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I'd forget what I was doing and slip in and drown
because I carry lots of stuff all the time.
I used to plan medical support for exercise deployments of up to 3000 people. Ask my wife, when we go, I've got topo maps, Terraserver 6.0 aerial photos, weather forcasts, the lastest Index Map to California and Nevada (or other) earthquakes, local AAA maps, tourist info.
And I always have my Swiss Army Knife, except on the planes now. Or in the Museum of Tolerance in L.A.
(No, Whim, I don't lug my hatchets around).
posted by
majroj
on July 12, 2005 at 8:22 PM
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Majroj, in my mind I took a different route from my friend. Benzinha and I would make excellent traveling companions, in parallel universes of course, but we could pass a day and evening gazing at that river and then we part until the next times our paths crossed. I would be happy to bump into you in that place too
posted by
Azur
on July 12, 2005 at 2:36 PM
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Wandering must needs be done alone, mostly.
Most people wander to get away from schedules and plans. Unless the person with you is really "in synch" or just really synchophantic, their independence will make them want to wander somewhere you don't want to. And if they don't like wandering, then they won't want to wander with you in the first place.
Benzinha, four of us did the "ugly Amurrican" thing in Illinois at ROckome with the Amish. I still squirm..
posted by
majroj
on July 12, 2005 at 12:24 PM
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MayB....you took us on a lovely journey...nice description
Yes. "Impossible to replicate. The best things are." Thanks for your support yesterday. Here's a big click for you.
posted by
MedusaNextDoor
on July 12, 2005 at 9:23 AM
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I would love to travel one day.
I wonder if I'd be able to relax though? I never seem to be totally at rest. What you described sounds like bliss.
posted by
word.smith
on July 12, 2005 at 7:01 AM
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It sounds like you had a wonderfully relaxing time taking in the atmosphere. Good to see you back.
posted by
Ca88andra
on July 12, 2005 at 3:28 AM
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MayB, lilke you I open my mouth and invite people to meet 'what I love'
along with me, before I remember that my very favorite thing to is be alone and have my own time table. I sit for hours talking to friends and my companions sit restlessly, trying to distract me from this loving talk.
I want to stop at river banks and just sit for no reason, letting sunset decide that I must move on. They wonder at where we will go next and about how long we will stay here, staring at moving water.
I want everyone that I know and love to know everyone that I know and love, but, most often, they are best 'eaten up' by me alone. The quandry.
I too would rather watch an artisan than see a store with his things in it. I would rather try to grind corn and make tortillas than to eat at some fine restaurant. I would rather wander than have an intinerary and this makes me a terrible travelling companion.
In Mexico, I want to wander streets, stop in churches, talk to street vendors, waiters, teachers, street sweepers and beggars, rather than go ' into town' to shop, eat or to have some firm plan and time schedule.
Fresh food right out of the ground. Wonderful. My neighbor just moved out and I water his garden to keep the tomatoes alive, to eat one a day, hot in the sunshine, reddened on the vine.
Also, I am embarrassed by some lovely friends who visit my Navajo friend for example, and assume the most idiotic things or ask him about intimate things which are culturally wrong to talk about or who say some stereotypical thing which I try to keep out of our relationship. Culturally isolated people do that, so what can I do, but let my firneds learn to act differently next time? So, I now visit him alone every time.
posted by
benzinha
on July 12, 2005 at 1:24 AM
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Hear Hear.
I meant "Read, Read!".
posted by
majroj
on July 11, 2005 at 7:01 PM
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MayB, glad I found your writing.
And thanks for your comment, it brought me here. I know what you mean about traveling and really getting to see things from another perspective. If you haven't lived elsewhere and had to speak a language other than English for an extended period of time, you are missing a huge opportumity to gain perspective on what it means to be an "outsider" in any culture.
posted by
Cynthia
on July 11, 2005 at 4:00 PM
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I'm glad you are feeling better,
and your trip sounds just like heaven. I love trips like that, relaxed and geared for observation and reflection.
posted by
MerryAnne
on July 11, 2005 at 1:38 PM
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Girly-girl, thank you. The invisibility was probably harder to take because this blog was at no. 2 and 3 about three months ago and so it seemed odd not to be read much.
Yes, I agree having spent this time with my friend that she leads a more sheltered life than I realized. I think too that she is lonely and I think this time gave her something very real. It seemed to take her a while to adjust to sharing my attention with these people to whom I am very close.
posted by
Azur
on July 11, 2005 at 11:32 AM
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Quirky, sorry, so you wouldn't take a kitchen sink on a walk in the country either? Yes it is foolish isn't it? I don't know why she irritated me so much.
Actually the invisibility is a good thing. I'll revert to dipping in here but not back to my old bad habits. It is better to give time to stuff to send to agents. Now I am fit again I am prolific which feels good.
posted by
Azur
on July 11, 2005 at 11:21 AM
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You write beautifully
I loved reading your post. I got annoyed at your friend as well. She seems sheltered. Perhaps a bit ignorant or self-conscious? And yeah, i am always inviting others whom I don't necessarily want b/c I know they need to be invited for them! That's part of being who we are, I guess! I am sorry you feel invisible...sometimes we're popular, sometimes we're not, but write for yourself. You're good!
posted by
buttsup
on July 11, 2005 at 11:16 AM
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city rendezvous?? Oh no, you have that all wrong--I am 100% country girl.
Cities can scare the crap out of me--unless I am with someone who knows their way around.
You know as well as I do that blogging is not much about the quality of the writing...and esp. when they don't even click, there is no way to even know what is inside. So many times, depending upon who is here when I am, I feel like I am blogging in a vacuum, invisible...at a party where everyone is talking to everyone bue me...but I just continue to read what I want, comment when I want, and that is the way it is. What else can ya do?
posted by
Julia.
on July 11, 2005 at 11:15 AM
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QuirkyAlone, all this comment and I reeled in the readers ----- all 2 of them. It makes me wonder if I can write at all but then I think how can people judge when they don't even give you a try. I probably read about 50 posts in the past hour and commented on about 20 but I know I am odd. It makes me think to quit wasting time here too
posted by
Azur
on July 11, 2005 at 11:04 AM
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Archiew, I agree but the person I wanted to be with when I was traveling this time was actually not my partner but my son. I wanted to be opening a different world to him. Next time I will
posted by
Azur
on July 11, 2005 at 10:59 AM
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Re the invisibility: people get so caught up in the "blogging" discussions, they forget to read others. I skip that and read more other stuff. I accept that I will always have fewer readers now because that blogging stuff bores the pantaloons off me.
QuirkyAlone, don't worry__I see you very much as a the kind of friend for city rendevous.
posted by
Azur
on July 11, 2005 at 10:57 AM
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Roaming is more fun than traveling!
particularly if you roam with someone you love . . . .
posted by
archiew
on July 11, 2005 at 10:51 AM
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Just say my name and I'll come running, like a dog, lol.
I enjoyed your post, actually. I have not been out of the US except to Canada, and I would very much like to go. I am probably like your friend, would need to have my possessions with me. Unless you are talking about walking in the countryside, farmland etc., then that's just foolish.
Sorry you feel invisible...it happens to everyone who enjoys popularity on Blogit, then leaves for awhile. But your post the other day was on the "front page" so someone is reading. Perhaps they are like the ones who tell me they are my "quiet readers." --??
posted by
Julia.
on July 11, 2005 at 10:47 AM
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with the exception of QuirkyAlone of course
posted by
Azur
on July 11, 2005 at 10:40 AM
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Perhaps I should change to the "invisible blogger". It is a strange dynamic to visit and to comment on innumerable posts and have no response or readers.
posted by
Azur
on July 11, 2005 at 10:37 AM
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