The Secret Door

Artist Dates made easy.

One of the main tools of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way is the Artist Date, where you take your inner artist on a weekly excursion to spark your imagination. It is, for me, and I think for other people, the most easily overlooked and often skipped of all the components of the 12-week journey back to creativity.

Now, however, for the armchair traveler in all of us, there is The Secret Door.

Using Google Maps street view, a company in the U.K. (selling windows and doors, of course) has built a website that takes you on a random visual excursion all over the world. You won’t always know where you are, but the images are extraordinary.

So, go ahead.

Step through the Secret Door.

The Secret Door is presented by Safestyle UK

Everything is a learning experience…

Tuesday’s Travel Tips

I thought I was late with today’s post, but it turns out it’s only Monday as I’m writing this. Not Tuesday, as I thought. (Although it is Tuesday as you are reading it. Or possibly Wednesday. [Still having trouble with that email feed being a day late. Going to fix it soon, though. I hope.])

Chalk my confusion up to an entire Sunday spent zig-zagging up and down the east coast, trying to get back from Maine, eight solid hours of which were spent just sitting in airports.

(So the first of this Tuesday’s tips is “Don’t do that.”)

And then there was a tropical storm and a late night drive home through a deluge.

I slept in this morning.

Then I had to/wanted to email everybody involved in the Northern Writes New Works Festival to thank them for all their hard work and talent and for including me and my play.

But now I am able to turn my attention to other things, and–aha!–I remember I have a blog post to do!

It seems like the best thing I can do is tell you a little bit about what I learned on my recent travels.

The Kia Soul is not a bad little car! And that weird lime green means you won’t lose it in a parking lot. (If you can find one in Maine.) Thanks, Avis!
It’s kind of a good idea to bring an empty plastic water bottle to the airport. It weighs nothing, you have no problem with security, because it’s empty–and then you can fill it with water at a water fountain inside. You stay hydrated without spending a fortune on airport beverages.
Speaking of airport food. . .if you happen to be at Reagan International and decide to buy a burger at Five Guys, be aware that a burger to them is actually two burgers on one bun. If you want a normal burger, you have to order a Little Hamburger. (Maybe it’s like that at all Five Guys. I don’t know. I don’t eat there much, but I ended up with more than I wanted to eat this time.)
My best travel accessory is my jacket with all the pockets! So easy to slip the mp3 player in one, the Kindle in another, the ID in a third and so on. Plus, it keeps you warm. (See tip # 5.) I may even bring my fishing vest next time, although that wouldn’t help with the warmth issue.
The row immediately behind the emergency exit row is kind of cold. There’s a little gap and a big draft around that exit panel, and it’s freezing at 30,000 feet.
Row 4 on the US Airways shuttle from DC to La Guardia has extra leg room–but you’ve got to stow all your carry-on stuff (including your laptop) in the overhead bin for take-off and landing.
Hoot Suiteis great for keeping you connected to social media when you can’t find a free WiFi connection for your laptop. It works well even on a tiny Blackberry!and, the most important travel tip of all…
Try to hang on to your sense of humor.

Anybody else got any good travel tips? Comments welcome!

Touchdown!

Today’s Monday Miracle is that I am back home in Florida.

(At least, I hope so. This post was written ahead of time–so I wouldn’t forget. But unless you’ve heard of something unmentionable involving airplanes yesterday, it’s a pretty safe bet.)

And thank goodness.

Because I have a hard time believing in air travel.

And it is disconcerting to participate in something that seems so unlikely.

I mean, have you ever seen an airplane?!

Usually, I don’t really look at the airplanes I’m boarding. I walk down an enclosed jetway through a portal and sit down in a seat inside a tube (sort of). But when you travel to and from Maine, you get to be bussed across the tarmac, hand your rollaboard over to a guy with a cart (because even the carry-on won’t fit on the plane), and climb a set of stairs with the airplane attached.

Large as life and twice as natural.

Now, a plane to Maine is small. But it’s bigger than anything I know how to get up into the air.

So it seems unlikely that air travel is actually possible.

But it must be. Because here I am. Back home in Florida, when yesterday I was in Maine.

Whew!

Oops!

Sorry Sunday

Traveling today!

Not enough thinking ahead!

No substantive blog post. Ooops.

Use this time to write something of your own!

Summer Days

Friday Finds

Here’s a little known secret!

(Actually, it is probably well known to everybody, but I now have first hand knowledge.)

Maine might be a great place to spend the summer.

Now, I admit my acquaintance with the great state of Maine is only 5 days old, but I left 90 degree weather and 90% humidity back in Florida, and it might get up to 87 today here in Maine. I’m not sure they know what humidity is.

It’s absolutely beautiful, and it’s June. (It is, in fact, the kind of day June brides dream about.)

I’m thinking I may have to come back here some time without the all-absorbing obligations of play festivals.

It could be good.

We interrupt this broadcast…

Monday Miracles

I like that. “Monday Miracles.” That may become a regular feature of the blog.

But, I digress.

Which is kind of the point.

We were following a train of thought about writing, originality and finding your voice. And, I do have more to say on that subject.

But we interrupt this broadcast to take a detour into the Monday Miracle.

Today, even as this posts, I am on my way to Bangor, Maine where my play, currently titled Angels and Ministers of Grace Defend Us (and not to be forever so titled at the insistent urging of various producer friends who surely know what they are talking about) is going to be read three times (THREE!!!) during the Penobscot Theatre’s Northern Writes New Works Festival.

How’s that for a Monday Miracle!?

I’ll try to post updates on the Festival and the play and how things are going.

Never been to Maine.
But I kinda like the music

No, wait! That’s a different song.

The point is that I’ve never been to Maine. I’ve never been to this hotel. Internet access may be spotty. If I don’t manage to post for a week, please rejoin me here on Monday, June 25th, when we return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Elaine Smith Writes