weareallsosmall

tonight i am in a hotel room in el centro, california. el centro looks like shirley, ny, with palm trees. a busy 4 way intersection with every direction smelling like fast food.

ive been away from the interworld for what feels like quite some time. a lot has happened since my last post. i am, a procrastinator. i always have been, and most likely always will be. even down to my emotional state. it was ten days before our scheduled departure date from san diego, and i was feeling just fine. genuinely, on a scale from 1 to 10 my nervousness was about a 2 and a half. in fact, it worried me more that i was so abnormally calm. so i put off worrying. ross and my friend rob was planning on visiting before we left. on the night of the 17th ross went to pick him up at the airport and was met with quite a surprise! not only rob, but our friends brian and john were here with him. omg. suprise times three! best last weeek in san diego ever. no wait this gets even better. two days later, im walking home from getting a sweet haircut, eating some salsa verde doritos, and two crazy girls are RUNNING TOWARDS ME, or the bus stop, no wait they are heading RIGHT towards ME, i ignore people intentionally mostly and i catch a glimpse of this one girl, she has a tattoo JUST LIKE stephanies, and long dark curly hair, but thats not even crazy its just NOT POSSIBLE, ok they are TOUCHING ME and HUGGING ME and O! O! it is!! its STEPHANIE and BECCA and they are in california, and hugging me and look up the street! its jeff! beccas husband! and ross, laughing because he knew this the whole time. TRIPLE HAPPINESS! so to make a very long story a very short story, i spent the ten days before leaving california on a bicycle trip to new york with the best people ever, california friends AND long island friends!

so back to my procrastination. they all left, and it all hit me at once. i had an entire apartment to clean, things to send home, bank account to close, last minute things, saying my farewells, and gah, im leaving california, and im not leaving because i dont want to be here. i love it here. but im going on an adventure. and i love those also, so i told myself, and we left. right on schedule, friday the 26th. bridgett, drew, and dewayne saw us off and our friends richard and gabe and his friend rode a few miles out of the city with us and then we were off. and the past three days have been unlike any other.

its only been three days and i have become so incredibly aware of the force of nature. ive always been someone to go and play outside in the dirt, and climb trees, and explore land, but ive never been so aware of the forces driving this planet, and the cycles and every day natural happenings. we take for granted that every twenty four hours the sun rises and every day, somewhere there are clouds forming, and winds blowing. the trees just grow and the mountains just form. this is all just out of our control. our planet is a very special place, and alot of people dont recognize it, or even think about the fact that we live on a planet, in a universe.

the past three days i have rode up and down over 4000 feet, through citys and mountains and now desert. and i have only traveled 140 miles. but i am quite tired, and must rest, for tomorrow there are many more miles to be ridden.