And now...

So, what now? I made it out, I'm away, I survived my final commitments to the world of my last year. I found a ride to Seattle with a friend from home, stopped in Boise, ID and Walla Walla, WA for some quick hellos and mini-adventures. I did it. I left. Now what?

Now, I guess, I start the adventure...

A little transition time has been good though. Getting to catch up with friends here in the Seattle area, being able to mentally re-arrange the grey matter in my skull and physically re-arrange the items in my backpack (yes, mom and dad, you will be receiving a package of items I left home with, but have already decided I can live without) has been- and will continue to be-a worthwhile venture. It, unfortunately, has been cloudy and rainy at least half of my stay here (Seattle is never one to disappoint) but what can you do. I have managed to see Phantom of the the Opera with a good friend, take a bike ride on a guitar purchasing mission, catch up on sleep, do some last minute shopping, explore Bainbridge Island, watch movies, get my salsa dance on, and mainly catch up with different friends and enjoy hearing about the various paths we are all cutting through life.

I have another 5 days here, and then am mini-road tripping with a college friend to visit a mutual friend in Eugene, OR. We plan to stop in Portland on the way back up and then I fly out of Seattle October 3, headed for Washington DC/Virginia. I am hoping to stay a month at a Integral Yoga community in central Virginia, but do not know if I have been accepted into the program yet. The thing is, airfare only gets more expensive, so I figured I might as well go, hope for the best, and figure I'll find a way to entertain myself back east for a month plus if that doesn't work out. I do have some family and college friends out there to say hello to, and I'm looking forward to visiting them. I'll be out east until the 22nd of November at which point I will head off to LA. Theoretically, from LA, I will fly immediately to New Zealand (I do not have a ticket purchased yet, but that is the plan). So, I guess that gets me on the road and a couple months down the way, let the adventure begin!



Robin, me, and Leora after a round of Frisbee
golf in Walla Walla


Skinny dipper hot springs-a side trip with Evan
near Boise on the way to Seattle.


Full moon view over from Bainbridge Island


Myself and Sandra on the Bainbridge Ferry

You have to start somewhere

And that somewhere might as well be here. I am currently in Seattle and have been here for the last week, gone from home for 10 days--a time period that seems both shorter and longer than that at the same time. I am starting to readjust to a lifestyle/mentality without work (and a constant focus on saving) and trying to wrap my head around the idea that spending money without working is OK for now. A few more days and I think I will nearly be there...welcome to the world of unemployment!

Goodbyes are always something I have found rather strange, such a big deal, but often so anti-climactic. I think you can tell a lot about a person by the way they say goodbye. I bring this up because the last couple weeks have been full of goodbyes--to my parents, my friends in Driggs, my sister, and others along the way. I have vacillated between thinking these goodbyes should be momentous, meaningful affairs--road marks along the way to whatever the universe has to throw at me next-- and simply feeling as if they were natural parts of a progression, in someways meaningless; because, how can you sum up the importance of a relationship with a simple goodbye? With a final lunch date, a hug, a kiss, a goodbye wish? You can't, so the goodbye is moot. Goodbyes--to me--are not inherently sad, or even necessarily momentous; they may be significant, but I don't think they were meant to be sad. Every goodbye means a new hello is right around the corner. How wonderful is that? In the most mundane of situations, you say goodbye to the bellman and hello to the taxi driver, goodbye to the taxi driver and hello to the receptionist and so on. For me, I said goodbye to my parents, and hello to my sister, than goodbye to her and hello to good friends in Seattle, and so it will continue...