Monthly Archives: June 2003

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Sunday, June 15, 2003

Sunday, June 15, 2003

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A frequent contributor to this here journal asked me six months ago, “What are you looking for?”

My dear friend, Ryan Soderlin was trying to gain more insight on why I was embarking on an open-ended adventure.

I replied with a Jack Karouak quote, “I don’t know what I’m looking for, but I’ll know when I find it.”

I knew I was looking for self. I knew I was looking for adventure. I knew I was looking to shatter my own status quo. What I didn’t know, only days before heading to the farm, was what all that meant.

I’m typing this now in Seattle Washington. It’s a Sunday night, and my gate is starting to slowly starting to fill up with people rubbing their eyes, drinking coffee and hoping they can sleep well during the 10:10 pm cross-country flight to Philly. Tomorrow morning I’ll fly into Logan International in Boston and drive to Belgrade Lakes, Maine where I’ll be a camp councilor. A new job. A new address. A new adventure. Again temporary.

My apprenticeship as a cattleman ended two weeks ago. Those two weeks since have been a blur of falling deeper and deeper in love during a whirlwind tour of some of America’s key cities: Chicago, D.C., New York, Boston and Seattle. The last two weeks have taken me to the top floor of the Western Hemisphere’s tallest building, to the National Mall of our country’s capitol city, to a Broadway musical, and the most extravagant boat ride I’ve ever been on in the Puget Sound launching from the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen. I went to several museums, monuments and sites. I ate interesting foods drank my favorite drinks and visited my best friends.

When I think back of my fondest moment of the trip, I keep going back to that patch of grass that split the Maryland woods into two. That little place where a baby fawn lay, and so did I with my new and only love on a Mexican blanket to sleep. With the end of our driving day only ninety-some miles away, we stopped for a picnic, a nap and a bit of Frisbee. Holding her body close to mine under a mild spring sky, with her fragrant hair next to my nose, I remember it like it was five minutes ago.

I don’t think I was looking for love. In fact, I’m certain that while I was writing my letter of resignation last November I had no intentions whatsoever to find somebody that I want to settle down with. I was resigning so I could see the world, so I could hold onto (or at least take advantage of) my youth.

Turns out I met the person who just might be my soulmate.

I said goodbye to her the day before last, when we took separate planes west from Boston. She ended up in Omaha; I in Seattle.

I’m still not sure this is what I was looking for, but now that I’ve found it, it is all I want.

Saturday, June 14, 2003

Saturday, June 14, 2003

[caption id="attachment_2277" align="alignnone" width="526" caption="Seattle, Wash."]Seatle, Wash.[/caption]

I’ve put over 2000 miles on my car in two weeks of travel, only to fly across the country in the opposite direction. I’m in Seattle to watch my sister graduate from the University of Washington. We sat in the nose-bleed section, so I put my digital camera up to the eyepiece of a pair of binoculars and made some shots after we called on our cell phone down to her on hers. How did people ever find their family members at that place before the wide-spread use of cell phones? Life sure isn’t what it used to be.

Later that night we took a beautiful dinner cruise in the Puget Sound. It was lovely and I was missing Sarah.

Friday, June 13, 2003

Friday, June 13, 2003

[caption id="attachment_2268" align="alignnone" width="478" caption="Boston, Mass."]Boston, Mass.[/caption]

Ship’s Ahoy!

Boston, Baby! Boston! Throw the tea into the sea! An Irish bar that doesn’t serve Harp’s?, same Irish bar serves other beers in Harp’s pint glasses, couple playing chess in a library courtyard, wild and crazy Nebraska girls from the old school, beautiful dinner view, watch out for bird shit falling from the sky.

Friday the 13th brings sad fairwells.

Tuesday, June 10, 2003

Tuesday, June 10, 2003

[caption id="attachment_2271" align="alignnone" width="864" caption="Central Park, New York City"]Central Park, New York City[/caption]

“Oh my God! We just drove into New York City!”

Playing with ducks in Central Park, shhhhhhh

Sunday, June 8, 2003

Sunday, June 8, 2003

[caption id="attachment_2273" align="alignnone" width="472" caption="Washington, D.C."]Washington, D.C.[/caption]

Washington, D.C.

Holocaust Museum, National Art Gallery, Washington Monument, good food, better Scotch, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, FDR Memorial, teasing ducks, sorry I didn’t help carry that big suitcase up four flights of stairs, Vietnam War Memorial, Reflecting Pool, hooking up with an O’Deuce, you told me that story last night.

Friday, June 6, 2003

Friday, June 6, 2003

[caption id="attachment_2275" align="alignnone" width="576" caption="somewhere in Iowa"]somewhere in Iowa[/caption]

I’m Maine bound and I’ve got my baby with me. Too cute, huh?

Wednesday, June 4, 2003

Wednesday, June 4, 2003

[caption id="attachment_2263" align="alignnone" width="378" caption="View from Sears Tower, downtown Chicago"]View from Sears Tower, downtown Chicago[/caption]

CHICAGO! On top of the world!