March 24, 2015

Amtrak Residency, Day 8

Sun! Sky! Palms! Cactuses! Waking up to this made me jump out of bed and hit my head on the bed above. So don't get too excited when you're on the train.

I was wired all day, thrilled to finally arrive in LA and see my daughter. Adventures started at breakfast. I sat with Jud and Ruth who are both almost 70 years old, both have Parkinson's and have just met. During breakfast they told me how horrible it is to be afflicted with this disease when your brain feels perfectly fine but your body stops obeying you.

March 20, 2015

Amtrak Residency, Day 5

by Ksenia Anske

The morning was crazy, and lovely, and crazy again. I don't remember how I fell asleep (face-first into THE EXORCIST on the Kindle, probably) but I do remember how I woke up. From a dog lick in the face and a frantic escape of paws scraping on the wooden floor. Then more dogs arrived. It was the dog-sitting day at my darling hosts' house, and they were: Piper, a chocolate lab (at least I think it's lab, I'm most likely wrong); Fuzz, a tawny hairy poodle; Leo, a terrier (I think); and the lady of the house Jazz (although it's short from Jasmine, so maybe it's Jas).

March 19, 2015

Amtrak Residency, Day 4

by Ksenia Anske

First I thought my feet were stuck in the mouth of a snow monster. Yes, I know, don't ask. Then I thought I somehow managed to stick a foot out of the train window, and the horror of this idea is what woke me up. No, my feet were okay, there were just very cold. I'm staying in an old haunted (it totally is haunted, just look at it) rowhouse, and the insulation is something that is of short supply here. I sat up, reeling. Then I thought, no, I'm not reeling, it's my brain. It's sloshing around in my skull after it got used to the train and its constant motion.

March 18, 2015

Amtrak Residency, Day 3

by Ksenia Anske

Sleep and trains just don't belong. Maybe they do, if you're on a trip for leisure. But if you're a writer running on adrenaline fumes, it's impossible to close your eyes. So many things are happening, so many sights are passing the windows, I kept my eyes peeled until I couldn't keep them peeled anymore. Not to mention, I was reading THE EXORCIST again, and, naturally, that only added to the excitement. This day though, upon waking, I was startled by the color.

Everything was beige.

March 18, 2015

Amtrak Residency, Day 2

by Ksenia Anske

I could live on a train. The constant swaying and creaking and vibrating and ta-tam-ta-tam staccato of the wheels have gotten under my skin. At one stop, when I got out, I missed it and started swinging involuntarily. I'm not kidding.

The first night I slept in fits, waking up at 4 a.m., then at 5:30 a.m., and at 6 a.m. Finally at 7 a.m. I gave up and started staring out the window. Snow. Miles of snow. Flat expanses of ground and rocky screes and then knolls and hills and mountains and flats again. It looked white. It looked dusty. It looked like the middle of nowhere. I learned later that we were passing Montana.