I love taking trains.
I love hotels.
I love packing a suitcase or messenger bag.
Travel.
Today I will cross the Hudson and travel to that land of ode known as New Jersey (not to be corn-fused with Old Jersey, mind you).
I woke up with the excitement one can akin to That Last Day of School Feeling.
Summer began on Sunday and I spent it onstage with my new band Pollen rocking out, sweating, drinking coffee and celebarting Annu's birthday, all rolled up into one humid afternoon.
Today I am learning a new song that we will debut tonight.
Drinking coffee from New Orleans which I can finally taste again.
It's supposed to be hot and sunny all the live long day.
I plan to slather myself in some terribly excessive sunscreen and brown like a rotisserie chicken guilt free between load-in, soundcheck and the actual gig.
But this isn't about the gig.
It's about waking up before my two alarms went off.
It's about walking down to the street and watching kids go to school and that ease of relief across the forehead of their teachers as they wink and nod to each other, counting the days.
It's about my friend's son getting dropped off at Six Flags to spend a day of freedom wilding out with his friends.
I've been invited to go be with the trees and I can't get away this week but I am going.
Soon.
I still remember the tree friends I made in Paris in March.
I can't wait to see them again, even though it will be on film the next time.
Sometimes I forget that I used to live in New Jersey.
Twice.
Walking to the river's edge and throwing rocks, looking at Manhattan at night.
No place for a young girl alone but no one cared about nature then.
Everyone was trying to get to the clubs.
It wasn't very romantic, the lack of shore was disheveled and sparse.
Even the park was empty.
I don't think I kept a journal that Summer but I really wish I had.
So many new things came into my life
Grey sharkskin suits, putting eyeliner on boys, dancing on speakers
P.I.L.
Riding the Staten Island Ferry
Taking the PATH Train and then walking EVERYWHERE instead of taking the bus or subway
It never occured to me to get a bicycle back then.
Brooklyn seemed like a fortress.
Intimidating and dangerous (which it was to some degree).
In New Jersey I heard so many languages all around me - I got lost in it - it was like being in another country.
Once we came out of the tunnel on the Manhattan side it was like stepping forward in time.
I co-existed between the two.
Once I took a bus to the city and I'll never forget how different it looked - like I was coming from someplace really far away instead of 3 or 6 subway stops.
Two Summers ago I went through a sudden break-up and found solace in IKEA
not for the shopping (although the shopping was good)
but for the TRIP
getting into Port Authourity
getting on the bus
watching Manhattan grow smaller behind me
I would pretend the cliffs of New Jersey were the white cliffs of Dover
I could SMELL England sometimes
look at that highway! We could be ANYWHERE in Europe right now
I could have sworn I saw an Autostrada rest point
and bringing something new back to my apartment, no matter how small
would replace the old energy
would show promise of the new
of the future
I'm not going to see you for three months
well, maybe we can meet at the pool
ride our bikes to the lake and pretend we know how to play tennis
it's all lemonade and potato salad at the end of the day
let's lie on the roof and pretend we're at the beach
because going to the actual beach requires HELLA effort
In Old Jersey I saw a path
almost a portal if you will
my first chance to step back and take it all in
I am curious to see what this New Jersey is about