tommyrocket

over the course of the last couple days i drove a moving van full of my friend's stuff from new york to alabama. i'd been storing it in my room for a couple weeks. she'd actually left the city some months ago...

it's a rather confusing circumstance, though mixed with my penchant for nonsense and compulsion to help, it makes a bit more sense.

short version [at least of this part] a good friend of mine had to leave new york suddenly and then her father fell ill. she had to leave her stuff and couldn't afford movers. so i stepped in...

during the storage days: my room is about 10 x 7. it was a cardboard jungle. i didn't take any pictures but it was rather silly, i had things stacked higher than i am tall, and only had a penguin trail free so i could navigate to my computer and to the ladder of my loft bed.

in any event, i set out thursday morning to ride my bike to take the chinatown bus to philly; to pick up a moving van [because it was a few hundred dollars cheaper there than in new york]. of course Thursday was the windiest day I've ridden in in a while. Trashcans had blown over and garbage was all over the street. A renegade bag of garbage smacked into my back wheel at one point and i decided i should stop and pick up some of the ridiculous mess so cars could get through. When i eventually got to the chinatown busses they'd all been moved! the yelly ticket ladies are still in the same spot, though i couldn't find apex, which i normally ride, and went for new century, who freaked out when i chained my bike up in the luggage compartment. but thanks to language barriers i just continued doing what i was doing and got on the bus. none of my philly friends seemed to be awake/around for breakfast, so i got the truck and drove that back to brooklyn to load up, where my very polish landlord excitedly thanked me for the note i left explaining myself after i'd brought all the stuff in to my apartment in the first place and her husband flew into a blind rage...but still i am paying rent i can be weird if i want, right? in any event she thanked me for my note and then when she found out i'm polish and grew up catholic she decided she looooved me and started calling me "Tomic" which is apparently the polish version of Tom. Which is funny to me because it simply furthers the ridiculous amount of people who don't refer to me by my given name, which i'm totally fine with...

in any event, i packed up and started to drive.

first night i headed to DC, or more specifically, Arlington, VA where i have a few friends. My friend Shelby and his wife Linda [ you might know Shelby if you're into these bands at all: Frodus or The Cassettes ] had me meet them at this place called the Galaxy Hut, which was a pretty great little bar/restaurant and let me crash with them for the night which was great because i'd already driven quite a bit and hadn't gotten too far with my weird roundabout truck dilemma. i really like that they talk to their cat in swedish!

i got a mini tour or arlington and some solid food. the restaurant hadvegan sandwiches and a "dischord delight" which is all sprouts and whatnot, i got a vegan meatball sub instead, but was glad it was there. and swung by the dischord house which was really rad. i got myself a couple "novelty tourist items":



and an early comp on vinyl. they weren't too happy i referred to them as novelty items, but really, 4 7"s in one LP? come on! maybe novelty is the wrong word, but seriously, if i were avidly collecting, i'd go for the 7"s themselves you know? in any event, i met some cool people, and shelby left me with some amazing weird music [like tuvan throat singers] and Whitley Strieber podcasts, which are fantastic for long drives...if you enjoy being mildly paranoid and conspiracy theory...which i do apparently.

i made a pit stop at a perkins in johnson city/kingsport TN to eat dinner with my friend Christly who I'd met in Chicago. they give you A SIDE of pancakes. seriously...what the heck?! that'd be all i really need guys, k thanks. it was nice to visit for a bit, and then i headed to find a rest stop where i could camp out for a bit. i parked with some big trucks:

http://twitpic.com/1hd58

though you can't really even see me i'm in the shadows! i felt like some trucker might need my spot though so i moved to the side. it was pretty cold so i ended up opening the

Snuggie

i'd wanted to send to my sister. but it helped me not be cold and that was nice!

next morning i headed out to Atlanta to meet a friend at Octane Coffee where my friend M'Lissa used to work:



unfortunately she wasn't there anymore. she was one of my favorite new york people, and then she had to move to ATL, and now apparently is on the west coast and getting married! whoa! awesome!

in any event i left her a drawing of a puffin in a space ship that one of her friends said he could give to her, and met up with my friend San for coffee and foods. which was fun! i had only talked to her on the internets before about bikes, cartoons and pee wee herman so it was awesome to hang out.

then i headed to birmingham...

which is where i am now! and i've spent the last few days watching alien movies on a big screen tv in surround sound, eating ice cream with dinosaur sprinkles. and half price valentines day chocolate. and now that i'm done writing this big ramble i'll probably start doing some real animation work too!

in any event that's what i've been up to this last bit...i might make some more back log posts and i've been considering looking through tour dates from last year and drawing/making a travel log of past events. we shall see.

:: smo ::