MIN: We're in your hometown, and we have no idea where we are. There's a wreck on 95, and we're on Route 1. We need to get to 301.

LINDSAY: Um... I think I know about 301. But I'm not positive. You know, though, Route 1 will take you all the way up to D.C. if that's where you're headed.

MIN: Yeah? Maybe we'll just do that, take it up to Alexandria. Here, Alan's dying to talk to you.

ALAN: I was hoping she would repeat my running color commentary. Your hometown is very quaint. To quote Dan.

LINDSAY: Yes, it is very quaint.

ALAN: We're passing a train station and a Mr. Dee's.

LINDSAY: Oh, OK, I know exactly where you are! I don't think you're on Route 1, though.

ALAN: It's supposed to be Business Route 1.

LINDSAY: I think you want regular Route 1.

ALAN: This is a very historical place.

LINDSAY: Yeah, it is. Do y'all have time to stop and look around? There's big historical fun to be had in Fredericksburg. You could go to the apothecary shop...

ALAN: Unfortunately, the plan is to be in Maryland as soon as possible.

LINDSAY: Gotcha. Well, now I remember where 301 is if you're going to Maryland. I totally know how to get you there... well, OK, not really. I mean, I do, but I'm afraid of steering you wrong, so let me give you my mom's number and my dad's number, too, in case she's not home.

ALAN: I'm a little scared of your dad.

LINDSAY: Everyone's scared of my dad. He doesn't do it on purpose. The good part about how he always sounds like he knows everything is that, when you really do need to know something, he usually has the answer.

ALAN: Well, maybe we'll just stay on Route 1.

LINDSAY: OK, but you need to get on regular Route 1, not Business Route 1.

ALAN: OK, we seem to be turning left.

LINDSAY: Yeah, it dead-ends.

ALAN: Won't the Business Route 1 hook back up with regular Route 1? I mean, it should.

LINDSAY: You're probably right. I just don't have a very good mental map; I can't visualize the way all the roads fit together.

ALAN: OK, we're passing a restaurant... a hotel... Carl's sundaes, shakes, and -

LINDSAY: You're passing Carl's? Dude, pull over!

ALAN: What?

LINDSAY: Pull over, pull over! Go to Carl's! You won't regret it. Get the chocolate malt; it's awesome.

ALAN: OK, we're stopped. There seems to be a line.

LINDSAY: Yeah, there's always a line. That's 'cause it's awesome. Seriously, get the chocolate malt. If you like chocolate malts, that is.

For so long, I wondered about the word "home." When I was younger, it seemed obvious where home was, but it got a little more complicated as I got older. I fall in love with places so easily. Of course, I love Fredericksburg a lot more now than I did when I was a teenager and felt "stuck" there. So I moved to the big city, and now I go to restaurants, hang out with friends, sing in a choir, work... basically all the things my parents do in Fredericksburg. Ah, well.

Speaking of places I've loved before, I am very excited right now about something that is finally out on DVD: the BBC TV show, Hamish MacBeth! When I was working at the youth hostel in Aberdeen, Hamish MacBeth was my favorite show. My friend Jay and I used to take our breaks together and watch it. Unfortunately, BBC does their scheduling completely differently than American broadcast networks do, and as soon as I got hooked, the show disappeared from that time slot and was replaced with reruns of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (which was a whole nother kind of awesome, watching a horrible show I thought was the best show ever made when I was eight). I never got to find out what happened on Hamish MacBeth! When I first got back from Scotland, I called PBS to ask if they thought they might be showing Hamish MacBeth at some point but got a very polite "no." When I first signed up for Netflix, I searched for it and it wasn't there. But recently, on a whim, I searched again, and there it was! I'm so excited. I've already watched the first three episodes. The premise of the show is nothing too inventive; it's the adventures of the lone policeman in a sleepy little town in the highlands of Scotland, who solves mysteries, along with his little terrier, Wee Jock, and the eccentric inhabitants of the town. It's a "mystery of the week" kind of thing. Oh, but it makes me feel right at home to watch this show again! The scenery is exotic and familiar at the same time, and I could listen to Robert Carlyle's Glaswegian accent all day. ("Ye've got to feed Wee Jock. He'll nae take food from anyone but you.") If you've got Netflix, check it out, and tell me whether it's really a good show or whether I'm just homesick for one of the many places I used to call home.

I have two gigs next weekend. At the first one, I get to wear a pirate costume, and I will get funnel cake at the second one. Now that's a good weekend! Saturday is the 2nd annual PiratePalooza, a pub crawl through downtown Decatur for which everyone dresses in pirate gear and says "Arrrr" a lot. It coincides roughly with Talk Like a Pirate Day, a national holiday for which I'm sure everyone already has plans. If, however, you do not have plans, I recommend PiratePalooza. I'm playing as Joni Minstrel (Pirate Version), and a lot of other Ren Fest cohorts will be performing as well. My second gig will be on Sunday, when I'll be performing as part of the Sandy Springs Festival. It's a fundraiser for newly incorporated Sandy Springs, a family-friendly event. (I've been instructed to avoid revealing clothing, curse words, and "political messages.") Derik is going to go with me to be roadie and sell merchandise, and then we can spend the rest of the day hanging out at the festival. Yippee! I missed both the Dogwood Festival and Gay Pride this year, so I will be very glad to get my festival-going in before the end of the summer. Anybody else wanna come? We'll share our funnel cake and corn dogs, we promise. It'll actually be really fun to be busy with gigs next weekend, I think. In addition to my two gigs, Derik's band, Speechless, has a gig in Jonesboro on Friday night (at which I will return the roadying favor). It's always very satisfying to us to watch each other play. Sometimes playing music is not just fun to do for its own sake but also gives us opportunities to go places and do things we might not experience otherwise.

It's an election year, and the political madness has already started. However, I've found comfort in a surprising place: a biography of Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson. The book is fascinating, but the thing that struck me about it the most was how much of his time Benjamin Franklin spent struggling with the same issues we still struggle with today. Perecentage tax vs. flat tax. Rich vs. middle class. Christian country vs. separation of church and state. Here's a quote from the last chapter:

[Benjamin Franklin] represents one side of a national dichotomy that has existed since the days when he and Jonathan Edwards stood as contrasting cultural figures. On one side were those, like Edwards and the Mather family, who believed in an anointed elect and in salvation through God's grace alone. They tended to have a religious fervor, a sense of social class and hierarchy, and an appreciation for exalted values over earthly ones. On the other side were the Franklins, those who believed in salvation through good works, whose religion was benevolent and tolerant, and who were unabashedly striving and upwardly mobile.

On one hand, it's sort of depressing to think that we've made so little progress in the years since the Revolutionary War that we're still engaged in the same quarrels that frustrated the founding fathers in their time. On the other hand, it's kind of comforting, in a "this too shall pass" kind of way. The abortion debate, the estate tax debate, the stem cell debate, the campaign finance debate, and the redistricting debate each has a historical corellary, and, while it's clear that none of them has ever really been resolved, we're all still here, still holding elections and shaking our heads at the way power corrupts even the best of us. The wheel keeps on turning. We'll be OK.

What’s in my stereo at home:

What’s in my car:

What's playing at work:

What I'm reading: