James Richard Lane blog

2016 has started and it has been filled with media, travel, and turtlenecks. The Year Of The Turtlenecks. New Years Eve was an exceptional way to end the year for me. The only words I can fathom to describe the absurdity of this night would be turtlenecks, farming, O'doul's. That basically was the key essentials to make that night what it was. It started off with Kim and I planning where we were going to spend the last night of 2015 together. My close compadre James was in town visiting from Vermont. He invited us to his older cousin Dan's farm, which was way out in the middle of nowhere. We were surrounded by horses, emus, and a pig named Garth Brooks. We were all sitting by the bonfire drinking and chatting away the hours. The countdown started and we were standing in the field waiting for the fireworks. It all went down with a big celebration Dan, James, Kim, and I walked in the house. Dan's nextstore neighbor (the landlard) came over informing us we somehow...

2015 Overview This year has been one huge learning lesson, with a great deal of adventures. I curated a list of goals I wanted to accomplish by the end of the 2015, all of those goals have been conquered. It was a rough year with lots of ups and downs and big decisions to be made. Although, everyday wasn't the best I tried to make the best out of it. I did enjoy a lot of extensive traveling and sight seeing, as well as being able to participate more in the media and entertainment industry. I was fortunate to go to a lot of great shows I wanted to see, and was able to play a lot of great show with my band and my solo act. 2015 was the year of learning and strategizing for me. The highlights of 2015: 1. Busing to Seattle/Portland from Baltimore 2. Driving to Chicago 4th of July week/end 3. Completing the half marathon of the Baltimore Running Festival 4. Seeing We Are Scientists in Philly 5. Hosting/performing awesome Baltimore Hostel shows and having City Paper/BMoreArt s...

Run Baltimore This year I sent myself an email, within the first few days of 2015. The email listed goals I wanted to accomplish. One of the goals being I wanted to complete The Baltimore Running Festival. That is exactly what I did. I was unsure at first, and felt very lazy early on in the year when it came to running. I than started to run the Jones Falls daily for 3 mile runs. I was than given advice to download the app Strava. This helped me keep track of my runs. I started running 5-10 miles a few times a week. On 9/23/15, I finally pushed myself to run 13.1 miles. It took me 2 hours, and 17 minutes but I did it. I couldn't of been anymore proud to finally have completed my own half marathon. The same night I found out my Grandfather passed away from cancer. It was a shattering moment. After a week of sorrow, I decided to sign up for the half marathon. The price was $120 to enter, my work (Hosteling International Baltimore) contributed more than half to my entry fee. It was...

A bittersweet Chicago Story In 2015, I have had a layover in Chicago via bus, via plane, and have driven to Chicago and stayed there for 4th of July weekend. I have had no intentions to go back this year, however I was convinced.... Buying the tickets A friend named Mike needed to go to Chicago to fly out to get to LA for very cheap tickets. He asked me to go intriguing me the price of $70 round trip. I agreed. He asked me to get us a free stay at HI-Chicago. I requested but could only get myself the free stay. He would of had to pay $30 a night. He refused. I cancelled my reservation, and declined to going to Chicago anymore. He said he would figure this out... This is a person I have been to (New York, Boston, Miami, New Orleans, Denver, Toronto, LA, etc.) with. I decided to just go along with it. He found a Couch Surfer named Anthony (Chi is his actual real name). I agreed, I bought my $70 round trip tickets with Spirit. After I bought them was given an offer for a $50 re...

Philly I took a trip to Philly recently. I figured I might as well take advantage of the privilege I get to stay at HI hostels for free. I invited my girlfriend to come along and we drove up. We arrived to the city after our bladders were about to explode! We both share Small Bladder Syndrome , fortunately we made it to a bathroom. we also did our usual round of the best vegetarian food ever at Govinda's. After all that excitement we made it to the hostel, they greeted us in welcoming arms and informed us they were having a guided pub crawl that night, so we hit a lot of the local bars in Old Town and ended the night with an exciting round of karaoke as I drunkenly arm wrestled the bar tender and lost. The next morning we woke up to get a delicious breakfast at Green Eggs Cafe. The service was fantastic and the food was exceptional especially for a vegetarian. We continued our morning by taking a boat ride over to Camden, NJ. We walked along the pier side, visited Rutgers (...

I took an unforgettable adventure to Chicago to celebrate fourth of July weekend, with my girlfriend and her family. This was an amazing experience for us because we drove from Baltimore to Chicago , and got to do a lot of sight seeing along the way. I was also able to visit Kentucky , a state I have never been to before . This has brought me closer to goal of reaching all 50 states by the age of 30 . I'm now at 44 states at the age of 25. Our goal was to visit somewhere different, and her brother made the offer to stay with him so we took him up on it . We decided to drive as for we had a furry creature attending the trip with us, and we figured it would be a beautiful drive so why not. Kim and I packed our bags the night before, after having a few Magic Hats and finishing up packing we called it a night at 9pm. We woke up that following morning at 3:30am, and hit the road at 4am. During the ride up there we drove through Western, Maryland while it was still dark, as the...