I made it safe and sound to Tacoma. There's not much that could have made the past week any better. My last night in town was spent with people I adore - and a random picture crasher, top right corner - who is that guy anyway?!
I had a chance to spend time with Dominic, Jen, and all the kids and Maria and Phil as well.
I did leave Las Vegas later than planned, I wanted to leave at noon and I ended up leaving by 3pm. My brother Michael didn't make it over with his wife until about 12:30. Hanging out with him and mom went awhile. I loaded up my truck with absolute necessities. Michael was able to pack my bed, shelf, and my bike onto his truck. He just just graduated from AIT in the army and is stationed in Fort Lewis right near my dad. Once I got on the road, I was anxious because the tarp I had on the my truck was blowing up high enough so that I couldn't see out my back window. I stopped at home depot and strapped the middle down and bought some patio pavers to weigh the sides down. That along with the bungee web worked beautifully.
The drive to San Diego was the worst part of the trip. There were way too many sloppy drivers. I got into San Diego about 11pm. Then had to find Marlow. He found a good deal on a round trip ticket to San Diego about two months and it turned out to be the weekend I decide to leave :) We stayed with my cousin Natalie in Vista. The next day we hung out at the beach boogie boarding all day for the most part. Than made it back to Natalie's where Natalie made us Ugly - this bisquick cheeseburger concoction. I was also introduced (listening to them not actually meeting them...) and fell in love with the Avett Brothers.
The next day we made it back to San Diego to go to Plum Crazy -an Eagles bar- to watch the football game. INTENSE watching with a bar full of fans yelling at every move. THANK GOD they won!!! :)
After we went to the market to wait for Natalie and Darlene to meet up with us. My original intention on going to San Diego was to meet up with Deep -a good friend I know through my cousins who is from India- to take a meditation class and get another singing bowl. That didn't work out at all, but I at least had a chance to see him at the market.
We ate at an overpriced mexican restaurant where they didn't have nachos like Natalie wanted. They brought out the wrong food and Darlene ended biting into something crunchy midway through her veggie taco. After Marlow and I got in more beach time. He tossed around a football and then we buried each other in the sand. :) One of my favorite things to do at the beach. I like to feel gritty!
Darlene happened to be in Coronado officiating a wedding on Saturday. She had flown in from Nevada City where she lives. She hadn't bought a plane ticket home to San Diego so on Monday she ended up driving up with me to Sacremento. In Fresno (I think) we ate at a raw food vegan diner that Darlene found. It was much better than I thought it would be. I'm not sure I could go vegan myself, but it was quite tasty and did leave my tummy happy the rest of the drive. The drive was gorgeous and quite an aromatic experience. Trees, wild sweet onion, the flowers, and occasional manure - but even that had a sweet smell to it. Those happy cows in Cali :) A funny moment was when I was politely telling Deej that she needed to pullover asap, not because I had to pee. She does colonics and thought it was hilarious that I couldn't just say I needed to take a crap! :) I don't see Darlene and Natalie as often as I would like and definitely enjoyed the time I had with them. We crashed with her friends in Sacremento. The next morning I woke at 7am to drive the last 13 hours straight through on my own.
Four hours into the drive I got the itch to be out of my car but thought nope - not yet! I can do another fifty miles. A speeding ticket later I realized getting out of the car to stretch is a better idea! Again the drive was absolutely beautiful. I LOVE traveling, I could easily spend all day in an airport. Traveling sparks creative ideas and adds to the ones I already have going. Thirteen hours of it is the longest I've had to myself and my thoughts. I'm still over stimulated and super excited to be where I'm at right now. Radaid was my zen music and every once in a while I listened to the Judds. I stopped at rest stops to pee. I was surprised to see homeless hanging out with their signs. One of em was one of the happiest homeless people I've ever seen. Usually they look a little more down trodden maybe to get more sympathy but this guy could have easily played Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street. The next stop had a minister and his family begging me to let him wash my wind shield. I finally got into Portland about 8:30 and stopped at my friend Colette's house to take a break from the road and eat. Her mom was here to help her get situated. She made some AMAZING veggies n' dumplings. I even have some leftovers for today :)Rowynn, you know how I am with my leftovers. We talked about ghosts and how we could make it work out to be roomies.
One thing I don't like so far is the hills around the area. Steep scary hills to the point where I have my truck in drive and take my foot off the break and my truck is rolling backwards! I definitely feel like a fish out of water having to relearn my north south east and west again. I no longer have the strip and mountains surrounding me as a point of reference. And now theres southeast and southwest of the river and bridges to familiarize myself with.
After I left Colette's house is when I had my moment of finally being here. I realized my birthday is a week away. My thoughts went to where this past year has taken me, thoughts of Norina, and leaving Las Vegas. I shed a single tear. The last two hours driving were the most emotional for me.
I'm an army brat who was born in Colorado, grew up mainly in Tennessee from 4th grade to 9th grade. I never felt like I could call Las Vegas home. It was a place of nothing but family drama and bad memories. I hated it when I first moved there and found any reason I could to add to that hate. The last five years - especially the last year - my life has come around full circle in so many aspects. I realized it even more so being with Marlow and my cousin Darlene in San Diego and looking back at who I was and where I was at with myself the last time I was in San Diego with both of them back in 2006. Las Vegas is my home. Of course it's a place of transience, flakiness, shallowness and there's a lack of culture, community, education and whatever else you wanna throw into that bucket of mess. But as much as Las Vegas is lacking in, there is much to be found. For those of you who disagree - I ask you this. What do you personally do to contribute or show support towards the lack that you see? Neighborhoods do exist where the neighbors are on the phone with each other at 10:30 at night wondering why there's a lady in a yellow rain jacket knocking on every one's door. (Turns out she went to her boyfriend's family house for Thanksgiving, got drunk, went out to smoke a cigarette and forgot which house she came out of.) There are churches and schools of people that rally to show support when needed. Brownies are made for firefighters that help out a mother worried about her child. There are people who are born and raised who do have a little pride in where they come from. There are amazing artists and musicians. I left Las Vegas with some of my favs - Gia Ray, Gina Quaranto of Blackbird Studios, Marshall Bradford, and King Ruck's on my shoulder! Tammi Squires and everyone else that goes through Blackbird Studios. Hot Club of Las Vegas, Rebecca at the E-String, I can go on. There are plenty of intelligent and creative people who I hope to see become successful in their pursuits. The Onyx Theater, Little Theater, Theater 7, PCP, Group Collectively, Happy Hour.......Don't Tell Mama.....Thor at the Bus Stop. And there are amazing people that can be counted on to be there when you need em. And people working at building community awareness through whatever they have to offer.
When I put together the recital for my aunt last Mayish, I was surprised with how willing complete strangers - and yes in LAS VEGAS - were to help me. Vit's Pizza, Roberto's and New York Pizza all saved their tomato cans so I could make my drums. I couldn't even keep up with the 15 cans a day they were saving me.
Point being - people tend to forget how young Las Vegas is before they start criticizing and comparing it to other well cultured cities. It is there to be found, but it also has to grow and be nurtured for what little there is to be found. I do have hope that Las Vegas will get a little bit more credit thrown it's way. Even the education system is taking a turn hopefully for the better. So I may be away but Las Vegas I will be back! I have a tattoo to finish, a dance recital to attend, and people to see. And of course that last traffic ticket to take care of....
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