So we’ve found an apartment. After camping for 2 months under the tamarisk in Kane Creek, we got a place. A funny story, actually. I called about some office space for rent and asked if they wouldn’t consider renting it out for residential. They said, no of course. But that morning and the lady had heard that a spot had opened up and the girl couldn’t afford it and moved out. Perfect.
Anyway, we’d been partying – a lot. This is one of those crazy summer jobs where you work all day and play all night. The gang is getting along great – we all feel like we’ve known each other for years. Maybe it’s a karma thing – I don’t know.
In reading back some of what I’m writing is very adolescent and I’m shaking my head at how ridiculous I sound in parts. Ah well, it was the feelings at the time, I suppose.
Well, it’s June. I can’t believe it I think this summer is flying by. I just got back from visiting Greg in Albuquerque. He’s doing really well and I’m happy for him. I’m not getting much work right now, but it’s relaxing I know within a couple months impending work every day.
Drew and I have been hanging out a lot. It’s weird to have a “best mate” dare I sawy- down here. We camped in Negro Bill canyon last night – underneath an arch. It was fantastic.
I’m back on Moab, UT and I’m a river guide, FINALLY! It all started with Adrift. I went on their training trip and didn’t get hired. Everyone else – other guides – seemed to think it was a rip-off, but I learned quite a bit. Regardless, afterward I went to Tag-A-Long Expeditions,which is where I got hired. I hung around the yard to get my training done and now I’m licensed. I took my qualifying trip on my birthday in a duckie. I got word the next day.
So, this is the next chapter in my journey. After holding this job, as far as today, I will have held almost every job which I found “romantic.” The people I’ve met so far are fantastic. Pretty much everyone from the Adrift trip I’m hanging out with. Drew O, one guy we get along really well so far, Holly E and Two Dogs. These are definitely some of the most mellow people I’ve met in a long long time. I’m sitting here next to the Colorado River, completely content. I finally feel like I can look at someone and say, I’ve done that, been there, do that. Almost like I’ve proved to myself, actually more so to other people, that I can and I do. Maybe I’m reaching that hard-core mentality where you already know and everyone else probably figures you do.
I haven’t been inspired to write in months. I quit both my jobs and am in Moab taking a first-responder class. I didn’t realize how cathartic it is for me down here. Wow. I drove in and had to get out of the car to walk around. I feel very much in synch with the world and zen right now. I feel like what most people imaging happiness is. I fell so liberated from everything.
Running around on the red rocks “frolicking” dare I say. I don’t think I even felt like this when I was in Alaska. The desert is so simple yet complex. I know that’s why I love it.
Society asks why we crave nature and wildness. I think (for me anyway) that we lose ourselves so much in what we do for what we think is our well-being that we forget when everything is taken away, we still have ourselves. We are striving for such a perfect zen that we don’t realize that we’re trying too hard. I think it’s moments of complete peace we strive for. Going by myself, no one else to worry about or entertain helps a lot. But, I suppose there’s a little remorse in everything. Maybe it’s the memories of Spring Break Desert Trips in high school and that’s why it means so much.