I’m having coffee and conversation with the mountains this morning. Life(dot)next Desert Directive kicked off yesterday and the weekend is going to be stellar. I mean, we’ve all been gifted kaftans from Abu Dabi already. Even if nothing else fruitful happens the retreat has already been a success.
BUT a lot more will happen.
and now for the more relaxing portion of our vacay:
this was the part i needed: these morning views, long walks and talks with cousinfriends, explorations in the woods, naps, family meals, cool night breezes, anne morrow lindbergh. we don’t take relaxation vacations enough. our travels always seem to be packed around some central activity, i.e. music festival, and i’ve been reminded that we need to slow it down every once in a while. at least i do. i would love a long weekend in the woods. or a few do-nothing days by the sea. it seemed to be good for darla, too. i forget that she gets shuffled around to lots of daily activities and maybe she just needs some time to be fluid.
thank you for being good to me for so many years, maine. we hope to visit you again in the near future.
we woke up in franklin, tennessee this morning.
i wish i could blame portals or teleportation, however, the truth is we made the drive down yesterday.
my man knows me and suggested the franklin mercantile for breakfast. it’s one of my all time favorite munching spots.
see how adorbs the place is. how could i not love it? plus the food is pretty stellar. please take note of my fruit tea pictured above. it seems to be a combination of a peach juice & iced tea. i will be attempting a recipe when i get home and let you know on here if i succeed. if i fail, well, i’ll never mention it again and this post will fall away into obscurity. easy enough.
we spent the sweltering afternoon escaping the heat – 102 or 103 i think – at a screening of The Wizard of Oz at the franklin theater. i loved seeing it on the big screen. i catch more hilariously brilliant writing and dialogue every time i see it. the theater was beautiful AND i was able to get a yazoo hefeweizen and popcorn for $7. win win win.
i think i like this slow southern style. it serves us well during these hotsie totsie summer days. that and fruit tea.
here’s the rest of darla’s vacation. i say “darla’s vacation” because there is a noticeable lack of any photos of me, meg or my lovely girl friends. just darla, cory and elsa. it looks like they all had a great week together, huh? oh well, jussgonnahavtagoback!
THIS is a mike wright smile
i love these last two pictures. darla was trying to argue with me about something probably inconsequential and then she was trying to be indignant. it’s pretty hard to take an indignant banana seriously… i can’t wait to put these pics on a graduation announcement some day.
we had lots of adventures, a good deal of which were not captured on film because i was trying to put the camera down, have conversations and be present some of the time.
i would say darla’s first trip to “Lost Angeles” was a success.
i’m feeling the weight of vacation de-programming at the moment. i have a million things to do around the house. I spent the earlier hours of my alone time doing some doula prep that will hopefully come in handy this week – can’t wait to meet you harley! – and i really should be getting rest in case the phone rings in 3 hours but for some reason i can’t stop looking up used RVs. while we were flying over the desert and i was telling darla all about the grand canyon i had that familiar buzzing inside my head that says “you know you want to just pack your whole family in a mobile home and drive all over me…”
guess what? the desert is right! it’s in my head and it knows. I DO want to drive all over it. I want the freedom of being a rubbertramp, a vagabond, a nomad. I look really good in cut-off jean shorts and that’s all the proof i need that my true life destiny is to wander the country’s highways aimlessly.
if i ever get a year to just do what my heart desires it would be to travel the country in an RV – nothing swanky, actually something vintage would be preferable – and my goal would be to stop in every state and see every single person we know at least once. even if it’s only for a brief 10 min coffee. how incredible would that be to compile? it would be a whole life’s worth of memories because other people are your memories. they hold the keys to your past.
big sigh. bigger sigh.
please universe? i put it out there. now you do your thang.
birthday celebrations were pretty much everything i wanted.
a day at the beach, sun, girls chasing seagulls…ya know…everything a lady hopes to come true on her last birthday in her 20s.
the day ended with dinner with a wonderful group of friends. perfectly perfect.
oh yeah, there was this:
i’m sitting here with a to-do list of which only about half will get done by the time we have to get on the plane for california tomorrow morning.
yeah, that’s right. once i said that in my brain i thought “the hell with it, i’m going to california tomorrow! i don’t have to do it if i don’t wanna.” so i went downstairs and made myself a cocktail instead.
here’s to 10 days with friends, and sunshine and new scenery. annnnnd here’s to putting things off for a good reason. clink. clink. i just cheersed myself. and made up the word cheersed. see i’ve been so much more productive after this drink.
ps. cali friends we’re so excited to squeeze you. columbus friends we’re excited to squeeze you when we get back, too. oh gosh, and everyone everywhere else we’ll be excited to see you and squeeze you when we get to see and squeeze you. there. did i cover everyone? no one offended? good. ‘night y’all!
momjeanz 