New Years 2004

[Editor's Note: this is an edited version, from when I first put this year in 2004].
For New Years 2004 I did a very daring thing: I went out west to Michigan, to see Miki, Duc, and their friend Bryan! In a car. Yeah. It was one of those impulsive things. Well, it took 14 hours, a lot of filling up the car, a lot of coffee, a trip through Canada where I SWEAR a certain Canadian has put a curse on me, driving through a blizzard where one of my eyes burned so much from my contacts I could barely see, and avoiding some crazy men at truck stops... But I made it. Yes, I made it. I love Michigan. I swear, I was never so happy to see American soil. Anyway, we did weird things, like we watched Night of the Strangler and Linda Lovelace For President, we went to a haunted house, we went to Red Lobster [okay, that's not that weird], I got to go through old sixties magazines, and they dressed me up like a Monkee [they also took me out in public, dressed like a Monkee]. Yeah, not your usual New Years event. I now have a new love for Micky Dolenz. [Editor's note: I actually wrote this, in January of 2004. WHAT was I thinking??? ;)] Michigan is SO different than Connecticut, and Miki and Duc are SO different than most of the zombies I see in my everyday life, so this was a really amazing experience. I saw the most incredible things, but either because my eyes were burning and I was driving, because I was so dumbfounded and in awe of what I was doing, because I was trying to keep it secret [which would make sense, then, putting it on a website], or because it was too dark... I couldn't photograph most of it. But here is what I have.
It was very, very cold. But somehow I could barely feel it. Looking back on it though, it all seems like destiny.

Yeah, I have this thing for watching Monkees In Texas in January, because that was when I first got it, days before I went to Michael's booksigning tour in 1999. So it makes me happy. Besides, this picture of Mike is really hot. Man, if I must look like him, this look here is really hot. I always wanted cousin Lucy's clothes too, because Mike thought she was hot. ;) And, wait-- isn't that incestual? Anyway. I was watching this before I decided to impulsively leave for Michigan, but looking back on it, it's very appropriate that I watched it before I left, because the beginning of the episode Mike drives the Monkees all the way out to Texas, and I I drove myself all the way out to Michigan. I also took THIS before I left, apparently as well. I must have paused it to get up and leave the room, and decided to photograph this beautiful image. The blue is very pretty. Micky was always "the one Monkee I don't understand", but I began to feel open to him recently. [Editor's Note: OMG, I acutally wrote this in 2004 too. Sorry!] Micky, though, is Miki and Duc's "favorite" Monkee, so to speak, if you were to say that we have "favorites". When I was very, very yound I would go up to upper state New York with my family... I loved it there. It seemed so right I would keep going to Michigan.

Yeah, this was one of the truck stops. Pretty, isn't it? Very romantic lighting. There was this bus driver hitting on me there who looked a lot like a member of Peter's band. Yeah, I had to leave then. Everything was truly mesmorizing to look at though, and very exciting, but it was night anyway, so I couldn't take the pictures. It was very exciting to be driving at night. Especially when it's been hours and hours and you've started hallucinating, and you've stopped beliving in Buffalo, NY, and by the time you reach Canada your right eye is burning from your contacts, and you've bitten your mouth three times, and you're so tired you're afraid you will die, and you believe your pain and suffering is from the curse of a strange Canadian woman, and by the time you get to Michigan you're conveying this to people you've never met before, at 8 in the morning... See, fun. ... Me looking like an idiot. Dressed as a Monkee. This is after I had showered, and slept, but still, I am dressed like a Monkee. This is allegedly an original shirt worn by Michael or Davy or someone, and part of their collection which they have from Gene Ashman. While dressed as a Monkee, I indulged in all of Miki and Duc's sixties magazines and basically went into a hypnotic trance where I no longer believed I was in Michigan anymore. I wore Micky Dolenz's pants. I can't believe I wore Micky Dolenz's pants. Ew, ew, ew... [Editor's Note: OOHHHHH MMYYYY GOOOODDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!] THEN, they took me into liquor stores with them wearing the blue double-breasted shirt, a wool hat, and Micky Dolenz's pants. [Editor's Note: OOHHHHH MMYYYY GOOOODDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!] For this reason, I am probably scarred for life.

Miki, Duc, and Bryan. Yeah, Miki doesn't like this picture, but I do. ;) As you can tell, Bryan was basically the life of the party. We were watching the Monkees DVD's with commentaries, which I've never seen, because, for one, I did not even have a DVD player. And for two... Oh, wait, there was only one point. So, we watched Monkees At The Wheel, which was the first time I had ever seen that episode. It was one of the two I had never seen, and to this day I still have never seen Monkees In Paris. Since I believe I have had dreams of Monkees In Paris all my life, but never seen it, I have decided I will not see it unless it is with a Monkee. Or some other extreme apocolyptic experience. I tried to explain to Bryan how that Monkees At The Wheel was appropriate for New Years because gambling is like drinking which is like partying which is like New Years... I also tried to explain to him, and Miki, how cream cheese was the second coming. Duc must have been out of the room for that one. My cute friends. ;) Miki is holding a fake glass. Yea, team.

I am kissing this bottle because... no, really, why? This bottle had a picture of dancing monkeys, playing musical instruments. Miki and Duc found this. We took this as A Sign that the makers of this particuliar wine wanted to promote the message that Monkees Play Their Own Instruments. Really. Was this whole trip related to The Monkees? ... uh, yeah. I mean, come on. Obsessions help you repress your pain and not want to kill the people that destroy your dreams everyday of your life. So, I got to kiss the bottle. In Davy's shirt. Yeah, I'm the fifth Monkee. But I would look better with my hair washed again. Right. Yea, people who love Emily without make-up love her for who she is. That is the message of this picture. And we all love me, so good, I will resist the urge to remove this picture. Here I am pretending to be Vanna White, displaying the bottle. I look pale. Whenever they took a picture, I was acting out something. Wow, notice Miki and Duc's hot, hot tree. This electrical orange glowing fake leaf tree, actually merchandiced for Halloween (because you would really want a fake decidious tree for Halloween), they found on sale and used it for Christmas. It's really one of the focus points of their house, and it was the first thing I noticed when I came to see them. It's just one of the things that makes life with them so special, heh heh.

To make matters even more whole-heartedly exciting, I had to leave to go back to Connecticut right after midnight on New Years Day, to get back in time, apparently after they believed the shootings in Detroit stopped, which is where the highway went through. But I did find this very exciting! I love driving, and apparently I love even forcing myself through cathardic, hallucinatory experiences like driving madly 90 MPH sleep deprived through states of farm land. I even got lost at first, and Miki had to redirect me around the state over the phone, which meant I had to drive even faster to make up for lost time. I listened to The Garden, and From A Radio Engine To The Photon Wing, at first, and believe me, this was very psychedelic at that hour/time/circadian rythym. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. It was gorgeous too, as you can see here. Really gorgeous. It was completely dark until I reached the end of the Ohio border into Pennsylvania. The whole magic of the transformational experience of driving into other states, and loosing consciousness of my body to the car seat really set in by sun rise. After what seemed like days of driving, I reached a toll booth and asked, "Where am I?" to which I heard "Ohio" and I believed I may have actually accidently reached a black hole. When I FINALLY made it to Pennsylvania and stopped to get gas, my eyes burned, my stomach was eating itself, I could barely have consciousness, and someone told me it was seven hours to the New Jersey border. "WHAT?!" I screamed. I was awake then. I didn't believe him. I told him that. The woman there said, "He doesn't lie". I didn't believe her. I told her that. Ha! Seven hours on your time, baby! I think I made it in five. Damn.

... Anyway. Pictures through out beautiful Pennsylvania, as the sun was rising, going ninety. Wasn't arrested. Hey, Laura Horrigan does it driving with her knee, with a manual focus SLR. Had on Pisces, Aquarius, and Headquarters then, and God did THAT sound different. Loosing consciousness the hard way.... It was beautiful early in the morning. Despite my constant panick attacks, driving while talking on a phone for my only directions as it died and went out of service, refusing to stop for almost ANY reason, and the damn Pennsylvannia radio. Despite that, it was really beautiful. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. I'll never forget it that sunrise.

Very cold Early Morning Blues and Greens... Or purples and sky blues and periwinkles and peaches, and white... My steaming coffee warms my face... The most beautiful part of driving.

Back to ... As We Go Along...

Yeah, I have this thing for watching Monkees In Texas in January, because that was when I first got it, days before I went to Michael's booksigning tour in 1999. So it makes me happy. Besides, this picture of Mike is really hot. Man, if I must look like him, this look here is really hot. I always wanted cousin Lucy's clothes too, because Mike thought she was hot. ;) And, wait-- isn't that incestual? Anyway. I was watching this before I decided to impulsively leave for Michigan, but looking back on it, it's very appropriate that I watched it before I left, because the beginning of the episode Mike drives the Monkees all the way out to Texas, and I I drove myself all the way out to Michigan.	I also took THIS before I left, apparently as well. I must have paused it to get up and leave the room, and decided to photograph this beautiful image. The blue is very pretty. Micky was always "the one Monkee I don't understand", but I began to feel open to him recently. [Editor's Note: OMG, I acutally wrote this in 2004 too. Sorry!] Micky, though, is Miki and Duc's "favorite" Monkee, so to speak, if you were to say that we have "favorites". When I was very, very yound I would go up to upper state New York with my family... I loved it there. It seemed so right I would keep going to Michigan.
Yeah, this was one of the truck stops. Pretty, isn't it? Very romantic lighting. There was this bus driver hitting on me there who looked a lot like a member of Peter's band. Yeah, I had to leave then. Everything was truly mesmorizing to look at though, and very exciting, but it was night anyway, so I couldn't take the pictures. It was very exciting to be driving at night. Especially when it's been hours and hours and you've started hallucinating, and you've stopped beliving in Buffalo, NY, and by the time you reach Canada your right eye is burning from your contacts, and you've bitten your mouth three times, and you're so tired you're afraid you will die, and you believe your pain and suffering is from the curse of a strange Canadian woman, and by the time you get to Michigan you're conveying this to people you've never met before, at 8 in the morning... See, fun.	... Me looking like an idiot. Dressed as a Monkee. This is after I had showered, and slept, but still, I am dressed like a Monkee. This is allegedly an original shirt worn by Michael or Davy or someone, and part of their collection which they have from Gene Ashman. While dressed as a Monkee, I indulged in all of Miki and Duc's sixties magazines and basically went into a hypnotic trance where I no longer believed I was in Michigan anymore. I wore Micky Dolenz's pants. I can't believe I wore Micky Dolenz's pants. Ew, ew, ew... [Editor's Note: OOHHHHH MMYYYY GOOOODDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!] THEN, they took me into liquor stores with them wearing the blue double-breasted shirt, a wool hat, and Micky Dolenz's pants. [Editor's Note: OOHHHHH MMYYYY GOOOODDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!] For this reason, I am probably scarred for life.
Miki, Duc, and Bryan. Yeah, Miki doesn't like this picture, but I do. ;) As you can tell, Bryan was basically the life of the party. We were watching the Monkees DVD's with commentaries, which I've never seen, because, for one, I did not even have a DVD player. And for two... Oh, wait, there was only one point. So, we watched Monkees At The Wheel, which was the first time I had ever seen that episode. It was one of the two I had never seen, and to this day I still have never seen Monkees In Paris. Since I believe I have had dreams of Monkees In Paris all my life, but never seen it, I have decided I will not see it unless it is with a Monkee. Or some other extreme apocolyptic experience.	I tried to explain to Bryan how that Monkees At The Wheel was appropriate for New Years because gambling is like drinking which is like partying which is like New Years... I also tried to explain to him, and Miki, how cream cheese was the second coming. Duc must have been out of the room for that one. My cute friends. ;) Miki is holding a fake glass. Yea, team.
I am kissing this bottle because... no, really, why? This bottle had a picture of dancing monkeys, playing musical instruments. Miki and Duc found this. We took this as A Sign that the makers of this particuliar wine wanted to promote the message that Monkees Play Their Own Instruments. Really. Was this whole trip related to The Monkees? ... uh, yeah. I mean, come on. Obsessions help you repress your pain and not want to kill the people that destroy your dreams everyday of your life. So, I got to kiss the bottle. In Davy's shirt. Yeah, I'm the fifth Monkee. But I would look better with my hair washed again. Right.	Yea, people who love Emily without make-up love her for who she is. That is the message of this picture. And we all love me, so good, I will resist the urge to remove this picture. Here I am pretending to be Vanna White, displaying the bottle. I look pale. Whenever they took a picture, I was acting out something. Wow, notice Miki and Duc's hot, hot tree. This electrical orange glowing fake leaf tree, actually merchandiced for Halloween (because you would really want a fake decidious tree for Halloween), they found on sale and used it for Christmas. It's really one of the focus points of their house, and it was the first thing I noticed when I came to see them. It's just one of the things that makes life with them so special, heh heh.
To make matters even more whole-heartedly exciting, I had to leave to go back to Connecticut right after midnight on New Years Day, to get back in time, apparently after they believed the shootings in Detroit stopped, which is where the highway went through. But I did find this very exciting! I love driving, and apparently I love even forcing myself through cathardic, hallucinatory experiences like driving madly 90 MPH sleep deprived through states of farm land. I even got lost at first, and Miki had to redirect me around the state over the phone, which meant I had to drive even faster to make up for lost time. I listened to The Garden, and From A Radio Engine To The Photon Wing, at first, and believe me, this was very psychedelic at that hour/time/circadian rythym. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. It was gorgeous too, as you can see here. Really gorgeous.	It was completely dark until I reached the end of the Ohio border into Pennsylvania. The whole magic of the transformational experience of driving into other states, and loosing consciousness of my body to the car seat really set in by sun rise. After what seemed like days of driving, I reached a toll booth and asked, "Where am I?" to which I heard "Ohio" and I believed I may have actually accidently reached a black hole. When I FINALLY made it to Pennsylvania and stopped to get gas, my eyes burned, my stomach was eating itself, I could barely have consciousness, and someone told me it was seven hours to the New Jersey border. "WHAT?!" I screamed. I was awake then. I didn't believe him. I told him that. The woman there said, "He doesn't lie". I didn't believe her. I told her that. Ha! Seven hours on your time, baby! I think I made it in five. Damn.
... Anyway. Pictures through out beautiful Pennsylvania, as the sun was rising, going ninety. Wasn't arrested. Hey, Laura Horrigan does it driving with her knee, with a manual focus SLR. Had on Pisces, Aquarius, and Headquarters then, and God did THAT sound different. Loosing consciousness the hard way....	It was beautiful early in the morning. Despite my constant panick attacks, driving while talking on a phone for my only directions as it died and went out of service, refusing to stop for almost ANY reason, and the damn Pennsylvannia radio. Despite that, it was really beautiful. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. I'll never forget it that sunrise.
Very cold Early Morning Blues and Greens... Or purples and sky blues and periwinkles and peaches, and white...	My steaming coffee warms my face... The most beautiful part of driving.