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I stepped onto Market Street at 11:30 with the intent of buying shoes and packing.  I somehow completed both in under two hours.  Two spare lenses, two pieces of bedding, two sets of spare clothing, and two toothbrushes, proving that I had made a poor inventory.  Two bags, two light sources and too much time that had passed since I had experienced “elsewhere”.  My inventory for the trip was simple but the inventory for myself was less obvious.   My physical abilities were a shadow.   This time last year I was prepping for a half marathon.  This year I was struggling to finish a 5k.  The shoes on my feet felt beyond me being “Moab Desert Hikers”.  I was maybe worth Crocs.  My emotional state wasn’t what I wished it had been.  “Micro USB cable” never made it onto my check list leaving me stuck for charge until I touched down in Vegas and I was sweating the whole time.  The cabin of the airplane seemed cramped and I started softly sobbing when two kids started crying after we had taken off.

Then I looked around the cabin at the sacred cattle of humanity and started to calm down.  Nothing from Philadelphia could bother me here; I could edit photos, and I did; I could nod off, and I did; and I could chew on things.  The fellow next to me saw me editing photos and struck up a conversation.  He said “within 10 years the photographer will be dead”.  By the time I landed I had myself an enemy and couldn’t have been happier.  We traded numbers and I wandered to my hotel, hoping to never see him again.  The night was bring with opportunity, appropriate for Vegas.

The Excalibur was the cheapest place to stay so there I did.  I laid out my things on the other twin bed for no reason, I was leaving the next morning.

 

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Contentment as a feeling is somewhat alien to me. The feeling of “this is nice” is usually tied to some other emotion like a need for me to do something to maintain that state like when I’m running a Scout event or hosting a get together. It’s something I experience rarely and only with a select group of people and the last four days have probably been the longest stretch of it that I can remember outside of the blissful simplicity of childhood. Our memory usually on remembers peaks and the end rather than averages and I suppose in this regard I am lucky. I crave that vast middle of experience and can remember it.

Over dinner on Saturday, the server asked how we were and I gave my standard response of a slightly loud, slightly excited “ok”. A dinner companion glared at me and said “after today you can only muster an ‘ok’?” She was right in her joking indignation. My emotional half-life from peaks seems to be faster than most but a slightly longer lingering period. In 2009, Pat, Joe, and I took a camping to Acadia National Park that I still ruminate on fondly. While considering it, I will have a notable improvement in my mood assuming I can prevent myself from falling into the trap of “so why haven’t you done it again?” and I remember both the interesting bits like meeting CJ and the more quotidian aspects of lounging in the campsite. This extended weekend provided me with about a dozen of those memory touchstones. I’m curious which I will often call upon and which will fall away.

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  1. The middle seat of a minivan is usually roomier than the front seat if the vehicle was built before 2005.
  2. Ask anyone going on a long trip if the have bowel problems first, if so give them diapers and ban them from approaching soda machines.
  3. Never insult the driver, even if he can’t hear you yell at him to avoid the car in the next lane because he has earbuds in.
  4. Hardee’s makes a great burger, and if it’s your first time, a wonderful solid Draino.
  5. If they have a big collection of cards, they’re probably fat, if they have good points, they’re probably pale, if they refuse to identify themselves, they’re probably that dick from the forums.
  6. Never have the last waffle made before the batter is changed at a motel breakfast bar.
  7. Red Lobster is just nice enough that poor people dress up to go there, like I did as a kid going to the Ground Round.
  8. Love handles block A/C vents.
  9. Driving at 85 but stopping every hour to pee or get gas averages out to above 65.
  10. Chicago has 80 cent tolls.  Yep, you heard me, 80 cent tolls.  I’ve never left a city with more dimes.
  11. Two people who are both light sleepers and snore should not share a room.
  12. Never insult the tournament organizer’s girlfriend.
  13. Never hit on the tournament organizer’s girlfriend.
  14. Never hit the tournament organizer’s girlfriend.
  15. Chicago apparently puts it fountains in bathrooms (broken urinal) while Philly puts them in park squares.
  16. The driver should not be allowed to participate in the time honored game of holding your breath through a tunnel if the tunnel is more than a mile long…. or there’s traffic.

Pictures coming soon.