Snowstorms and whacked out Asian bride and pee guy, oh my!!

My trip to California and the road home to Wisconsin has all the makings of a hit play. Maybe. Interesting, to say the least. Let me catch you up.

While shooting a short film in Los Angeles (see earlier blog posts), my retina blew out and I had emergency surgery. Everything went superbly BUT I wasn't cleared to fly for two weeks. So I camped out at my director's home, Tatjana, and then at Maria & Donovan's in Tujunga. My family (and some concerned friends) thought it better to err on the side of caution and NOT fly home so soon after surgery. So, I decided to take the train cross country.

Unfortunately, the 2011 blizzard that ravaged most of the U.S. entered the mix and - voila! - my train was terminated in Albuquerque (where I'm writing this post). Looks like I'll be here until early Saturday afternoon, where I'll catch a train to Chicago, arriving Sunday afternoon...then a later train to Sturtevant, WI. And home - one month to the day. (The shitty thing is that there's a flight out of Albuquerque today to Milwaukee but I promised my family I'd train it instead of flying so...Newman!).

So this train trip from Los Angeles to Albuquerque...Carnytown, Freaksville, whatever you wanna call it. Yes, I met some nice people. Paul from Alton, IL and Price from Schenectady, NY and it made the hassles worth it.

But the freaks outnumbered us normal folk 20:1. Don't believe me? Just look at the picture above of the Asian bride on the train (with no bridegroom). Dressed in nothing but that bridal gown. She was harmless, spending her time videotaping her plush toys and the scenery from the train.

And there's the drunk dude who was threatening people (including moi) and making inappropriate comments to the ladies. My complaint to Amtrak officials - along with one or two others - helped to get this asshole escorted off the train in the middle of the Arizona desert and taken away in a sheriff's squad car. Moral? Don't fuck with me. Seriously. DO NOT fuck with ME!

More to come (including the story of the "pee guy"). I'm packing - just got the word that a train is NOW leaving Albuquerque today instead of Saturday....