last blog, in a momeny of pure ecstasy. It was powdery and light, coating Rosie everywhere. She turned into an icebox instead of the sassy car she usually is.
We were in Ithaca, New York for awhile visitng Matt's friend Ben at Cornell. I have to admit that we did nothing but sleep until this morning, when we had an interview with one of the psychology professors at Cornell, Dr. Harry Segal. He spoke with us for almost two hours about narrative and the research he's done. I was fascinated as he spoke, to hear so psychology so simply put, and to hear someone speak about it who really seems passionate about the work that he does.
I think my favorite thing that he said involved basements. He said we all draw, when writing a story or narrative, from the basement of ourselves. Our earliest memories and encounters. Then we build on the basement, the first floor, the second, etc. until we are so far from the basement we don't quite remember what it's like, but we still have to use that foundation for our story because it is holding us up. His theory and his research shows that we use our earliest memories and feelings throughout our writings, and can even work through our problems in those writings. Writers block occurs because we begin to write about a problem that is especially difficult for us to figure out, and we can write no more about it until we figure out how to either solve the problem or discover the answer.
But we're in Rochester, NY now, visiting my brother and seeing, briefly, his world. We leave tomorrow for Boston.
And speaking of snow, if you'd like to make snowflakes online, as my mother LOVES to do, go to popularfront.com/snowdays.
There are also more pictures posted on our website-check them out!
We were in Ithaca, New York for awhile visitng Matt's friend Ben at Cornell. I have to admit that we did nothing but sleep until this morning, when we had an interview with one of the psychology professors at Cornell, Dr. Harry Segal. He spoke with us for almost two hours about narrative and the research he's done. I was fascinated as he spoke, to hear so psychology so simply put, and to hear someone speak about it who really seems passionate about the work that he does.
I think my favorite thing that he said involved basements. He said we all draw, when writing a story or narrative, from the basement of ourselves. Our earliest memories and encounters. Then we build on the basement, the first floor, the second, etc. until we are so far from the basement we don't quite remember what it's like, but we still have to use that foundation for our story because it is holding us up. His theory and his research shows that we use our earliest memories and feelings throughout our writings, and can even work through our problems in those writings. Writers block occurs because we begin to write about a problem that is especially difficult for us to figure out, and we can write no more about it until we figure out how to either solve the problem or discover the answer.
But we're in Rochester, NY now, visiting my brother and seeing, briefly, his world. We leave tomorrow for Boston.
And speaking of snow, if you'd like to make snowflakes online, as my mother LOVES to do, go to popularfront.com/snowdays.
There are also more pictures posted on our website-check them out!
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Sigh...
I just don't know what I'm going to do about that girl.
Anyway. As you may have guessed from Katelyn's...ahem...informative blog post, we spent the lovely Thanksgiving holidays with her family in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Laying out on a hammock in her backyard with a good book under the autumn leaves was, I think, an excellent respite from the constant go-go-go that has been our lives for the past several months. That, and shooting BB guns with her two brothers in the backyard. (Mom, I've never wanted a BB gun before, but THIS Christmas...)
Just kidding.
Sorta.
Anyway, with barely three weeks left on the road, we're desperately trying to tie up any loose ends that can't be tied up back in St. Louis. With almost 40 hours of footage, we've stopped trying to frantically find something, ANYTHING to put in front of the camera (sort of like we did at the beginning of the trip) but still there are a few people we want to talk to before we head home. One is here in Ithaca, at Cornell University where we're staying with my best buddy, Ben. Dr. Harry Segal, a psychologist who specializes in "psychodynamic approaches to literary texts" (whatever THAT means) has agreed to meet with us this weekend. That will be cool because it will lend, I think, a bit of an "academic" bent to our film.
In New York City, where we're hoping to be within a week or two, provided we find a place to stay, we are meeting with a producer who has written and directed an Off-Broadway show which collects over 4,000 stories of people's "first times" and performs them with four different actors and actresses.
And a week from yesterday, we are meeting the founder of StoryCorps, the national initiative to collect stories from everyday Americans, in Boston. Mr. Dave Isay is currently on a book tour for StoryCorps first book, Listening Is An Act of Love, and we will be filming both the signing he will be at on Monday and also have a brief exclusive interview with him.
We're only looking for about one or two more interviews, and then it will be all over. I have to admit I'm strangely excited to be going back to school, the classes I'll be in are going to be great, but I'm a bit nervous about editing this whole thing together. I've been thinking about it lately, mostly because people have begun asking if I've started to think about how it's all going to fit together, and the truth is I really haven't.
The biggest concern I have right now is I think I'm just beginning to grasp how weird of a concept this is for a documentary. I mean, how do you document stories? How do you document what stories are, what they mean? We can just play all of our interviews back-to-back, but goodness knows that's boring. How are we going to make this interesting enough to other people? Specifically other people who are not our friends and family, who are by default required to find it interesting. This will, I think, be our biggest struggle in the year to come.
That being said, next semester is already stressing me out and I haven't even set foot on campus yet. A lot of opportunities and options have been presenting themselves and I'm trying to decide which ones to choose. A lot of it has been consuming my mind so much I'm finding it hard to focus on the film and the trip. It's been increasingly harder to keep my mind on the here and now as school looms closer and closer. But, such is life.
Besides, it's the Christmas season and that always cheers my spirits, despite the fact that radio stations seem to think there are only, like, 20 good Christmas songs worth playing over and over and over and over and over and over....
Anyway. As you may have guessed from Katelyn's...ahem...informative blog post, we spent the lovely Thanksgiving holidays with her family in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Laying out on a hammock in her backyard with a good book under the autumn leaves was, I think, an excellent respite from the constant go-go-go that has been our lives for the past several months. That, and shooting BB guns with her two brothers in the backyard. (Mom, I've never wanted a BB gun before, but THIS Christmas...)
Just kidding.
Sorta.
Anyway, with barely three weeks left on the road, we're desperately trying to tie up any loose ends that can't be tied up back in St. Louis. With almost 40 hours of footage, we've stopped trying to frantically find something, ANYTHING to put in front of the camera (sort of like we did at the beginning of the trip) but still there are a few people we want to talk to before we head home. One is here in Ithaca, at Cornell University where we're staying with my best buddy, Ben. Dr. Harry Segal, a psychologist who specializes in "psychodynamic approaches to literary texts" (whatever THAT means) has agreed to meet with us this weekend. That will be cool because it will lend, I think, a bit of an "academic" bent to our film.
In New York City, where we're hoping to be within a week or two, provided we find a place to stay, we are meeting with a producer who has written and directed an Off-Broadway show which collects over 4,000 stories of people's "first times" and performs them with four different actors and actresses.
And a week from yesterday, we are meeting the founder of StoryCorps, the national initiative to collect stories from everyday Americans, in Boston. Mr. Dave Isay is currently on a book tour for StoryCorps first book, Listening Is An Act of Love, and we will be filming both the signing he will be at on Monday and also have a brief exclusive interview with him.
We're only looking for about one or two more interviews, and then it will be all over. I have to admit I'm strangely excited to be going back to school, the classes I'll be in are going to be great, but I'm a bit nervous about editing this whole thing together. I've been thinking about it lately, mostly because people have begun asking if I've started to think about how it's all going to fit together, and the truth is I really haven't.
The biggest concern I have right now is I think I'm just beginning to grasp how weird of a concept this is for a documentary. I mean, how do you document stories? How do you document what stories are, what they mean? We can just play all of our interviews back-to-back, but goodness knows that's boring. How are we going to make this interesting enough to other people? Specifically other people who are not our friends and family, who are by default required to find it interesting. This will, I think, be our biggest struggle in the year to come.
That being said, next semester is already stressing me out and I haven't even set foot on campus yet. A lot of opportunities and options have been presenting themselves and I'm trying to decide which ones to choose. A lot of it has been consuming my mind so much I'm finding it hard to focus on the film and the trip. It's been increasingly harder to keep my mind on the here and now as school looms closer and closer. But, such is life.
Besides, it's the Christmas season and that always cheers my spirits, despite the fact that radio stations seem to think there are only, like, 20 good Christmas songs worth playing over and over and over and over and over and over....
Monday, November 19, 2007
Numbers
Days spent in Colonial Williamsburg: 2 1/2
$ we spent on food in Williamsburg: refuse to tell
Times we've gotten lost leaving the visitor center in Williamsburg: 3
Hours to drive to North Carolina: 4
Number of the tape for filming we are on: 40
approx hours of footage we have: 39
Pictures taken and uploaded on computer: 1,779
Miles till next oil change: less than 300
Days we've spent in Fayetteville: 6
Lizards found in house: 2
Hours to Chapel Hill to interview Daniel Wallace: 1 1/2
Times listened to Hairspray in the car: once daily
days of leftover Thanksgiving food: approx 4
movies Matt has watched for his independent study: over 40
Times Matt has told me to write a blog and I procrastinate: infinite
$ we spent on food in Williamsburg: refuse to tell
Times we've gotten lost leaving the visitor center in Williamsburg: 3
Hours to drive to North Carolina: 4
Number of the tape for filming we are on: 40
approx hours of footage we have: 39
Pictures taken and uploaded on computer: 1,779
Miles till next oil change: less than 300
Days we've spent in Fayetteville: 6
Lizards found in house: 2
Hours to Chapel Hill to interview Daniel Wallace: 1 1/2
Times listened to Hairspray in the car: once daily
days of leftover Thanksgiving food: approx 4
movies Matt has watched for his independent study: over 40
Times Matt has told me to write a blog and I procrastinate: infinite
Friday, November 16, 2007
Onward!
Hello faithful readers,
Our time in Washington D.C. is sadly coming to a close. What an eventful visit we've had! We spent the last two days getting in some last-minute touring; we saw Mount Vernon, George Washington's mansion in Virginia, the National Holocaust museum, the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, the World War II memorial, and several of the Smithsonians! As one can imagine, we're pretty beat.
We're on our way this morning to visit Colonial Williamsburg and witness even more of our nation's history. After a three-day stop there, we'll be with Katelyn's family in North Carolina for Thanksgiving, because there's no place like (a) home for the holidays. I can hardly believe Christmas is practically right around the corner.
And with the advent of Christmas comes the advent of the end of our adventure. We have little more than three weeks or so left. We've both done a lot of talking in the past few days about how odd it will be to have to go back to the "real" world and be responisble adults again. It's not something we're looking forward to, but as they say, all good things must come to an end. At least we can be satisfied that we were able to make this good thing last as long as we did.
Plus, I'm very excited to get back and start editing this film. I can't wait to see how it all fits together! I can't forget that after the traveling is done, the hardest part of the work is still ahead.
Have a great day everyone!
Our time in Washington D.C. is sadly coming to a close. What an eventful visit we've had! We spent the last two days getting in some last-minute touring; we saw Mount Vernon, George Washington's mansion in Virginia, the National Holocaust museum, the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, the World War II memorial, and several of the Smithsonians! As one can imagine, we're pretty beat.
We're on our way this morning to visit Colonial Williamsburg and witness even more of our nation's history. After a three-day stop there, we'll be with Katelyn's family in North Carolina for Thanksgiving, because there's no place like (a) home for the holidays. I can hardly believe Christmas is practically right around the corner.
And with the advent of Christmas comes the advent of the end of our adventure. We have little more than three weeks or so left. We've both done a lot of talking in the past few days about how odd it will be to have to go back to the "real" world and be responisble adults again. It's not something we're looking forward to, but as they say, all good things must come to an end. At least we can be satisfied that we were able to make this good thing last as long as we did.
Plus, I'm very excited to get back and start editing this film. I can't wait to see how it all fits together! I can't forget that after the traveling is done, the hardest part of the work is still ahead.
Have a great day everyone!
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