Author: Sloan

Travel Hangover

/ Sloan / 2 Comments

I’m here. I now live in Greensburg, PA. I have a job, (looking for another,) I have an apartment, (well, privacy curtains in my friends living room) I have a gym membership, a couple bars I like, the lady at the coffee shop knows my name. I have a routine. I’m here.

But then I pulled out my small backpack. It fits my computer perfectly so when I head to the coffee shop I throw my weathered Macbook in there, grab my wallet and gear up to write, read, write letters–general coffee shop ‘things’. But last weekend I really looked at my back pack. I noticed how dirty it is. Months worth of sweating through SE Asia, being thrown on buses, running a 50k ultra marathon, transporting bottles of beer and water.

Then I noticed the random things I had tied on when the zipper toggle broke: a friendship bracelet from my native ‘tour’ guides in Sa Pa, Vietnam, safety pins, hair ties, whatever random things I could find that would work. Digging through the inside pockets I found a tin of Tiger Balm from Cat Ba Island when I got thrown off a motorbike, I found the equivalent of a few dollars in Malaysian Ringet. I found more dirt. I found Thai Baht. I found candy wrappers from treats my students gave me.

I found memories.

And then I remember: I’m here. I’m in Greensburg, PA furthering my career, saving money, making connections. And I wonder why I continue to look elsewhere. I run around the hilly neighborhoods and notice the architecture of such a historic town–then I remember the park I trained in with the 1000 year old Buddhist Wats. And I’m pulled back into the world of memory. I hate that world. I remember how hard it was to be in Thailand. I remember how much I wanted to ‘be’ somewhere for a while.

I found memories and now I need to begin making memories, here. And for some reason this is the hardest thing, for me. Travel is great but the travel hang over seems to last for months.

 

ImageImage

Nature Never Closes

/ Sloan / 1 Comment

We got in the car bundled up, cell phone flashlight ready, hats, gloves, water, snacks–ready for our night hike. Not going to lie, I’m a little bit scared of the dark. I mean, a night hike? That’s like the start of a really bad horror flick, “Two girls innocently and unknowingly hiked right into their death when the evil woodland creature attacked them from behind! He abducted, tortured…” Okay, done writing THAT story–on with what really happened…

Like most parks, trails and awesome things outdoors there was a sign at the trails head that said “Open from sunrise to sunset” I quickly stated in the obvious, “Dude, Nature doesn’t close!” She agreed and we found a spot to park the car and got our night hike on. Stepping out of the vehicle we quickly noted the moon and the unseasonable warm weather for November. The ginormous moon that had erupted from a blanket of clouds and shone down on us, literally lighting the path. We peeled off one of the 16 layers we were wearing, ditched the lights and went on our way.

As our pupils dilated and our feet maneuvered over rocks, roots and avoided mud puddles our senses heightened–I could hear better, I could smell the looming winter before us, but we could also see. Considering it was 10:30pm, that seemed odd. Color was dulled. In fact we both kept commented on the lack of color, but noticing the different shades of greys all around us It was as if we had jumped into a scary black and white film. A Film Noir, or and old Hitchcock that never got much press. This film would have been about the moon, the clouds, the cracking branches in the distance, the lack of stars but the incredible amount of light so late in the night. It was eery, eery but amazingly beautiful.

We didn’t talk a lot. We walked and listened. I touched tree trunks as I passed by them, I wanted to know if Nature feels different with the Full Moon shining so bright on two lost girls. As we found our way through the trees, over the rocks and roots and back to the car we emerged from a fog. Like we had experienced a new country or planet. Nature showed off for us, she let us breath with out aide of light pollution, she allowed us to absorb the essence of her with out the distraction of color, we connected to earth in a new way.

When the Moon beckons you have to listen and respond. Ignore the “Closed” sign because I think we all know that sometimes the best things happen after closing time.

Word Porn

/ Sloan / Leave a comment

So. If you know me in real life you know that I’m a big facebook user. If you don’t, you should probably LIKE The Sole Search Page and follow along, just to stay up to date on all the cool things I post. Most recently, I have begun following a page called WORD PORN. It posts a strange word and it’s definition. Most of the time the words ring true in same into my life. I often have to hold myself back from reposting it for fear of losing ‘friends’. The other day I reposted this:

Image

Vorfreude. Now, spell check is telling me that it doesn’t exist. I’m going to ignore that little red line and say that this word has been, unknowingly, a big influence in my life. In order to ‘get through’ the hard stuff I have seemed to have a vorfreude that I can fall back on. Whether it be an up coming trip, a race I’m training for, a friend visiting… etc. Right now I’ve lost it. Where did my vorfreude go!? Some one find my vorfreude!!!!

I now live somewhere, I have a stable job that I plan to hang out at for a while. While I may live in a living room (we’re working on that,) I’m in a pretty stable environment. Which is weird, and scary–but also kinda exciting I guess. Just weird. Let’s just stick with weird for now.

Anyway, I thought I would share this wonderful word with you in hopes that I find a vorfreude (I’m probably not using this glorious word correctly…) In other words I need to figure out something in the near future to keep me motivated for the current. Any ideas welcome!