Tweeting my Twip

After a tough decision and something of a closing of a chapter of my life last week, I decided it was as good a time as any to take a little trip away from Harrisburg to clear my head and recharge my batteries…along with my outlook and attitude about where exactly I am at this point in life…and with the hopes that when I return sometime later this week, things will look a little different.

They always do, right?

I’ve lived in Harrisburg for seven years now.

Which is just about five and a half years longer than the longest amount of time I spent in any one city prior to my landing in the Midstate.

But due to the way the cards landed, I found myself firmly planted in Central Pennsylvania- like it or not..seemingly til’ death do us part.

Every so often, I like to pack a bag, pick a direction and venture out for a few days.

And this time, my trip is going like this: Saturday in Jersey overnight for Mothers Day with the fam- which consisted of eating the weight of a horse in pasta, napping and eating again.

The plan was to spend today tripping around New York City- which would have been nice had the rain and wind not arrived last night.

So for now, I’m just hangin’ out at my folks. Think I’m gonna drive my kid sister to work later today and maybe get some dinner with old friends tonight-

But tomorrow morning is where the real fun begins- I get back on an Amtrack at around 8AM bound for Providence, Rhode Island- get in around noon and spend the day hanging around that city- and venturing about thirty miles south to a town called Narragansett to catch Toubab Krewe at a place called The Wheelhouse Tavern. 

It’s one of those bare-bones sort of trips. I’ve got everything I need and a completely open schedule for the next ninety six hours or so.

Backpack with my laptop, couple clean tee shirts, socks and drawers, a hoodie, my iPod, cell phone, a few packs of smokes and a couple hundred bucks.

And the best part- I’m doing this whole jaunt via public transportation.

Amtrack from Harrisburg to Newark, then Newark to Providence and back to Harrisburg is a paltry hundred and fifty five bucks.

So in addition to not shelling out almost four bucks a gallon on a trip that would easily require three fill ups, I get to kick back with my thoughts and my music- on a refreshing journey which I rarely get to take.

So, updates will be sparse this week. I’ve been Tweeting much of my journey thus far- and will probably continue to do so.

VIDEO: Harrisburg Parking Authority Votes on Parking Garage Lease

“There have not been ANY negotiations between AFSCME and HPP”

And let’s not forget about the proposed sale of the land beneath three Harrisburg parking garages not too long ago-

AND- have you ever been to a HPA meeting? Here’s basically how it works-

Josh Sack- 1986-2008

Josh Sack, prolific drummer and charismatic anchor of Philadelphia rock band The Brakes, lost his battle to Acute
Myelogenous Leukemia last Sunday, May 4.

Diagnosed last August, Josh bravely fought the cancer, even regaining his strength long enough to tour in October and drum
at rehearsals as recently as last week.

http://brakesband.com

Nightly News, Here I Come-

Watch out, Mike Parker, Alicia Richards and Dennis Owens-

(I’m totally kidding. We shot this last summer the day the closing of The Spot was announced)

Pot Smoking Dog Bites Back

I don’t want to come across all “dude, pot’s okay…everybody does it”; because I really don’t like talking about that kind of thing on my site.

But this article I just read on PennLive really seems propagandistic due to the way the situation was described.

[Readers note: this one, I assure you, is not a jab at the Patriot News. Articles like this appear in newspapers every single day all across the country and they all seem to further the whole “War on Drugs”]

Here’s the headline:

Pot-smoking man kicks family dog, police say

So it screams at the reader “A man who was smoking pot kicked the family puppy because he was smoking pot. Therefore, pot is bad and it will make you kick the family dog”

Reading on, it became apparent that this “man” who was high on pot and decided to kick the family dog wasn’t really a man. He was a nineteen year old named Justin Beck who lives with his parents.

Sure, under legal terms, he’s an adult. But nineteen year old Justin Beck lives with his parents in Camp Hill and is, more or less, just a kid.

The article went on to describe the situation at 9:30 Saturday morning on Parkside Drive: “Police said Beck’s mother told them her son had been up most of the night smoking pot and had been caught by his father in the bathroom with a large glass bong.”

It also read that Becks’ mother “confronted him and told him his cell phone privileges were being cut off”.

First off, kids don’t stay up all night smoking pot.

It simply does not happen.

Most people fall asleep shortly after smoking pot. Either that or go to the fridge, make a snack and go watch Adult Swim for several hours.

People do not stay up all night smoking pot.

And next, the kid got caught doing a bong hit in the bathroom by his Dad.

So Mom and Dad are yelling at Junior at nine-thirty on a Saturday morning about doing bong hits in the bathroom.

And then Mom takes Junior’s cell phone privileges away.

Junior gets mad, probably yells something like “I hate this house and I hate you!” because that’s what nineteen year old boys who live at home and smoke pot in their bedrooms do.

And Junior probably stormed out of his room and maybe stumbled into the dog. (Perhaps the Beck family has one of those little ankle-biter dogs like my parents have- any time you move the thing freaks out and barks incessantly?)

And then, after Junior wrestled with his Dad and Mom called the cops, they went through his room and found a cardboard box containing marijuana, pipes, baggies and papers.

So basically, the way the article reads, one would think that because Justin Beck was high on pot he kicked the family dog.

But remembering my youth as a nineteen year old living in my parent’s house in Jersey, I can say with almost certainty that Justin Beck did not kick the family dog because he was high on pot.

You see, I remember when I was nineteen, I took a trip to San Diego. I was gone for almost three weeks. And when I came home, I brought a little souvenir back from the West Coast.

I went up to my room, opened the door of my desk and, to my surprise, found that my cardboard box with bags and papers was gone! In my absence, my folks dumped my stash drawer.

I was furious! But I wasn’t so furious that I’d kick the family dog.

[Readers note: Pot or no-pot, I find those ankle-biter dogs to be quite annoying. And, although I don’t condone violence against animals, I can surely understand how one could get in the way of a moving foot]

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2008/03/potsmoking_man_kicks_family_do.html