days over the james

well, how to describe the last two days in richmond: awesome.

muna left, which isnt the awesome part, the awesome part is that her housemates invited me to stay in the house even though she wouldnt be here. i am staying in muna's room while she is gone, back to the loft when she returns. she left on wednesday, and after that i went and finished the book i had been reading for way too long.

then i got in touch with my friend jlaw here and we hung out for a short bit. it was nice to see her, her birthday is this weekend and i am glad to be here to celebrate it. she had to go to the gym for a bit and i wanted to come back to the house and take a shower (how glorious is it to have a shower at the ready? super glorious.) when i got back brie was here and asked if i wanted to take a walk with her and the dog.

hey! its me!

i didnt feel like i could say no. mostly because i am now her houseguest and needed to get to know her better, so that we all feel comfortable with me being here. but, also, i wanted to walk the dog with her. mostly because i wanted to be friends with her 10 years ago, i wanted to see if that wouldve been a good decision. (not that either of us are the same people we were 10 years ago, i mean, every single cell in our bodies is new since then, clearly not the same people.)

so, we went out. and she is a talker. which is good, i generally like talkers, if only because it means that i dont have to talk as much. oftentimes i feel dumb with the things i say, but i probably shouldnt. anyway, we talked about her family and families in general, and about who we were 10 years ago. it was really nice to just be thrown in with someone like this. it might make a good reality show to reconnect someone with a person that they wanted to know 10 years ago, but didnt and see what happens when they are under pressure to get to know one another.

maybe it wouldnt. whatever. when we got back from walking the dog i wanted to go meet up with jlaw before she and her crew went to the gogol bordello show. but by that time it was already too late. they were leaving soon and i didnt want to go over there, watch them leave and then go find something to do myself. so i went to the store, bought some beer and an apple. then i went to a park overlooking the river and some industrial places. i drank beer and made some phone calls.

the order of my calls was this: steve, alex, emily, my dad. none of the first three answered, but my dad did. and i hadnt talked to him in awhile so all was good. i told him and bobbie about seeing pete in brooklyn and the things he had said about them. i then my dad and i talked more and more about things. i dont generally ahve long phone conversations, 10 minutes is a long phone conversation for me. but my dad and i talked for about a half hour. it was good.

he did offer me money, which i declined. i dont really need it right now, when i do i will consider his offer. when we got off the phone i was feeling good. i was happy, and i was getting a little bit drunk. but mostly, i liked the place i was at and had a positive conversation with my dad who i dont see as often as i would like too and i wanted to talk more.

i wavered about who to call and i was about to call my old friend focus. we havent really been friends for a number of years, but when we were, we were real good friends. i was eeling sad about losing that friend...but, luckily, steve texted me and i called him back. then we proceeded to have a nice conversation. i talked to him about wanting to call focus and about my realtionship with her and our history.

its funny, because focus actually met steve first and he introduced us, but for some reason she and i hit if off on our own. then we talkeda bout his relationship and babies and richmond and other things, but he had to leave where he was. so he said he would call me back later. i obliged. in the downtime, i walked back to my truck to get more beers and called my friend arturo. he and i talked for a bit, but i let him go when steve called back.

and this time, i remembered what i wanted to talk to him about: his dad. his dad died a number of years ago and the two of them were at odds with one another when it happened. having just talked to my dad and feeling good about the relationship he and i have, i wanted to know how often steve thought about his dad and how much of his dad he sees in himself. heavier stuff, i have never really talked to him about his dad since he died.

it was a good conversation. but my phone died while we were still having it and i decided to call it a night. i walked back to the house and into munas room. i used the internet for awhile and then went to bed. a good day.

sarah

and then the next day happened. this was a day that i was looking forward too, but also nervous about. my third day in rva and i am already fielding guests. see, when i went to boston i had planned to meet up with my friend sarah. i probably need to explain her a bit. she and i met that fateful summer of 2004 while i was on some wild travel/protest spree. i had gotten up to boston, and found my friend adam.

he took me to the lucy parsons center where we spent some time. (this next part *may* be made up) sarah was volunteering there at the time. i fancied her, but i have always been terrified to speak to women that i dont know and have some kind of interest in. i told as much to adam, and he went and chatted her up. thats why adam is a good friend/counterpart for me. he has no fear for initiating things and i have no fear for following things through to the end (i said that some of this may be made up!)

so they chatted and he got her number or something and she came over to the house we were staying at. he had interest in her as well, but once he introduced me to her, i thought she was awesome and wanted to spend as much time with her as possible. awesome, not just cute, but an amazing sense of adventure and overall hilarious. we started hanging out more and after the dnc, when the march was leaving i asked her to come along. she did.

but not for the whole thing, she came for like the first week and then visited for another week or so later on. but we hit it off, when she was there we spent most of our time together. we slept in the same tent or whatever sleeping arrangement there was. we never made out or anything, there was no way i would initiate such a thing because of the quarters we were in and how much i liked her as a person. so we were just friends.

the only time i seriously considered making a move was when the march was staying in the basement of a masonic lodge. why we were there? i have no idea, but we had a good day riding tricycles around the parking lot and eating cake, basically just having fun anyway we could. at night we went into the lodge itself. we were strictly forbidden from this, but that was adventure. she ended up taking off all of her clothes and sitting in the high mason's chair (or whatever it is called) a silent protest. after these adventures i considered trying to take things a step further, but i didnt initiate anything.

she came down to nyc for the rnc and we spent alot of time together there. she hung out with me after i had gotten bit by a spider and kept me sane. or kept me crazy, however you want to look at it. after new york i wouldnt see her again. back in portalnd i asked her to come visit me there (but this was also the time i was talking with anna the snitch and was also asking her to come visit me in pdx). she never did.

but we did exchange letters and packages in the mail for awhile. in 2007-ish, after anna the snitch had happened and while my life was unraveling before me i sent her a heartfelt message, that was probably too thick. of the two ladies i was sweet on that summer she wasnt the snitch and i wanted to let her know that i appreciated that. we hadnt talked to one another since i sent that letter, until this trip.

so on this trip we got in touch and i wanted to see her again, we made plans for boston but she left for florida a few days before i got there. we agreed to make an attempt at meeting each other somewhere on her way back up. that somewhere, thankfully, turned out to be rva. to be yesterday. she called me in the late morning and i drove to where she was. she was with her partner, brandon, and her dog, fern.

we met, and hugged, introduced around and then went back to our vehicles and drove away. and that was that. KIDDING! they were hungry and i told them of this great place i knew of in the city, cafe 821. so we drove closer to there and then walked around to the cafe. i gave what history i knew of this place, we talked about now and life and such. it was a little awkward, but it was also nice.

we ate some brunch and then went back to the trucks to get the dog. from there, i continued my tour and took them to belle isle. i hadnt been there yet on this trip and wanted to go, it would be awesome for everyone. so we went there and walked around the island for two hours maybe. it was nice, the river and trees were beautiful, there were things to do and really, it was just how i wanted our meeting to be. an adventure, because that was how it was before. and i am hanging on to all the bits of the past i can so one day i can recreate it and live there. (again, kidding.)

one of the two buildings

eventually we made it to the power plant on the island. this is like the crowning jewel of the place. the power plant is well defunct, but the walls still exist and you can get inside of it very easily. we walked along a wall of the plant until we came to the entrance and then went through a small tunnel to get into the compound. we explored in there for awhile and took pictures. it is a really awesome place.

after that we rounded up and finished our tour around the island and back toward the cars. we spent maybe 5 hours together. it wasnt enough, but it was something. and it was fun. after they left i was a bit sad. i didnt have anything else to do, so i went to some memorial statue near the lucky strike factory and read my book for a while. later i went back to the house and just sat there awhile before going to bed. it was a good day.

this morning i didnt want to get up - at all. i am sleeping in a room, in a bed, there is a shower and a toilet right here. there is internet and a cat. why would anyone ever leave a heaven like this? but i had to get up, i am unsure why i had too, but i knew i did. i went upstairs and made a couple of eggs for breakfast. shortly after i finished up i was surprised by r.j. coming out of the bathroom. i had thought i was alone in the house, but r.j. has friday off.

so the two of us chatted for awhile, and that was nice. all of the people in this house are nice, it must be some kind of paradox. my plan for the day was to learn as much about the civil war and the confederacy as possible. growing up northern, i knew that the civil war existed and who a few of the major players were and a few of the major sites. but now that i am in the south, it isnt just history, it is the history of this place, so i figured there would be alot of things that i could learn here that i couldnt learn as easily elsewhere - unless that elsewhere were wikipedia.

i went to the capitol building. i figured that would be a good place to start, tonnes of information, a free tour, and the ability to interact and ask questions. i found the capitol grounds and went up to the building, but the door i came to said that it wasnt an entrance. there was a sign to the visitor entrance and i followed it around the building. the signs seemed to say to walk around and around the building, eventually you will bore a hole into the ground and gain entry.

so i followed some school kids. they led me to the entrance which was at the bottom of the hill, about 100 yards or so from the building. i went into this entrance and through a metal detector, towards where the tour was just now starting. i learned that the entrance is where it is because a couple of years ago they "expanded" the capitol. but, instead of going out they went down. they dug under the building and into the hill it was on to create a few subfloors and thats where i was.

i learned a great deal about the building, richmond, and its history on the tour, it was very informative. BUT! the whole civil war thing was glossed over. many of the busts in the building were civil war era and civil war "heroes" from virginia. i asked some questions about the civil war, but i didnt get very much information from the guy. the state of virginia has birthed more us presidents than any other state, though. 8 of them! also, i had kind of forgotten/never really knew about the revolutionary war. that was here too.

so i learned about that and the guy that said "give me liberty or give me death," his name was patrick henry. after the tour i walked around the building more and then shortly after i got outside muna called me. we chatted for awhile and then i went to the visitors center to get a map and some info for free places to visit. i was directed towards the civil war history museum down at the old tradegar iron works. also, right where we were yesterday for belle isle.

industry

i went there and walked around the grounds looking at this awesome old rusting iron mill equipment, the waterwheels and turbines and canals, all so fascinating. inside i looked through some maps of battle sites and other things, then watched a movie about richmond and te civil war. upon leaving i looked to the guest book. the staff had typed and printed answers to the question "what do you think the civil war was about?"

i read through a few pages of peoples answers. i was surprised by how much hate was in them and how bitterly the civil war is still being fought by some people. muna thinks that having obama elected is a sign that the civil war is over (not that she agrees with him as a person, we are talking the politics of race in the united states.) i can see the point and really dont have any choice but to agree. but richmond will always be the capitol of the confederacy.

after that i walked over to brown island. there was a pier i wanted to get out on and see the river from. it was a really nice view from there and i stood there for a long time, taking in the breeze, belle isle, the rocks and the rapids. i looked the other direction and saw the pilings for a bridge that was destroyed when the confederacy fled richmond (and burnt much of the city.) i just saw a bunch of history and it was overwhelming.

i kept on. i walked around this small island, the island is made of the james on one side and a canal on the other, and found some steps behind a construction site. i was tired from all the walking but i took these steps down. they led to a path under a railroad bridge with the james on one side (sometimes both) and a small patch of land with a tall retaining wall on the other. where the river was far from the wall there were people living.

there were clotheslines and tarps, tents and belongings, like a little city within a city. it was nice. i kept on walking and eventually came upon the "pipeline walkway." which was a pipeline of some sort that had been cemented over. you could walk on the pipeline to continue on the path. there were signs recommending that you do not attempt to walk on the pipeline if the river is over it. it wasnt, so i went.

the pipeline walkway

it was awesome. after awhile it turned to like a gangway. all metal walkway with rails on either side and very narrow. it went for a couple hundred yards and i loved every moment of it. on the other side was another railroad bridge that went over the james and then a bridge for cars and pedestrians. i thought about walking over the rail bridge, but there were a bunch of signs warning of prosecution and i decided against it.

i went down to the pipeline walkway. i started walking along it again and then i hear this incredible loud music coming from an island in the middle of the river under the railroad bridge. i listened and looked to try to find where it was coming from and why it was coming from there. i couldnt discern anything. after some contemplation i decided to go back and go across the railroad bridge, despite the signs, and discover the source.

so i walked/ran across the bridge and as i got nearer the music i could see a ladder from the bridge down to the island and some bikes on the bridge. i though it would be some kids with a stereo or something but what i found was so much better. it was a couple of homeless folks that lived there, they had a generator and a semi-permanent dwelling and were partying under the bridge! i wanted to go and join them but they looked at me apprehensively as if i were a cop or something.

so i left after a minute, but with a large smile on my face. i felt better just knowing that they were there. i went back to my truck and decided i would come back to the house to write. shortly after i got here, however, i was accosted by brie. she wanted to share some beer that she had gotten (from a local brewery) and have a cigarette. i obliged. after that she invited me up to dinner with them and that was so nice.

i talked about my day and some other things while we had fake-meatball sandwiches with tater tots and some boiled cabbage. it was a good dinner. it is so nice that they have invited me in so completely and are so nice to me. after dinner brie left for a movie with her friend and r.j. and i talked while we put away dishes. it was nice, i told him about my life, how it fell apart and why i am on this trip and such. talking to people is such a good thing.

even if it is terrifying.