Wow! This is the 19th day of my trip. It is fun. It is horrible. It is wonderful. I am reflecting on everything now in my tent while it is raining outside. I feel like a kid that is in time out. It is probably good to have this time to think without feeling the pressure to run out and do stuff.
My electric lantern ran out of batteries last night and I am only able to touch type. Ha! That sounds really pathetic, but little do you know I am just bragging about my snazzy touch typing skills. I am so glad that I took some time to regroup and to get away from all the drama. I had a hard time deciding how much detail to go into with my horrible ordeal in New York with my old friend of 19 years. I try so hard to do the right thing, but oh how I love to tell a story; and oh,what an exciting,, juicy, and outrageous story it is.
Seriously, I have been fairly devestated since this happened. After all the friends I lost in my divorce, I do not take well to losing more staple friends. I wanted to recompose before I went out to meet the world again. So many challenges have come up so early in my trip and it has been pretty disheartening. I am not on a schtick, or pushing an angle...I actually want to make stronger connections with the people in my life, and it felt like I was running in the opposite direction to have the dramatic falling out that I had with an old friend right from the outset. I don't want to dwell, but I do want to be honest. I didn't plan to camp in New Hampshire for four nights, but alone time was just what I needed to recharge.
When I fled the scene of the drama, I left my phone, my best pair of jeans, and a bunch of other stuff I could really use right now. This camping trip was the best idea I've had in a while, and I am feeling a lot better. It is hard to know how forthcoming I should be in these blogs. Balancing the privacy of people I meet up with, and keeping negativity to a minimum is a tough call. It is interesting, I am about to be in my third week of traveling, and I am starting to feel so marginal. I know I have good reasons for all of this stuff, but not having an address and a phone at the moment, or a set time frame to complete this project does not bode well with mainstream society. I am finding myself making stuff up to give socially acceptable answers....no job? no home? are you crazy? Yes, yes, and no.
So, I won't blog without a filter on my friends, but I am going to blog the heck out of the fun group of senior ladies that is in the site next to mine. They don't even have email addresses and we definetely have no common friends, so no ethical dilemma there. They are a riot. I hung out with Rita last night. She is the funnest and most interesting of the crowd. Sadly, her friends seem to not take her that seriously because she is the oldest of the bunch. She is 89, but lies about her age...she says she is 84...who am I to argue with her? She gabbed for quite a while about the break up with her boyfriend of five years, and her philosophies on men and dating. Those types of observations are so different, depending on the generation that is observing. I believe in evolution! Men are improving.
Rita met all the other ladies on the camping trip in a single's group...now they are all married and, according to Rita, dull. I don't know them very well, but based on what I've seen... I see her point. It's funny, whenever I am alone with any of them, they talk crap about their friends to me. If I were to comment, I would have to say that the others just don't shine nearly as brightly as Rita. I think it runs in the family. Her sister is 96, and "dances for exercise". She danced with Arthur Murray! At this very moment Rita's sister is on a dancing cruise ship. I am so square I didn't even know such things existed. Hmmm, I am going to hang with the ya ya's for a bit. That term never really did much for me..it kinda annoyed me, in fact...but last night when I was hangin' with the girls they mentioned ya ya is Greek for "grandma". I never knew....
I still will never watch the Ya Ya Sisterhood unless someone plays it while I am in a nursing home and I am too weak to move my wheelchair out of the room. Ya Ya!! Here I come, Rita!
