Young Master Jay Takes on the World

Ever since he was quite young (perhaps 12 or so?), my nephew Jay has had a passion for urban planning. That alone has made me very proud. Any time questions arise about career paths not taken, urban planning is always the first thing I think of. So in a way I feel like Jay is representing a part of me out there in the world.

Last weekend, he got his BA in Urban and Regional Planning from Cornell. He's headed for a temporary position with an urban planning think tank, and from there, who knows? I'm 40 now, and pretty settled, so it's kind of exciting to think about the wide open possibilities Jay has right now.

Here's the graduate, along with his proud parents Kathy and Mark. Mark said he wanted his screen name to be Zorro, but unfortunately I cannot honor his request.



A bunch of family traveled to Ithaca for the festivities. Besides seeing family, T and I also got to hike a gorge, have some delicious soondubu and stay in a real dorm room (which kind of made we wish I could decorate my dorm room all over again). It also took us two days to get home, but that is another, less celebratory story.

Here's our dorm room, which we had an irresistible impulse to mess up, just like real college students:


Below is the dresser from Jay's childhood bedroom. They may be hard to see without clicking on the photo, but mixed in are some SF anti-gentrification stickers collected during his visits, as well as Catalunya per la pau sticker from a very memorable anti-war protest we attended in Barcelona.


Here's me, in the middle of a gorge.

A Town Named Jim Thorpe

Where does this photo look like it's from? Off the top of my head, I'd say Brooklyn, or Chicago. But in fact, it was taken in a tiny town named Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, population 4,804. It captivated my imagination when I first visted a couple years ago with my sister Kathy, on my way to visit my nephew Jay in Ithaca. On the way to Jay's graduation, I just had to check it out again.

Here are the reasons it's such a very odd place:

1) The town, built with coal mining wealth and the seat of Carbon County, was originally named Mauch Chunk, certainly one of the weirder names for a town I've ever heard. In the 1950s, the town, down on its luck and desperate for publicity, was renamed for legendary Native American athlete Jim Thorpe--who had recently died (a broken down wreck, of lip cancer) and had never set foot in the town in his life. He's now buried there.


2) Jim Thorpe is one of the denser towns I've visited in my life. Its tightly packed homes, many of them victorians, line streets terraced on a steep hillside. Stone walls and mysterious staircases abound. It feels like a swatch of European city, complete with an opera house, has been plunked down in the Pennsylvania mountains.


Jim Thorpe was created by mining, one of the more rapacious activities known to man. Some of the Mollie Maguires were hanged at the courthouse. The Mollie Maguires movie was filmed here too. But now it's full of mountain bikers and daytrippers. There's a small tattoo shop, and lots of old ladies sitting on porches.

Below, T poses with some mining equipment.


One of the town's many large and impressive mansions.

Extremely Cute Bicycles

When I lived in the Midwest, I used to ride a bike all the time. I still have wonderful memories of riding through dead-quiet summer streets, full of brick houses with porches, when I lived in Columbus.

But since moving here, I just don't like riding all that much. It's just too fast-paced for me, too hilly, and I'm basically too afraid of being hit by a car. So my bicycle is gathering dust on a hook in our building's storage area while all of my more adventuresome friends enjoy riding in Critical Mass, saving fossil fuels, and putting One Less Car stickers on their bicycles.

I'm very impressed, however, by a project the city is considering--perhaps impressed enough to consider being a part of it. Basically, it sounds like they might have clumps of bicycles around the city that people can take on short trips. They can explain better than I can:

The City may require the selected contractor to implement a bicycle-sharing program to make bicycles available at key transit stops through a pre-paid option similar to car-sharing business models. Bicycle-sharing stations could be incorporated into a transit shelter design—provided they did not impede access for persons with disabilities and other patrons—or they could be free-standing. The initial phase of the Program may include 10-20 pre-paid bicycle sharing stations throughout the City, at locations to be identified by the SFMTA.

I like the idea of being able to use a bike briefly without lugging it around all day and worrying about it. I have enough trouble just remembering my lunch.

And right now, the city is asking for feedback about the bicycles they are considering buying. You can see them here, and vote for your favorite. Here's mine:

An anti-wedding? Or not?

I went to one of the best weddings I've been to in a long, long time yesterday. It was a very fun potluck picnic on Angel Island. Actually, I go to very few weddings, so it's not really fair to say that, since I haven't actually been to a wedding since last summer's very fun wedding.

But at any rate, Adrienne and Fahr are moving to Egypt. Adrienne's got an amazing professorship lined up in Cairo, so they've gotten rid of their worldly possessions and are taking massive Arabic lessons.

I guess marriage and all of its benefits kind of needed to be part of the deal for a bunch of logistical reasons. But really...isn't it obvious that Fahr shares the same brilliantly skeptical worldview as Adrienne, and is therefore excellent mate material for her? At any rate, it was billed as an anti-wedding, and there was even a pinata labeled The Institution of Marriage.

But I'm kind of suspicious, I must say. Let me go down the list of common wedding elements:

Feast. check.
Cake: check.
Special dress: check.
Interesting place, preferably a little hard to get to: check.
Special invitations, followed by logistical emails: check
Friends and family: check.
Ceremony: check
Kiss: check
Legal documents: check
etc.

Hmmm....

I also wondered...why haven't I visited Angel Island, after living here in San Francisco for at least fifteen years? Since it's truly paradise on earth (and warmer than San Francisco), I must be deranged. Thanks Adrienne and Fahr for helping me see that.

Thanks to Kim, for the photo I stole from her blog.

Hey, I started a blog!

After watching friends like Mati, Kim, Sarah and Chris blog so admirably, I thought...why not me? I have many random observations to share. I can take a photo or two. I'm definitely as opinionated as the next person.

And I have to admit it. Sure, the blogosphere abounds with intelligent content (repeated 1,000,000 times, but who's counting?) But what I most enjoy is just reading about what people are up to, especially people I know.

Why the title Waiting for a Train, you ask? Well, I've always loved the song by Jimmie Rodgers--the lyrics are about a hobo who tries to hop a train, but has no cash to bribe the brakeman, and ends up sleeping alone under the stars. It also reminds me of being a city dweller, and waiting for a million MUNI and BART trains, and somehow enjoying it each time, just being a part of it all.

So me, Jimmie, and the J Church welcome you to my blog!