T-minus 3 weeks...omg 4 realz?!?!

written by  Slade's Elucidation on May 29, 2008 from Austin, United States
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
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Our relationship had deteriorated to the point where we felt more like roommates then lovers; this was due to many reasons but primarily by allowing present actions to be guided by past hurt, anger, and worst of all fear. Doing this fostered an air of negativity and resentment which has no place in a loving relationship. We each know our roles in allowing this to become the norm in our relationship, and I think I can safely say we have kicked said mentalities arse. Where we chose to go from here is beautifully wide open.

The other force driving us to sell our house and get the hell outa dodge is the current state of American culture and society; sickeningly narcissistic, deluded, duped, our government routinely making a joke of democracy. Stuck in the Matrix, most Americans bump along content with their apathy so long as they feel safe. They like to think they are safe from physical harm, really they’re safe from ever waking up to the true reality that they have the capacity within them to become god and transcend this worldly bs to something much much better. People who do realize this have power, something those in ruling positions don’t care to share.

Crazy new-age left-wingest tirade over, James and I want to completely detach from this society and wash the sludge out of our brains that’s been put there by this joke of a society. That’s rather hard to do when confronted with it daily, so we’re removing ourselves from it. We hope to visit the small hamlets, ancient places of spiritual significance, and find ourselves along the way.

When we come home, the intent is to carve a niche for ourselves here, separate from but functioning in this society. To wrap ourselves up in the love of each other and the love of our friends and find away to live fulfilling lives that somehow make a difference in what comes next.

To this point, I’m calling this little blog and our trip Slade’s Elucidation.
e-lu-ci-dat: to make lucid or clear; throw light upon; explain; an interpretation that removes obstacles to understanding

~ Amanda

Many things here are coming to a close; my last day of work was last Friday and was much harder than I thought it would be. If I didn’t see you in person to say goodbye, or if communication seemed to escape me when I did see you, I was just trying not to turn into an emotional basket case ;)

yawn*

written by  Slade's Elucidation on June 11, 2008 from Austin, United States
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
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Friday night we had a going away shindig at Neal and Summer’s which was everything I could of asked for. That evening totally reinforced my belief that love is one of the most important and powerful forces we’ll ever have the pleasure to experience. Seriously…if all our world leaders just spent a night cuddling on a big squishy couch we could totally make this peace thing work.

I’m currently writing from my MIL’s in Houston, and tonight we will be holed up in a hotel by the airport so we won’t have to fight traffic to make our flight to NY in the morning.

Tomorrow we visit COSM, Chapel of the Sacred Mirrors, the gallery/community gathering space created by the artist Alex Grey and his wife. If you aren’t familiar with his work go bonk yourself on the head for missing out on something wonderful for so long and then visit this web page www.cosm.org

Tomorrow I might actually have some pictures to share…OMG!

Love yall!
Amanda

P.S. TY TY TY TY to all our friends, family, and neighbors who helped out the past week...ya'll rawk ;)

written by  Slade's Elucidation on June 17, 2008 from Houston, United States
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
tagged Houston
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When we got to our hotel, the Hotel Chelsea which has an awesome history of fostering artistic expression, we we’re told our standard room had been upgraded to a suite…SCORE. Up to the tenth floor we went with the assistance of the doorman Pete(?) who was just awesome. But not as awesome as the views of New York City from our room…sorry Pete. We quick dumped our packs, changed, and headed out so we could make the full moon ceremony at COSM. It rained on our way there…and then to make amends Mr Universe treated us with a gorgeous rainbow.

The ceremony wavered from very intense and spiritually engaging to annoying, depending on the speaker. Alex was awesome, the folks from the Biosphere who talked were awesome, and the musicians superb. Mrs. Grey unfortunately fell into the annoying category, something about rattling on asking for charity for the chapel they plan to build during what’s supposed to be a spiritual ceremony that just didn’t sit well with James and I. After the ceremony was over there was a drum and dance event, but we didn’t stay very long for that. I was feeling outa sorts, unconnected, wishing our friends were there with us to make it special so we headed back to the hotel to relax and catch some z’s.

The next day, Thursday, we took our time getting up and then caught the subway down to Ground Zero. When we got there we were greeted with a high fence surrounding the hole, and armed soldiers just hanging out. Someone please clue me in to why we need armed guards protecting a hole that’s already been bombed. We walked around the perimeter and found a few good spots that I could get some photos off from. Visiting Ground Zero was a pretty heavy event, when your that close you can just feel the weight of what happened there settling over you…the lives lost...the lies told. And let me tell you, visiting it in person only increased the desire to grab a big microphone find the nearest government official and start yelling BULLSHIT, but then there are those armed guards standing around the corner…hmm 2+2= ‘ You’re government is in control America, go back to sleep’.

We found a cool art exhibit though while wandering around that lifted my sprits. All these garments were made using renewable resources from the Brazilian Amazon, or recycled materials from Brazil. After this we grabbed some good ole’ NY street grubbed and wandered a bit more around the WTC before heading back to the Hotel and onto JFK to fly out to Ireland.

Pics to come shortly..working out this need for massive storage space and no laptop.

written by  Slade's Elucidation on June 20, 2008 from New York, United States
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
tagged NewYork, WorldTradeCenter and HotelChelsea
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We tooled around that area a bit longer and then walked to the Phoenix Park. The park is one of the if not the largest parks within a city proper in Europe. We found this awesome old tree that we played around on for awhile, I gave it a hug and a kiss because it was just that cool. I really wanted to kick my boots off and go for a climb but i didn't figure that would go over to well the the locals.There were some baby ducks in the pond below the tree bitching for mommy, it made me laugh to see her swim back from the other side when they started calling her. We spent some time laying on one of the lawns then went in search of the Military magazine that's also located in the park. On the way to it we were treated with some spectacular views of Irish flora. The magazine was pretty awesome, classical location on top of a hill with a 360 degree view. I made James run up it shouting AARRRRG just for the hell of it, I giggled...a lot. While we were there some clouds started rolling in, crazy dark clouds and then next to them clear sunny blue patches...weather in Ireland is almost as fickle as Austins aparently.

<3
Amanda

(edit) - James on to CORK!!!

written by  Slade's Elucidation on June 24, 2008 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
tagged Dublin, Ireland and Cork
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Oh something fun to note, the lap top we acquired is very much a European version. Which means the keyboard is all sorts of funky. It's like playing Russian roulette trying to figure out which weird symbol will give you a comma or @ symbol ^_^.

More pics up too, a not so cool thing about this blog site is I cant post them in the actual blog and as far as I can tell organizing them into sub folders etc isn't possible.

Oh well, I'll try to make the titles as clear as possible and use the city to track which leg of the journey they are from.

<3!
Amanda

(edit) james figured something out.

ARRRRRRGGGG

Blarney castle rocked. Somehow they’ve managed to keep it from getting too touristy. We tromped around the castle for a while, kissed the Stone, and went exploring the grounds.

The pictures do it way more justice than I could with words.

Blarney Castle

Tower at Blarney Castle

When we got to the Cliffs of Moher we we’re greeted by the cheery news that part of it was closed because someone had just jumped off the cliff…committing suicide. Setting that aside we enjoyed the amazing view even if it was a bit obscured due to the mist.

There’s a lot more to say but yeah, food and pubs a calling.

Oh by the way, James and I have been married 4 whole whopping years today. Happy Anniversary baby!

Amanda

p.s. I'll edit this with pics soon as I get a chance. probably after we head to Scotland tomorrow.

written by  Slade's Elucidation on June 29, 2008 from Galway, Ireland
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
tagged Ireland, Cork, Galway, CliffsOfMoher and BlarneyCastle
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