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The Road Trip
August 14, 2004 01:13:31 AM
I saw the most beautiful horse. With a rust red coat, a white rump flecked with black spots and the long, uneven, ebon mane of a stallion he reminded me of the treasured war horses of the Native Americans. Just as the roaming herds of burly, brown bison spotted the lush greens plains of Yellowstone, brown and black cattle dotted the gentle rolling hills that meander along quiet rivers and babbling streams of Montana. The bright stars are so close I feel as if I could reach out and touch them. It was light out until ten o'clock (the mosquitoes had been out since 7, however). Like smeared paint on an oil canvas, the fog blurred the tips of the trees that grace Oregon's forrested hills. As we drove past one of Oregon's many beautiful (and freezing cold) bays, I could see a thick barrier of omonous grey clouds. At times I had to wonder whether they were really mountians closing in the deep waters or if they truly were only clouds. In Tillamook Valley (homes of the cheese)the dairy cows were so enormous they make the ones in my own hometown look like a child's plastic playtoys. In one of the many barren fields, having been recently relieved of their golden wheat, we passed a small, BLACK CAT with splattered white on his chest SAT PLACIDLY WATCHing ((sorry CAPS Lock turned on and I'm too lazy to retype))the watching the dusty cars pass by on his dirt road.I never realized what a real forest was. The trees are manifold giants who dare tresspassers to enter their shadowded depths. Vines, grasses, and shrubs clog the rare space not inhabited by a tree. They tangle your footsteps. The forest is not uniform and the same. The towering titans many different hues and their long limbs interlace, working together to blot out the light. Many towns here are merely wide spots in the two-lane, traffic free road. With no obvious sources of recreation (Like malls, movie theaters, starbucks, even McDonalds for crieing out loud) I had to wonder what kids out there do for fun. (Don't tell me cowtipping, even I'm not that stupid). I also wondered where they got there food, they couldn't possibly grow or raise everything. Where were the grocery stores? I've also been forced to reconsider what I thought was the average size of a family. I always thought 2-3 kids was normal. Well, it turns out it's 6-10. I can just picture any of you who are from somewhere less urban dieing from laughter as you read this. Then again, you probably couldn't last 10 minutes in a real city (that means a population above 15,000 complete with traffic, rush hour, smog, and slums inhabited mainly by illegal aliens AKA undocumented workers if you wish to be politically correct. You know that is something Californians are very good at.)You would be swindled, pickpocketed, beat up for wearing your hat the wrong way, put in the ICU and shot immeadetly shot upon release all in 5 minutes. Or, you could simply have a heart attack when you saw the gas prices. Last night when we turned the corner and I could see the house I was overwhelmed with emotion. With what emotion, I'm not sure. Joy (to have the internet back), relief (that there was once again a Starbucks on every block and the small malls had at least 50 stores), sorrow (because I forgot to clean my room before we left), but it was probably dissapointment. Before I had been so proud of my beautiful neighborhood. However, now the trees seemed few and unnatural. The houses looked crowded together. The grass was perfectly manicured but that was no longer a good thing. It meant no more western terrestrial garter snakes, no more fat bullfrogs, no mossy ponds with mosquitoe fish, no babbling brooks filled with minnows, no more fishing at midnight. It meant worring once more over trivial problems that never seem to bother my hick cousins, it meant once again being confined to the indoors, it meant no more putting snakes around my female cousin's necks and listening to them scream, it meant no more midnight swims in the lake, but most of all it meant once again worring and fretting over how to do my hair, what to wear, what shoes matched what, hiding my quirks and irksome habits and knowing that even when I did all this have a very slim chance of really being liked. If I did none of this noone would want to be friends with me. If I did all of that then it wasn't me they knew but some fake doll. I most definetly felt disapointment. Ah, most of this is excerpts from my journal, so it any of it sounds wierd or pieced together or cut off that is why.

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