List-O-Mania: 8 U.S. Cities.

I’ve travelled around a lot within the U.S. and seen a lot of cities and podunk towns alike, but there are a few cities that I have yet to see and have set my heart on seeing at least once in my lifetime.

1. Boston, Massachussetts
I feel like Boston is one of those iconic U.S. cities that has to be seen. I want to sit next to the water and talk like Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting.

2. San Francisco, California
Another iconic city. I have dreams of riding on a trolley, eat Rice-a-Roni, and finding the house from Full House. And trying to figure out how houses are able to sit so precariously on such steep hills.

3. Omaha, Nebraska
Maybe it’s because of listening to endless records by bands signed to Saddle Creek Records, but something about Omaha has always appealed to me. The words ‘city’ and ‘Midwest’ seem to be at odds with each other, but Omaha looks lovely.

4. Providence, Rhode Island
A moderate-sized city in the smallest state in the country deserves to be seen. And I’m told that Providence is beautiful and has gorgeous seasons.

5. Denver, Colorado
A city with a view of giant gorgeous mountains? Best of both worlds. Sounds like my kind of city.

6. New York, New York
I feel like this is pretty self-explanatory. I want to experience the American epicenter of culture, commerce, fashion, excellent pizza, etc.

7. Portland, Maine
Josh is inexplicably obsessed with this Portland. And I must admit, it looks like a beautiful New England city, cozy and right on the water.

8. Austin, Texas
Texas generally has negative connotations, but Austin is the hippest, least Texas-y city in Texas. And Austin also has the best music scene in the country.

There She Blows! Or, A Trek to Mt. St. Helens.

On Sunday afternoon, Josh and I drove up to Mt. St. Helens to check out Lava Canyon and have a little picnic on top of a big rock. I haven’t seen the mountain up close in years, and when I looked at it, it just didn’t even look real; it was like some kind of CGI creation, a special effect. It never ceases to amaze me how nature can just form giant masses of earth into things like mountains, and how much power this particular mountain has in its depths, even though it looks so normal and docile on the outside. It was such a beautiful area, so green and full of life.

Photographic Inspiration!

In an effort to get inspired to use my camera again, I’ve been perusing some lovely photography sites. One of my favorites has been that of Anne Lass, and particularly her series of photos entitled “Geography of Nowhere.” I love how minimalist they are, and how Lass captures seemingly mundane everyday locales and translates them into crisp images that are simultaneously familiar and unusual. I’m infinitely inspired.

I’m going to the Olympic Sculpture Park on Tuesday, camera in tote, and hope to come away with some awesome photos a la Miss Lass.

i want to move to iceland. or new york.

i keep having experiences with some form of media that make me want to relocate to a new place.

first, i read the geography of bliss, in which a grumpy npr correspondent globe-trots for a year to visit some of the happiest (and unhappiest) places in the world and try to glean some secrets to leading a happy life. (as a sidenote, i think it’s amazing that there are social scientists who actually study the nature of happiness, which seems to me such an elusive and situational phenomenon. awesome.) he visits iceland, which, apparently, is consistently in the top ten happiest countries each year. for that entire chapter of the book, i was thinking how much it sounded like a place i wanted to live: it’s eclectic and everyone is a recreational artist, if not a professional one; it is small and quaint and everyone knows everyone; most people believe in ghosts/spirits/magic as a matter of fact; people change jobs all the time with fluidity because failure is seen as a great try that didn’t quite work out, and trying is admired; it is in an almost perpetual state of night, even in the afternoon; instead of binge-drinking because they’re miserable, icelanders binge-drink because they’re happy. it just sounds like such a pleasant place to live. i’m hoping to make a trip there during the summer.

and when i first jay-z’s song “empire state of mind,” and heard alicia keys belt out the chorus, i started crying because her voice was so beautiful and what she was singing was so inspiring. new york is the epitome of the american city, and is essentially a microcosm of the u.s. as a whole. all the good stuff that happens, happens in new york. i’ve never been there, but hearing that song made me want to pick up and move there immediately. alicia sings that new york is “what dreams are made of! there’s nothing you can’t do!” and i think to myself, “yeah! i can do anything!” and then she sings “these streets will make you feel brand new! big lights will inspire you!” and i think “yeah! i want to feel renovated! i could go for some inspiration, too!” the song just leaves me with a good feeling, and with the feeling that new york is the place to be. i’m going to apply to a few graduate schools in new york next year, so it could be a reality (maybe/hopefully).

i think i must just be restless. i’ve been in seattle for four years, which isn’t really that long, but i’ve experienced the equivalent of a lifetime here. i’m ready for a change of scenery, with the possibility of return.

i found those adventures i was looking for.

vagabonding.

i watched into the wild yesterday, and it made me yearn for an adventure.

there have been a lot of times where i’ve wanted to pack a backpack with the bare necessities and just hoof it around the country, with no itinerary and no one to be accountable to. traveling in the wild with a group would be fun and all, but i think doing it alone would make the experience more pure, in a sense; like because you’re experiencing it alone and don’t have other people to share it with, the intensity and profundity is at its maximum height. but i would even be content (nay, happy) to just train-hop around the country like kerouac did back in the day.

photo by philip scott andrews

every once in a while, i like to daydream about living that kind of life, exploring the alaskan wilderness in the spring or stealthily jumping onto moving trains in the middle of the night, but i come crashing back to reality when i remember how different the world is now, and how my sex has an effect on everything i do, or even dream of doing. kerouac jumped on trains in the 40′s when a dollar could go a lot further and trains were fairly safe, and chris mccandless didn’t deal with people very often in his travels. and of course, they were both men. on top of the fear i would feel (maybe constantly) if i were completely alone in my travels, my mother would never let go to any location remote or un-remote by myself, no matter how old i was. because she knows how unsafe it is for a woman alone. and i hate to admit that there are things i can’t do, but i don’t even know if my weak arms could pull me onto a train without help, let alone survive a flash flood or kill and skin an animal for food. and that depresses me, that my life experiences are always going to be limited by my biology.

highlights from rockaway:

what my weekend looked like:

adventuring.

since the weather was so pleasant and so many of our friends left seattle for the three-day weekend, josh and i decided to go on an adventure yesterday. we had batted around a few ideas of places we could go (cascade loop, chuckanut drive, etc.) but couldn’t decide, so we opted to just get on i-5 north and see what we came up with.

we got up to everett and saw a sign for marine view drive, which sounded promising, so we drove out that way. the sun was sitting low in the sky, and was the light was reflecting off the marina in such a picturesque way.

it’s very seldom that i see light do amazing things like that, so i asked josh to explain to me how light works. all of the scientific terminology kind of made my head spin, but from what i understood, the fusion of atoms creates varying wavelengths, and each wavelength translates to a different shade of color. and according to josh, trees aren’t really green. he kind of lost me on that one. but wow, science must be okay if it can explain how something so beautiful happens.

the daylight was fading, so we decided to keep moving and try to find a place where we could watch the sun set. we kept driving north and when we got a little past marysville, we saw a sign for camano island, which sounded infinitely promising. we turned off and drove so many miles, through lots of trees and on winding roads and over dipping hills, to get to the beach front. the road signs were really ambiguous and i was frustrated and stressed, but once we got onto the beach, all of that melted and i was just speechless at how gorgeous my surroundings were. the sun had just set, and the mountains were outlined in blue, with yellow reflecting off of the water.

it was one of those moments where i felt so big and so small at the same time. i felt like all of the intellectual torture i subject myself to in trying to figure out the universe was meaningless, because i was looking at something beautiful, and i didn’t care if i understood why it was beautiful or if i knew it was beautiful. it just was, and i believed it.

three cheers for spiritual experience through nature!

i don’t think yesterday could have been any better. seeing amazing things with one of my favorite people, driving at high speeds whilst smoking and listening to good music, having good conversations and hugging the silences. yes, it was a very good day.