Denver.
Colorado is awesome. The Glenwood Springs area may well surpass Montreal for my single favorite place on Earth. It’s simply completely breathtaking.
Well. No, wait. In fact, it’s not. Because Colorado air feels a little lighter, probably because I’m a little higher (mile high and risin’, baby!), and good, deep breaths feel awesome. I don’t remember the last time I’ve been able to take a good, deep breath I didn’t in the next instant hack onto the pavement.
The roadtrip was spectacular. I bypassed the Grand Canyon, figuring it’s pretty much a giant hole in the ground, in favor of driving up through Monument Valley and the Valley of the Gods. Straight through Moab, which makes Utah, I think, nearly my thirtieth state I’ve been through, so that’s kinda cool. Moab was gorgeous. So was Williams, AZ, especially at 9 in the morning.
Lots of pictures. Even a video.
Colorado is my fourth state since Wednesday.
My lower back is totally killing me right now. I think I strained something moving out on Wednesday. It’s actually an aggravation of an old injury I gave myself, ironically, on the occasion of my leaving Manhattan/Jersey City for the very last time. I don’t think it’s a slipped disk (I’m pretty sure I’d be in far greater pain); I think I just knotted up a muscle just above my coccyx.
Yeah, I just wanted to write coccyx and have it be medically accurate (no, wait. Actually it’s not. It’s above my pelvis. So that’d probaby be lumbar, now I think of it).
As you can probably tell, I’m not doing much thinking at the moment. I’m just sitting here typing, listening to Better Than Ezra. Looking to see if I can find a Denver restaurant from which I can order some venison to go (because that’d be rad), and looking forward to an evening of ibuprofen, good beer, food, and House, M.D..
Because, apparently, what you do when you turn thirty is leave Los Angeles, throw your back out, drive a thousand miles, and arrive there precisely two years to the day after you arrived in Los Angeles.
Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that. I turned thirty last weekend.
Which is why I’m on the far side of a lot of things. The far side of thirty. The far side of my roadtrip.
Of course, from my perspective, right now, this is really the near side. Because the sun just keeps rising in front of me and setting behind me, and forward is the only direction in life worth going, if you ask me.
Not that you did.
But hey, I’m a little heady and a little introspective and a little in love with a lot of things.
Maybe it’s the extra oxygen from these deep breaths (oxygen makes you high, as anyone who’s ever watched Fight Club knows).
Then again: nah.
May 16, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Welcome home, William. Hope this new decade treats you well.
May 17, 2008 at 12:27 am
My mom has a slipped disk among other things. If you had one you would know it. Just the same, I would see a doctor about a two year injery that reacures every so often before it becomes something really serious. Like, something you have to have a electro box installed in your back for. I think someone has been lagging in their yoga either way.
I knew your birthday was comin up. I should have sent you that card two weeks ago like I wanted but I didn’t want to sentd it early. Oh well.
Other then breathing, what do you want to do in Colrado. make the sequel to Broke Back Mountain using My Gay Cowboy blog as inspiration?
May 17, 2008 at 7:16 am
@Alma: thank you.
@Gotham: actually, it’s a seven-year injury by now (I left Manhattan in 2001), but you’re right; I’ve been lagging in a lot of things for a while.
As for my plans in Colorado, there are lots of prospects. I think I’m going to finally recertify as a personal trainer, and I think I might do a master’s degree at Regis University, in religious studies.
May 17, 2008 at 1:03 pm
I’m so incredibly happy for you. Road trips are good times. I’ve driven accross both Canada and The U.S. – and even though I was quite young, I still remember how much of an adventure it was.
I’ve just started packing today.
I’m not moving accross the country, no. But, in about five weeks… (June 27th to be exact), I’ll be pouring a glass of wine in my new house.
I get the shivers envisioning that moment.
Nevermind the moment when I say:
“I do”
That’s even more incredible.
May 17, 2008 at 7:32 pm
I’m geniuninely shocked. Hard to do. good luck with being a personal trainer again. Why did you quit that in the first place?
May 19, 2008 at 5:59 am
Happy Belated Birthday. I actually had it on my calendar from last year’s blog but there is something about the arrival of twin infants into my life that has made computer access sporadic at best. I hope that the venison, if found, was excellent and your night threw some unexpected pleasantries your way. Now, to be a truly good web acquaintance I will spend the next few days of baby breaks catching up on your blog. I shall leave you with a question… Got Entrekin? 🙂