Monday, June 28, 2010

paintings in a cave

this is our bridge, where we could hang out and no one would know that we were they and what we were doing which was mostly to drink wine coolers and talk, but the privacy seemed so devastatingly important back then.




hmm this looks scary.


yes this is exactly as scary as we thought it would be; also it is hard to climb this ladder carrying a sixpack and a flashlight wearing flip flops thinking about how horror movies always begin with young energetic folks deciding to explore dark weird places.


okay, through the looking glass.


finally it's not scary.









Saturday, June 26, 2010

a trip to the amusement park

sodbileg stayed with my family for a few days this summer while between jobs. it was his greatest wish to go to an amusement park and ride some big american roller coasters before he left us, and i was elected to take him to dorney. this turned out to be sooo much fun.


roller coaster


giant gumball machine


carousel!


steel force


rawr!


swings!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

i love you pennsylvania, but i think i am allergic to you.

my allergies aren't so bad in the morning, but the tickle in my sinuses only gets more obnoxious, and my throat gets so sore that swallowing bothers my ears; eventually the edges of my eyelids itch as though i'm wearing poison ivy for eyeliner. i hold off as long as i can, but in the late afternoon i give in and take allergy medication. my eyes don't itch but i'm discombobulated and painfully tired. my inability to figure out or do anything frustrates me so i try to nap but i can't fall asleep because my heart is racing and my nerves are twitching and something vague is bothering me. eventually the confusion and anxiety subside and my body is calmed by an immobilizing hopelessness that washes over me.
i have tried 4 different kinds of allergy medicine; i wouldn't describe any of them as a 'relief'.


Thursday, June 17, 2010

on the road

We left the Colorado foothills at midnight on a Tuesday; and we sped across the Great Plains in the dewy morning; over Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, sparkling and alive with fireflies, then out to the sandy dunes of North Carolina's Outer Banks to rest our tired heads. Two thousand miles in thirty-six hours; stopped twice but no tickets.

Naturally, we screamed Bright Eyes lyrics into the Nebraskan sunrise Wednesday morning.

We tried to nap in Lincoln, and wait to meet my friend Stephanie, but the road was calling us and we could not wait.

So on we drove, until we reached North Carolina, at noon on Thursday.

We swam and sunbathed, drank gin and tonics to keep cool during the hottest hours of the afternoon. At night we drank whiskey and wine and the darkness swallowed us because no moon came out. We lived like kings for two days then piled back into the car, in which, sun roof open, we headed north, across the churning Chesepeake, and through the quiet states of Maryland and Delaware, finally, finally, to be home in Pennsylvania.