My roommate just made me a mix cd. She is our resident bluegrass musician extraordinaire - plays, among other things, banjo, fiddle and guitar and sings beautifully. It's been one of the best parts of living here - falling in love with bluegrass music and hearing it so often. It is good music. She has a jam session with her friends every Sunday night (sometimes at our house). Her parents even have a jam at their house once a month where her parents and their friends get together and play. AND the local continuing education "communiversity" offers classes on "how to play well with others" i.e. Jamming I & II. Yah, KC, MO is where it's at. I've nonetheless decided to return to Summit this summer to cook again. I'm very excited about being there again for those glorious months of summer - basking in the Bass Lake beauty and Summit community. But, I sort of sit in wonder at how I can do this to myself again... fall in love with another place, community, existence only to leave. I get mad at myself, then try to play the apathy card; that it doesn't matter. But really, I ache for my whole life/memories/loves to all converge, to lose all sense of longing and just be. It's enough to stop where I am and find a cabin by a lake and some trees with a nearby mail drop and a telephone line and just 'keep in touch' with those I've already fallen in love with and can't seem to live without. I don't know how to keep up this pace of my desire to visit and know everyone in person - but how can I give that up? My cousin is about to (or just has) have her first baby and she's only an 8 hours drive away - why not head out there for the weekend? ... While I'm that far, Chatanooga, Aiken, Richmond, Annandale, D.C., Arlington, Hagerstown, NYC, Boston, Newport, Millersburg, Waynesburg are all just another days drive or less from each other. I spent one whole slow day at work figuring out potential travel itineraries for these places, these people whom I want to visit...especially now that I'm this close...half way closer than San Diego, that is. Oh and Illinois, Colorado, Texas and Minnesota too... And this is just stateside... before June... I've also got strong interest in Congo, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Australia and beyond... for now...and ideally soon. *sigh* The best idea I've heard lately is to go work as a tour guide or something in Alaska for 5 months out of the year make $25,000 or so and spend the rest of the year traveling. Any other ideas? Sometimes I try to convince myself that I'm eager to settle down and all it would take is for someone to buy me (or buy myself) a little house in Colorado Springs where I could be close to grandparents at least, take my midwifery classes online and stay for a while. Then, why not here? I've got it all here...I mean it is like -10 degrees outside, but I can still breathe and everything else is great....maybe I just breathe a little easier near Yosemite?
Here's some of the artists featured on my new mix: Alexi Murdoch, Phosphorescent, Ray LaMontagne, Bon Iver, Tim O'Brien, Old Crow Medicine Show, Ryan Adams, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds....ETC> Good road trip music...
3 comments:
Hi friend. Miss you.
My (ex) roommate April went to Alaska last year from May-September, perhaps I told you this? She had a blast, made some money, made some adventures, and then came back here and has been living off the money- she hasn't needed to go back to work yet. So, in theory, it sounds great.
BUT I've noticed she's been rather depressed and lathargic. I think this is partly because she doesn't know what she wants, and partly because she is bored.
Anyway. Just a thought. MISS YOU!
There are plenty of places to go and make money, and time always goes by, quickly or not. I suppose one needs to decide if contentment is worth more? But Leigh, you seem to find joy, friends, adventure whereever you are. You just need to make up your mind. Yeh, I knopw, that's a difficult thing to do. :-))
who are you anonymous commenter?
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