In Santa Fe, NM. Things are starting to turn around on the trip I think.  It's been good to see old friends, but I've spent a lot of it anxious, worried, depressed.  Going to the Grand Canyon today and then Cali.  Taking a guy I met at the hostel there.  He has been on greyhound and I've never been to the grand canyon, so I figure why not.  Sante Fe is the most beautiful place I've seen.  I may move here at some point.  Looked at a college here and missed the class I was supposed to sit in on because I got lost in town, but so is life.  Talked to a girl from New Zealand today and a couple guys from Texas.  She was heading east.  They're heading west.

I'll try to write a more in depth blog later about life and such.  Had to get a new tire in Texas.  Lucky it didn't blow out.

Made it to South Carolina.  Having a good time with Josh and Jenn.  Anxious about the next legs of my trip.  I mentioned that in my last post I think, but oh well.  Don't feel like I have anything important to say, but that may or may not be true.  Getting plenty of sleep on the trip, but I've felt tired a good portion of the time.  I got to cook dinner last night--portabella sandwiches.  Tonight I'm making fried rice.  I'm writing about some pretty exciting stuff.  Oh, yesterday we went to Myrtle Beach.  The weather turned out well for us and I got ocean 1 knocked off my trip.  I only have three more to go.  We only have 4 oceans these days, right?  Probably I'll just notch the 2 I've already seen--the Atlanty and the Pacify (the y's pronounced as long e's on both)--but you never know it could be more.

Wishing that I had a useful skill to offer on this trip, like juggling, carpentry, masonry, or fire-breathing.  Don't want to just receive on this trip, but to give.  Some people have suggested that I try to have fun on my "vacation."  I really don't want it to be a vacation.  I don't feel like I've done anything to merit a vacation.  I don't particularly want the relaxation that a vacation implies.  I want to be a productive member of our society, but not contribute to the screwed up values of our society.  Not that what I've done or what I'm doing shows that I've set any kind of standard or way of life which exceeds the ways of the world I disdain.  I've heard the term "moral compass" used in the past as something that guides you in the right direction, but how do you read it when wandering through a wilderness of magnets?  I guess that's when you look within or some happy horseshit like that.  I don't know.

When life hands you carrot cake, be suspicious.

I'm in DC.  Yesterday, went to the U.S. Botanic Garden before lunch. They have some really interesting info on medicinal plants and are holding an orchid exhibit right now--talks a lot about orchids and adaptation, made me think of the film.  The exhibit is worth going to and the film is worth watching. 

This may be the first time I've gotten to wander around DC by myself and it's kind of nice.  In the afternoon I went to the Freer Gallery of Art.  It has mostly exhibits from the East and Near East and quite a bit of it is religiously based.  The piece that hit me the most was a screen by Katsushika Hokusai called "Six Tama Rivers."  One section of the screen was a waterfall with birds above it and a splattering of paint that made me think of the effect in 300 with the splatters representing blood.  It jumps out the same way.  It's different than the splattering in a Pollack work.  I saw a real one of those one time and to see it in person as opposed to a print or a picture is way different.  It's more than just throwing paint on a canvas.  I'm thinking that I'll go to the National Gallery of Art this afternoon.  Don't know why I'm in an art mood.  I don't even like most of it..let me rephrase that...I respect most art, but a majority of it fails to resonate within my soul or some crap like that.  Sifting through that to find the few pieces that slap/punch/carress me in the face, junk, gut, heart or other part of my body is worth it though.

This weekend I'll be in South Carolina, Lord willing, to see the Reinards. I'm quite anxious about what the trip will bring after that because it becomes less structured and though I don't want it to be structured I have a fear of the unknown, but I mean shit every moment that we step into is unknown and then it's kind of known and then it's gone off to where moments go when they're past.  I wrote a poem about that not too awful long ago.  I didn't think it was very good, but I did it.  I guess art holds a residue of a moment or series of moments and thoughts and feelings and experiences and other stuff.  And maybe how/why we connect is like those handprint recognition things that I've seen in the movies and on television.  You put your hand on a screen and if it recognizes you, you're able to enter the chamber or start the vehicle.  When we look at art or experience many other things, we do the same thing kind of but it works on more of a spectrum. Depending on how our "handprint" matches up we get part of the chamber or feel part of the ride the vehicle can give us.  The acceptance or denial isn't always complete or incomplete.

Well, I think I'll shower now. Later, y'all.