Team Meagan's Law

Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. We're leaving tomorrow! I already have my car here in the city. I've spent a few hours today packing and I have almost everything together. I'm a very quick packer. I never understood it when my friends would tell me they'd spent all day and night packing for a trip. I make decisions and stick to them, I guess.

I bought a knife today at Paragon. It's not for cutting twine or sticks or anything like that, though. See, I bought a bunch of oranges for the road (don't want us to get scurvy or nothin'!) and shortly afterward, I got this image of me trying to peel the navel oranges, getting all the rind underneath my fingernails, and it taking about an hour. I realized a knife would make things so much easier. I told the knife salesman as much. As he rang me up he said, "Alright, enjoy your orange cutter." It's OK, I laugh at me, too.

Anyway, I want to use this time before I leave to give everyone a rundown on who Troy is, and why we are going on this trip. It all started back in May. My friend Jenny and I went on a weekend trip to Washington, DC to visit some friends and see the city. At a friend of a friend's BBQ in Virginia one night, we met Troy. We got to talking, and it turned out he was a huge Kerouac fan, AS WELL AS a huge Daniel Johnston fan. I consider Kerouac and Johnston to be the most influential artists in my life. They've essentially made me a part of who I am. Needless to say, we hit it off. He came out to the DC bars with us, played pool with us, and Team Meagan's Law was born.

But I wouldn't exactly call Troy and I strangers. He came to NY a few weeks after I was in DC and we hung out and spent the entire night sitting on the floor in my apartment, talking about music and I guess some other things. Mostly music, though. Then we sat on my couch while he flipped through Leaves of Grass and I read some letter Neal Cassidy wrote. Then we switched. I knew from then on, we'd be friends for awhile.

We exchanged entertaining emails back and forth after that. He asked me if I wanted to travel to South America with him some time in the fall. I replied that I would, but only if we could get involved with some rebel force and be chased by corrupt policemen with guns. He thought that was a great idea! And then, the time arose that I was ready to get away from my desk job. I told Troy that if he wanted to, he should come with me on a trip through America. He agreed. And here we are today. It's finally, actually happening.