Road Trip - California

I've somehow found myself in California. Not that I didn't expect to be here - I had the plans in my head since Asia - but with all the thinking I have been doing about my future, sometimes I feel like a walking zombie. I just looked up and here I was! Walking out of my sister's car onto a jasmine-scented street lined in flowering trees and green grass, just one block from a whizzing highway. Yes, LA it is. Does weather ever get this good on the east coast, even on our best days? If it does, it will never feel as good as it does out here. We are missing the chill vibe that makes it sink in.

I am happy to be here. It's not enough of a change to shock you out of your senses like Asia; rather, its just another location from which I will continue to exist, and continue my stream of thinking. Hopefully the thinking will turn to action soon. I am busy researching variety of things. As a backup plan, I may work on a website for a green energy non-profit out here. Volunteering free services is somewhat of an egotistical endeavor I think - the people will always love and appreciate any work you do. You are working for free! But it is great to help people out, and it's always a good learning experience.

Tomorrow I start a 10 day road trip with my three siblings, two boyfriends (one of each sister), and one sister's friend. Should be a hoot. We are hitting all the big national parks that the lucky west coasters seem to know and love: Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Big Sur and other delights. I'll leave you with some words from a Bright Eyes song we played today (which may or may not have anything concrete to say? but somehow still resonates traveling):

Well I'm changing all my strings
I'm gonna write another travelin' song
about all the billion highways
and the cities at the break of dawn
I guess the best that I can do now
is to pretend that I've done nothing wrong
and to dream about a train
that's gonna take me back where I belong

Well now the ocean speaks and spits
and I can hear it from the interstate
and I'm screamin' at my brother on a cellphone
he is far away
And I'm saying nothing in the past or future
ever will feel like today
until we're parking in an alley
just hoping that our shit is safe

So I go back and forth forever
All my thoughts they come in pairs
Oh I will, I won't, I doubt, I don't,
I'm not surprised but I never feel quite prepared