Change of Time

"I had a dream last night
I dreamt that I was swimming
And the stars up above
Directionless and drifting
Somewhere in the dark
Were the sirens and the thunder
And around me as I swam
The drifters who’d gone under
Time, love
Time, love
Time, love
It’s only a change of time..."

The other day as I was excitedly but reluctantly driving down I-5, Josh Ritter's "Change of Time" came on my perpetually lost iPod nano (which clearly was not lost at that moment - why do they make those so small?).  It was soothing in a strange way that made me anxious to leave the place that is most comfortable for me but also as if a part of my life were dying.  The song came on again today as I was leaving California and I realized that a part of my life really was dying.  I was on my way to search out what the world had to offer me besides a comfy home with my ugly, lovable alien dog, and all of my friends and familiar places in the bay.

I saw the biggest rock piles I've ever seen.  They were as if a giant toddler had relieved his onesie of all the pebbles he had been collecting behind his mother's back.  Obviously they were mountains covered in enormous rocks and stones that could crush my little Versa in an instant but the effect was the same.

Then as the rock pile mountains ended the desert opened up.  I missed my opportunity when I was living in Spain to go to Morocco and take the typical Facebook-profile-picture-worthy photos of myself tumbling down hundred-foot sand dunes in the Sahara so I was stunned at the desert before me.  As I drove I realized that my mother's worst nightmare for my trip could actually come true: I could break down in the middle of nowhere in the desert.  Luckily my car gets great gas mileage...I called Kyle to exclaim "holy shit!" to someone besides myself anyway.

Gas dropped from $4.45 in California to $3.57 about five minutes later in Arizona.  Yuma may be the city backdrop in multiple great movies but it's kind of a dump now.  The drive was long but coming in to Sedona made me want to bother Kyle again and deal with his "...Yes, Kaitlin?" once again just so I could go nuts about how beautiful it is.  I even forgot to take sunset pictures as I meandered my way in but I'll forgive myself.  Life seems to slow to a crawl once you enter into the valley of these immense red rock formations that jut out of the ground.  The only thing I know to compare them to is volcanoes but that does not do them justice.  I promise to upload photos tomorrow after I go on a hike and visit the main tourist-y areas...I keep forgetting the cord I need in the car and frankly I'm too much of a sissy to go out in the utter darkness by myself to retrieve it.  Especially since I was just fully informed about coyotes that roam this area that aren't afraid of humans.  I made sure to tell my calm, meditative couchsurfing host, Mira, that I fall along the lines of "typical California girl." I like to think that I'm not, and I'm fairly tough and rough-going when need be, but I also think I'd squeal if I came upon an enormous version of Zorra that growled and snarled at me.

Now I'm sitting on my "soopa" - a makeshift bed with pillows and blankets - and dreaming awake about sleeping.  I'm nervous and feel my awkwardness which I usually ignore but this will be a fun adventure. After all...it's only a change of time.