Its been a lazy weekend catching up on sleep and being generally unproductive. On the couch enjoying a mid-day nap today, I was startled awake… though not fully. I sat there looking at the door and thinking I had to get ready quick for some reason, because someone familiar was about to stop by.
Then, for the first time since I came out here, it hit me so clearly, so vividly : no one familiar is going to stop by. No family, no old friends… no one. The scale of the distance between my location and the people I love is pretty staggering, and I haven’t really considered it until today.
Oddly, most of the friends I’ve made here have recently moved, or are about to. Don’t get me wrong, this really isn’t some tale of woe… I just find it interesting that its a new realization. I’ve been here for almost 2 years now. It took a while to let go of my original plan when I came out here (it was all I had), then there was a lot of time spent afterwards just sorting out years of leftover scrap and truly enjoying my own much-needed solitude. Maybe today’s jolt is a sign that that solitude has run its course. No idea what that means in a month with a very full music schedule and all-out insanity at work (or maybe that’s what’s helping it along). We’ll see. For now I clearly have to work on going to bed earlier during the week.
ADDENDUM
It has been asked of me, “Do you regret moving out there?” The answer :
Is it bizarre that I find your Etch-a-Sketch of a life somewhat…enviable?
And – while yours is not a tale of woe and while the following is not an attempt to “make it better”** – it’s worth mentioning that I have every intention of invading your couch in the relatively near future. Because I appear to have a disposable income and have never been to Seattle. And because DC in the Summer is miserable.
(** I flatter myself.)
Anyway, tentative kudos on the new layout. The Man – and his grudge against image hosting applications and all that is good and right in this world – is limiting the full Jeff Conlin experience, but I suspect that the uncensored version is quite nice. Suspicion to be confirmed when not abusing company time.
1) I can’t believe you’ve been out there for almost two years!
2) Why aren’t you taking pictures for a living???