A New Home

After speaking with an old friend last night, I decided it was time to get back to writing...if for anyone at all...for her. No one ever mentioned that they were looking out for me to write again. So here I am.

We have changed addresses and with everything that comes along with it...the good and the bad...it's an adventure. I have learned more about who I am in the past month than any trip we have ever been on. We moved into the Noble House Farm B&B where they put us up in the barn (converted into an apartment) next to the pond on their 50 acre plot outside Ithaca city. It was a cozy few months with mole encounters, meeting new guests (both dogs and humans) that vacationed at the B&B, listening to coyotes at dusk, watching meteor showers, finding mice fetuses in the oven range, picking burs off Stella after long hikes, reading, talking for hours at dinner, not having cell phone reception, We also had a chance to catch up on all the movies old guests had graciously left including Ice Age and Ice Age 2 The Meltdown, All the Right Moves, The Nanny, Shrek 2 etc. We watched them because some nights...there was nothing else. With an 8 inch television and no cable, you take what you can get.

As fate would have it, there was one movie that made it all worth while. An early 90's film called Grand Canyon about the separate lives of these characters in LA. They each have a set of worries and problems they are facing and Simon, played by Danny Glover, is talking to Kevin Kline (Forget his characters name) and he says: "You ever been to the Grand Canyon? Its pretty, but thats not the thing of it. You can sit on the edge of that big ol' thing and those rocks... the cliffs and rocks are so old... it took so long for that thing to get like that... and it ain't done either! It happens right there while your watching it. Its happening right now as we are sitting here in this ugly town. When you sit on the edge of that thing, you realize what a joke we people really are... what big heads we have thinking that what we do is gonna matter all that much... thinking that our time here means didly to those rocks. Just a split second we have been here, the whole lot of us. That's a piece of time so small to even get a name. Those rocks are laughing at me right now, me and my worries... Yeah, its real humorous, that Grand Canyon. Its laughing at me right now. You know what I felt like? I felt like a gnat that lands on the ass of a cow chewing his cud on the side of the road that you drive by doing 70 mph." It reminded me of watching the sun rise and set at the Canyon and just how much it changed me too. It does that. Every one of those parks does that. Puts you in your place. It helps me realize what I'm doing. If you get a chance, check it out...the movie and the Canyon.

I could tell you the whole story of how we got the house...but I'll save that for later.

Here we are...stoking the fire, eating turkey soup and apple pie a la mode. Trying to fall into a routine is tough...I suppose that just happens on its own over time. For now...we listen to NPR in the morning and strangely enough the Writer's Almanac is always featured at the exact time we cruising highway 13 into city center for work. The silos Mr. Garrison Kellior and his ancient voice read us poetry and remind me of how important it is to keep writing. This morning he mentioned the birthday of Jean de Brunhoff who wrote the stories of Babar for his children. I used to watch Babar on HBO in the mornings growing up. I had flashbacks of the royal elephant family and could see myself so vividly...sitting in front of the television waiting for the day to start with Babar.

He also spent time on author John Milton and celebrating his birthday today. The man who sold Paradise Lost for ten pound and "coined more than 600 words, including the adjectives dreary, flowery, jubilant, satanic, saintly, terrific, ethereal, sublime, impassive, unprincipled, dismissive, and feverish; as well as the nouns fragrance, adventurer, anarchy, and many more." All we could say after Garrison finished the list was "wow." Wow is right. The thought of coining any term...nonetheless one as terrific as the actual word "terrific"...Imagine not being able to think of a word that describes a person who seeks risks or exciting experiences...what would we call them other than an adventurer??

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing" It's moments when I am overwhelmed with the rate at which time is flying by, when I don't know why certain things happen, when I can't find comfort, when I am a stranger, when I don't understand...this saves me. Each time I realize I am the adventurer...things seem more of a triumph. Sometimes I miss things being so easy. Not getting lost on a coffee run...taking the back way home, water that doesn't smell like Yellowstone...but how boring would life be without obstacles and adventure...what if I never met that certain someone who changed me forever. I'll keep choosing the rocky road until something breaks...then I'll get up and take it again. Speaking of Rocky Road.....=)