I'm Feeling Landlocked, but I Think I'll Be Ok

Wow Blog. Yesterday was hard. I think it had to do with a combination of my island adventure ending and The Artist's Way. Julia said it was going to get hard by week 4, and I thought "yeah, hard like 'oh I don't feel like doing this anymore' hard", but no. It's hard, Blog. Emotionally difficult. I've never gone through therapy before, but I imagine it would be something like what I'm going through right now. And all I'm really doing is morning pages. It's crazy what half an hour of stream-of-consciousness writing every day can do to you after a month. But don't worry about me. It's all for the better.

Being back has been hard, Artist's Way or no, though. I miss my friends on the island and I strangely miss the ocean that I also fear. It's like it's this character in my life that is both strong and dependable, but also crazy and dangerous. Carly and I at one point compared it to one of those friends that you have an amazing time with, but who are so crazy and intense that you tend to keep them at a distance for safety reasons. Like, "Oh ocean! You're so crazy and fun! I have such a good time swimming in you and jumping in you. But sometimes you're unpredictable and a little too spontaneous for my liking and knock me off a rock and I scrape my knee and almost drown." You know, Blog. One of those friends.

But I've never felt landlocked before, and today for a split second I got an idea of what that feeling is like. I for a moment had the realization that land was beyond me for thousands of miles in all directions. The ocean; my crazy but wonderful friend was thousands of miles away from me. Last week I could literally sit up in my bed and see it out the window. Now it's just trees and buildings and roads and people everywhere.

But hey, Target is here and that's something we can all appreciate. I bought a storage bin yesterday for 6 dollars, Blog. 6 dollars.

I walked around Uptown this afternoon to run some errands and by the time I made it to Calhoun Square I was feeling pretty good. This is my city after all. If I'm going to live in this country, then I'm going to live here. Minneapolis has been good to me, and I appreciate that. I have autonomy here. I know my way around and where I can go for sunglasses or groceries or bike repair (because I stupidly over-filled my back tire yesterday and consequently popped it). Courtney McLean herself stopped by this evening and we dished on the roof for a bit about boys and shows and travels. Yes, it does feel good to be home after all.

Greenway you're no ocean, but you're just as fun and dangerous.

Azores Day 13: A Disjointed Recap of the Last 27 Hours

Blog, it's the weekend and that means I've been doing some drunk writing lately. Last night I had a great time opening for Tommy and the Time Machine at Praia Rock Café with some Dirty Curls songs. Turns out Air Force people really like erotic bluegrass music. It felt good to get up and play in front of a (small) audience, but strange to be up there alone playing Court's awesome songs. They loved it though and there was even a Portuguese woman who wanted to take a look at the words to Suck a Ring. Low level international fame, here we come!

Carly was a documenting beast with her camera and snapped a few shots of my set along with me accepting an invitation to join backing up the main act themselves. I'm not used to rocking out so hardcore, so I kind of stood there for awhile with a drink. Worth it.

Pedro knows what he's doing. I do not.

But I think the Dirty Curls might have a few new fans on the island which is exciting. Also, there were kids in the audience. What is it with foreign countries that always attracts children to dirty comedy music audiences? At least here they didn't get upset about it. Portugal: 1, Mexico: 0.

I'm tired, otherwise I'd explain that scoreboard more. Frankly, there's not much more to say. Today Carly and I did some shopping in Praia and then we went out to eat at this restaurant called La Barca where I guess we were in the presence of some famous DJ (European I'm sure, so don't get too excited). Then we tried our hand at attending Vila Nova's summer festival but were discouraged when it started getting late and nothing seemed to be happening except for sporadic cannon bursts and random flag ceremonies.

My bored list of today's activities is indicating I need to go to bed. I'm still loving it here and am glad I have a week left. Also, I haven't been down to the ocean for a few days and it's a little weird. OMG. I'm becoming an islander. However...

"I feel naked without Courtney. Where is my comfort banjo?"

Azores Day 10: My Love/Hate for the Ocean Grows

It was a perfect beach day, Blog. I perused two swimming holes; one where I "almost died" and another that has proven to be my favorite despite it being the location of where my phone was ruined the last time I was here.

Tides, man. I just can't get over them.

 I "almost died" because a wave knocked me back onto some rocks at the Vila Nova swimming hole pictured above. My fear of the ocean is so great, that when I see it coming for me with all its might, I am paralyzed with fear and do things like fall over on to sharp rocks and scrape my knee. To be fair, I would have been fine had the people hogging the railing let a tourist through, but alas, I was left with nothing to grab onto and thousands of gallons of water coming at me, bro. Blood was drawn, but in the end I survived. Obviously. Because I went to another swimming hole afterward.

Swimming hole #2 has a name I can't remember and a vendetta against my phone.

Though I lost a phone that is more expensive than my car the last time I was at this locale, I have to admit it's my favorite swimming hole on the island (so far). Sure the pictures just make it look like a bunch of concrete was poured on some rocks, but this place is the bomb. The accessible water was clear and deep today as we showed up at high tide. Kids were diving off of the high cliffs into narrow channels and Carly and I even were brave enough to jump off a ledge a few times into the really really salty (seriously is the Atlantic more salty than other salty bodies of water?) water.

When I was here in May of 2012, this was the place where Carly and I foolishly forgot about the moon's gravitational pull on our planet's oceans as we left our belongings on what we thought was dry ground and went off exploring all the rocks and shit that this awesome beach has to offer. After a short 15 minutes we returned to find our stuff all but washed away by the incoming tide. Turns out salt water is the absolute worst thing to happen to an iPhone and I lost all 300 pictures I had taken during my previous four days on the island.

The whole ordeal might be a little bit why I'm so thoroughly documenting my second time visiting this obscure place. Also, I doubt I'll ever be back here again.

Well, today Carly and I made sure we stayed far away from the water with our belongings. But that didn't stop us from drinking tiny beers and standing on a ledge with Portuguese people flying, flipping, and diving into the water all around us. Carly almost got hit by a child in a speedo. It was the best thing I witnessed all day.

That's all for today. I've turned into a total beach bum who fears the ocean. Tomorrow should entail sewing (what?!), more Air Force fun with Thirsty Thursday, and a game called Bunko. I'm somewhat excited.