DC to Cali: Part One

I grew up and lived in Virginia for 25 years of my life – sparing a four month hiatus to south Florida and multiple trips to Brazil in that span.  At the tender yet ripened age of 25, I inched across that line in my life, to the District of Columbia.  Now, I’m living in California.  

How quickly things change, I guess.

I think boldness has something to do with it.  There are many people in this world that barely ever, if at all, leave the town they grew up in.  Then there are people from those same towns, few they be at most, that feel the sudden sense of urgency to get the hell out of there, no matter what.  Then, there’s me, who still felt the sudden urge to get the hell out of there no matter what.  No one is wrong in this equation, and perhaps we should all just stay put.

But some of us just can’t, especially in this “global world,” where travel truly does happen at the drop of a dime.  The main difference being, that same dime is worth two pennies these days, but that’s just my two cents. 

In my opinion, every American should drive across the country at least once in their lifetime – from coast to coast, it doesn’t matter what route. Many people in this world made extraordinary journeys for many reasons.  That said, I think the experience the journey lends, builds souls on a massive scale.  From the cities to the forests, waters, mountains and plateaus, to the vast open plains, rolling hills, bayous and coasts, America’s beautiful nature truly bends the mind, eye and the spirit.

Anyways, DC to California.  Mari and I packed up what we could fit into our Honda Civic and headed to LA, all for my dream and disposition of trying to make a living in the film/creative industry. 

We took the southern route straight down 95, which was all too familiar, but the best way to visit friends and family in the southeast before embarking west.  We stopped into Savannah, my old Georgia stomping grounds, and a lot of memories of drunk times, Saint Patty's Day and boating.  Ran into an amazing old friend Earl along the way - he's holding it down in Savannah.  We drank true whiskey sours with raw egg at a legitimate corner spot downtown, and caught up with each other on the limited time we had.  

Mari and I headed for south Florida, to check in with my fam and stay the night.  We headed out to Mr. Manatees for fried seafood, and hung out on the inter-coastal.

The next day, I drove my brother to high school and checked him in late.  "Tardy."  It was totally my fault he was late, as I was driving to school slowly, just so I could have a chance to talk to him a bit longer.  I got out of the car to hug him.  He hugged me quick and rushed off hurriedly.  I didn't get what the rush was?  Oh shit, I guess I totally forgot that being a single minute late for high school is NOT AN OPTION.  

Have you ever checked a tardy kid into high school?  It's a sad  line of unfortunate misfits, who must go to the tardy office and stand in line to get signed in late.  The system.   

Amongst these poor little souls, I was confident because I was the older brother with the power to work the system.  I declared personal responsibility for his being late, as his older brother from out of town, and the lady who gave every other kid hell, gave him a pass.  Damn, where was the older version of me when I was in high school?  I smiled and told my little brother peace. 

We backtracked up 95 to Jacksonville, and headed straight west  for good.  

Whatever Will Become of This...

MindsEyeMuse is all about the finer things in life.  A collection of thoughts, imagery, and other random writings about the people, places, and ideas I’ve come across throughout my 27 [and counting] years.  A perception through my own distorted lens.  Perception is a thing to be both appreciated and applied cautiously, although I’m not sure where cautiously will come into play here.  I do consider myself pretty steady with grammar and syntax…

For the first blog post, I was going to find a nice quote to start with.  I like quotes because they’re inspiring.  Then I found Ralph Waldo Emerson's, "I hate quotations.  tell me what you know."  Well okay, thanks for the quote Ralph.  

For one thing, I can tell you that one can quite easily find some excellent Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes these days in mere seconds, through a simple search on a machine called Google, especially when a particular writer is feeling in a bine for his newly untested blog.

The things I enjoy the most in life, and will probably talk about a lot here are: writing [of course], photography, film, travel, rollerblading, hockey, good people, admirable sustenance, self-discovery, inspiring stories, comedy, music, and the like. 

Just a thoughtful list, but, in all seriousness I hope by you’re coming here and by reading what I have typed up so far, you are able to gain something and/or participate in some thoughtful or imaginative way.  I hope I inspire you or, better yet, I hope you inspire me to keep going.  I always loved writing and had a knack for it, it seemed. 

I thoroughly enjoyed it when I was younger.  I discovered it especially in the 9^th grade, when my English teacher pulled me into the hallway for a discussion.  I thought I was in trouble, and I nearly was.  She asked me very politely and told me that if I told her the truth I would not get in trouble.  She genuinely wanted to know if I plagiarized my most recent creative writing assignment, and found the story – which was a descriptive short thriller I wrote, about a villain chasing a young couple from a hotel and through the woods into their vehicle and off a cliff – somewhere on the internet.  I guess it was the year 2000, after all.  I looked her dead in the eye and said, no, I wrote it and came up with it entirely on my own.  To this day, I don’t know if she truly believed me, but I like to think she did.   I got an A.  That was the end of that story.

Time to get it out.  I have since come 13 years into the future, where I regret not pursuing writing with more conviction, nor properly documenting my life up unto this point.  Hence this blog.  In the ways of inspiration, I provoked my wife – who was full of wonderful ideas – to create her own blog over a year ago, and she has since galvanized her own thoughts into an inspiration in of itself.  It’s about time I got inspired.

Naturally I hope and believe that this blog will mold and shift over the coming months and years, until I have cemented a voice into it, and the abyss of history [or the internet].  So, keep checking back at MindsEyeMuse to see what in the hell I’m up to at any given moment.  I’ll be sure to do my best to keep the content fresh and keep my mind’s eye open to the finer things in life. 

Thank you for reading.

Until next time...

P.S. - A special thanks to Ralph Waldo Emerson for all of his wonderful writings and inspirations, especially his thoughtful act of personally calling me out 150 years in advance.

P.P.S. - here's a song by the late great Eyedea called "The River," to brighten your day, and it also maybe sums up my blog's beginning well.  I'm jumping in the river y'all.