Best Of This Blog: Travels and Excursions

Trapped In Austin Against My Will - "My visit to Dallas seemed to be some sort of Zen koan revolving around the utter futility of making plans. My trip was originally scheduled to last only a week; just long enough to visit my parents and help my brother move into a new apartment in Austin. And then a ridiculous chain of events began to unfurl, straight out of the first act of a Hollywood road movie."

The $1400 Apartment - Guess what $1400 will get you if you don't live in Los Angeles?

Windstar Casino, Oklahoma - "The casino itself is housed inside a very large circus tent. It's a much more innocuous environment than the Torrance casino I visited once; the vibe is strictly Carnival Cruise. Lots of old people, and a surprising number of cowboy hats being worn in an unironic fashion."

Reasons NOT To Move To New York - "The ladies are always frowning, and wear too much black leather." I kid, I kid.

San Diego Comic-Con 2006 - "Downtown San Diego is what happens when you leave Crate & Barrel in charge of urban planning. It's filled with restaurants and nightclubs that are so tastefully decorated, you want to kill yourself out of the boredom." (It could be worse, though - you could be in San Francisco.)

China and Japan - "There were so many times on this trip when I was one word away from missing some of the most intensely new experiences of my life. That word would be one of the most common: no."