Hello,

I am in the business center of a hotel on the outskirts of Baltimore. Normally I'd be writing this on the Playhouse bulletin board but I have very little privacy here and am not able to access the bulletin board at this moment without going through a few pages of the site here first. It would embarrass me to have one of the other internet accessors in here look over my shoulder and see me navigating through an adult site. It doesn't seem like the thing to do in the evening twilight on a Sunday in rural Maryland.

For the next few days I am accompanying one of my roommates who made abrupt plans to come home after receiving news of her grandmother's declining health. I'm here for moral support and to do battle with airline ticket agents, hotel receptionists, and employees of national car rental chains. I've been ready for action ever since we packed our bags yesterday and thus far we have encountered no problems whatsoever. They must have seen the look in my eye. Just kidding. All the logistics of our trip have gone so smoothly that I feel as if I'm in a different world. Oh, wait...I am. I'm not in L.A. anymore and people are generally polite and helpful here. At the very least they seem to be commited to living their lives and doing their jobs without subjecting their fellow humans to loads of unneccessary attitude and some type of obsessive need to call attention to themselves.

Today I had an epiphany. All the major cities in California, Nevada, and Arizona are very similar to each other in terms of their prevailing modes of conduct. It didn't used to be that way 10 years ago, but times change. To get away from the snotty, materialistic attitudes of the masses you need to travel farther away. It's been awhile since I've left that region and it's like a breath of fresh air being out here. My roommate and I caught the red-eye out of L.A. late last night and then rolled into our hotel here at 7AM. We were dressed like the homeless and speaking halfway incoherently and they obligingly allowed us to check in for our Sunday reservation at 7 in the morning for no extra charge. That would not have happened in L.A. Or in Vegas, or in Phoenix, or San Diego, or San Francisco. Or Oakland, for chrissakes.

Anyways, my roommate has visited extensively with the hospitalized grand matriarch of her clan and I've ordered an extensive amount of room service. Things are good here on the East Coast and my roommate feels that reports of her grandmother's failing health were far too alarmist. Still, she's very happy to have made the time to come out here. So am I. It's interesting to see her in the habitat she grew up in. I think I want to move here.

I hope everyone is doing well. Perhaps I'll sneak down here later to access the PLayhouse bulletin board..

Many kisses,

Tanya