July 2010 Archives

Dear Mind:

Please to be making with the shutting down now.

Smoochies,
The Doll

***

Feeling generically out-of-sorts at the moment; lots of flux about. Life and work are changing and it's filled me with a nervous, detached energy that I'm not quite able to channel. On the cusp of finally getting my dead 1988 Mazda 323 GTX to a place where I can break it down, learn all kinds of neat things and hopefully get it running - fulfilling a lifetime dream. Work is alternately filled with necessary tedium¹ and exciting things and hurrying-up-and-waiting and trying to get all the duckies lined up so we can make the big changes whose timetables keep slipping because they honestly must. Getting to know a really neat person when I feel like I've lost all ability to communicate on a personal level. Watching him try to deal with losing his best feline friend of 17+ years to kidney failure and knowing exactly how that feels but too damn afraid to just reach out and hold his hand. Wondering when I learned to be afraid of holding someone's hand. Keenly feeling the brevity of life, both feline and human.

Fuck.  I hate this part right here, where every thing's up in the air and you just have to chill or give things time to see how they fall out.

On the upside, filling my life with really amazing people does not suck. Having a Pooka pressing her fuzzy little forehead to my lips for kisses is pretty sweet, too.

Speaking of which, my furry princess is demanding I re-attempt sleep. G'night (or g'morning).



¹ Editing copy on a Support video that had no script, thus I'm having to play-pause-type what's there-type what should be there-play. I can only take an hour of this. Each section's taking me 2-3 hours. There are four sections. I am going to beat the support engineers if I ever have to do this again. Seriously, why would you start writing an instructional video without a damn storyboard??

The beauty of being on the west coast is that there's a whole new part of the country for me to explore.  I had been charmed by Nevada (Lake Tahoe and Carson City to be specific) on previous occasions, so when friends suggested camping in the Nevada desert, I was open, but hesitant.  I'm an east coast girl, raised in the heat and humidity, the thick cover of green everywhere.  Try as I might, I couldn't wrap my mind around camping in the desert; it was outside my realm of experience.  The strangeness of it turned out to be its appeal.  Because I could not imagine it, I simply had to see it.

We went to Black Rock Desert, so named for the massive single black rock in the several hundred square miles. I was not expecting the desert to be so stunningly beautiful.

The black rock for which the desert is named

Camping as I knew it was a light-weight affair; grab a sleeping bag, maybe a tent, the basics for making fire and dinner, and a really good knife or multi-tool. Go find some clean water, strip a sapling for a fishing pole, and you're good to go. Camping in the desert, however, requires more thought. You must bring everything you will need with you; every ounce of water, every bite of food, every tool or garbage bag, rebar to stake tents that will otherwise be blown away with desert winds, a respirator and goggles to weather the sandstorms, light clothing for the heat of the day and warm clothing for freezing nights. You need to prepare to survive without the civilization known as the nearest gas station for the entirety of your time on the playa.

It takes a concerted effort to camp in the desert. But, you will be richly rewarded.

Sunset over the Black Rock Desert

A cloud with a rainbow promise

The almost-too-hot-hotsprings

My time spent exploring the desert and playas with friends was the reset I needed. I have wonderful people with whom to share my life. I have friends who will share with me wonders I had not before imagined.

The moment I set foot on the playa, California became home.

* Photographs courtesy of Pam Teasdale.