the holiday and snow's redemption for a week late arrival has reserved all lanes for one and allows my mind to drift. somewhere across town, phil is no doubt driving with driver's side window down, unnecessarily sporting thick black wraparound sunglasses and violently shaking his head to lcd soundsystem. oh, and of course, right hand on the wheel while the left is pumping like a piston out the window.
the last time i saw phil, three months ago in chicago, he was covered neck to knee in denim, screeching "debra" in his best beck falsetto at six oc'lock in the morning with a mean sweat-fall running from his chin down to a frightened female party goer. if she hadn't passed out and/or gone deaf by mid song, she surely succumbed to both by song's end. i cannot remember which. poor girl.
phil has chutzpah.
today, phil is returning and recovering from a two month road trip across big sky country and the u.s. pacific west (see: philiplauri.blogspot.com). i mention recovering because, to be quite honest, you looked like dog shit, phil; week old grizzly stubble, matted down mullet and unbrushed teeth for god knows how long. okay, MAYBE i'm exaggerating. maybe. the jist of our conversation in a desolate mcdonald's booth, drinking shitty coffee and tasting the childhood in my mcnuggets:phil: how are you? what are you up to? what 's next?
me: you look awful
phil: (mildly annoyed laughter) seriously, how's it going?
me: seriously. you look awful. things are alright, i guess. waiting tables, passing time. i want to travel. i want to go to south america. mark and i trying to go for a few weeks in march.
phil: why don't you just go now?
me: huh?
phil: just go! jesus, if you feel you need to go, then damn it man, just go. everything else is bologna and cheese. (phil did not actually say bologna and cheese, however, it being a staple phrase of the man, i felt obligated to include it here)
good call, phil. i'm not certain why it took him making this simple and obvious statement for me to fly south. either way, four days later, i booked a one way flight to santa marta, colombia. the idea is to eventually make it to ushuaia, argentina, but, things can, and inevitably will, change. i hope to update this blog as frequently as my travels allow to let you know i'm alive and where i have been.
i will be meeting up with some friends along the way and by all means, if you are reading this and happen to be paying a visit to south america, please let me know!
why the long travel? why south america? why????
these seem to be the most common questions. i could say its simply an escape from "normal" life. or an extension of a previously planned vacation (although, i don't really think of this as a vacation as much as an education). or an attempt to re-learn the spanish language. or to see if there is any nook i can fit into on that continent for more than a few months. or that i will be damned if i don't see as much of the world as i can while i can.
it's a combination of all those things and more. i don't think i can give a straight forward response because the biggest reason is probably that i don't know why. a lot of it comes from the gut. there are some magnificent destinations in my sights, but by and large, i am most anxious for the in betweens. the ups and downs. the unknowns. and there are a lot.
i can't say that i'll find what i'm looking for, what the hell that even means, or that i am even looking for anything at all.
i can say that travelling is an excellent thing. that it allows my mind to stretch to a place and perspective that it otherwise could not reach. that my curiosities are outweighing my fears.
what i can say, today, is that i don't much remember the drive home from mcdonald's, except for a stupid face-encompassing grin and day dreams floating heavily as the flakes. half quenching the curiosity those dreams are soaked with seemed like a good enough reason to take off. el cuento proximo sera de suramerica. if you made it this far, thanks for reading.
be good, michael
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