This past week my mom came into town for the holidays. It was her first time here, so I tried to plan an extraordinary (affordable) trip. (Meaning instant ramen and left overs from when I worked at the zoo last weekend. I'll talk about that next week.) Also, pictures will be posted later. I am in a Wal-Mart on my phone hijacking their wifi to try to post this from my phone! High quality pictures will have to wait unfortunately.
I highly recommend staying the night at Walmart. Generally quiet, questionably safe, and a bathroom only a 10 minute walk away. What more could you ever need? And truthfully, it wasn't all too bad.
We rented a Jucy van and have traveled down to LA for the first time, met a magical pigeon man who helped corral a flock of pigeons to land on me at Venice beach, slept in a Walmart parking lot, went to a punk glam bar that was shrouded in pastel pink and blue sprinkled with bar goers wearing thick leather jackets and dangling earrings, all while making some new friends and potentially landing an illustration job for a novel!
Out of nowhere, a magical pigeon man appears!
I then got some killer pictures in Big Sur along the way back up. (That golden hour, am I right?) Our trip is concluding with one more night at a Walmart, then I will be photographing my second ever official wedding all day tomorrow for New Year's Eve into midnight. I even have my mom helping me as a "lighting assistant"! We'll see how that goes... A photography lesson is going to be taking place shortly!
I was actually dreading the holiday season this year. It meant that I'd have to halt my projects and prepare to spend more money than I'd like. However, that wasn't entirely the case. It actually gave me a chance to get back to myself, be introspective, get inspired and think about my goals and the future with minimal pressure.
I love sitting in a car looking at the beautiful mountains and ocean. It gives my ever moving mind something peaceful to meditate on while giving myself space to think about what really matters. I let my mind wander and give it free range to bounce off the far walls of the distant mountains and return to me with better perspective, giving me stronger patience and sense of self. It is a great space for me to come back to myself with no distractions. (And no cell phone signal, praise the Lord.) The seemingly daunting pressures seem as small as I am, compared to the mountains and ocean.
Being in a car on a road trip has become one of my favorite things to do. I love that my only reservation is to sit and get somewhere. That lack of commitment to anything else helps me feel freer than when I am at any other place being still. Traveling is such a cliche, but it is so for a very good reason!
I find it funny how when I'm going 80 miles per hour, I'm finally letting myself be still.