Travel

NaPoWriMo 2017 #4

I try to use borders as a mask:
To hide, to forget, to be new and humble;
Through dark colors, facial expressions, and ordering food;
I want to forget my own history, start over,
Pretend I can't be found.

Yet there I am: in sweat, in poetry,
In dogs wearing sweaters, in selfies
In human contact, in laughter,
Borders become hollow.
We are red strings attached by thumbtacks;
We share fingerprints and knowing glances.

Let's Go

Tonight is a good moon.

Let’s pop the cork and start to drive,

Head to San Diego and dump our feelings

In the ocean, let them sink to the bottom

Where they can’t be observed by anyone,

Not even the fish, not even the other debris.

Let’s keep chasing the coast

In search of greater Californias.

I want to find earthquakes,

To watch the earth split in two and race

To the ocean floor to further suppress

The vulnerabilities we left behind.

Then, I’ll lean back, let go of baseless speculation,

And follow the earth into the sea.

My life has always acted like ocean water,

Filling holes in wet sand made by footprints

Walking away. Maybe this time, I

Can be what fills the looming emptiness. 

Thanks, Uut Poetry.

Travel

How did you travel in 2010? How and/or where would you like to travel next year?

Most of my travel this year took place within Tucson. I was a tourist in my own town! Paul and I like to discover new things in Tucson, and recently we've taken up trying to visit everything on The Best of Tucson 2010 list. So, within Tucson, I've traveled to:

• The Botanical Gardens
• the Rattlesnake Bridge
• Meet Me at Maynard's
• Mt. Lemmon
• The Museum of Art
• Tucson Meet Yourself
• 4th Ave Street Fair
• All Soul's Procession
• Sabino Canyon
• Gates Pass
• The Ostrich Ranch

I love being a tourist in my own town and I plan on continuing to visit all of the fun places in Tucson.

I was lucky enough this year to also be able to visit my family for two weeks over the summer. Cape Cod and Boston were freakin' awesome. And for the first time since I moved away, I truly enjoyed visiting Rochester. I almost didn't want to go back to Tucson! That says a lot about how much I've grown and healed over the past year.

In 2011 Paul and I are planning to visit Europe. FINALLY! I will be going abroad for please and adventure. We're going to Couch Surf and explore and have FUN! We've slowly been saving enough for air fare and we'll be buying our tickets at the end of January.



Room to Read

I stumbled across an organization this week called Room to Read. Their main goals are to develop libraries in poor countries where none exist, to increase literacy rates and provide education as a means for improving the lives of people in poverty, and to provide scholarships specifically for girls. Their mission reads:

We partner with local communities throughout the developing world to provide quality educational opportunities by establishing libraries, creating local language children's literature, constructing schools, and providing education to girls. We seek to intervene early in the lives of children in the belief that education empowers people to improve socioeconomic conditions for their families, communities, countries and future generations. Through the opportunities that only education can provide, we strive to break the cycle of poverty, one child at a time.

Wow!! Using reading to break the cycle of poverty? I WANT IN. I would LOVE to get a job with this organization, but their current openings are scarce so I'm checking out the volunteer opportunities and maybe I can work that into something bigger! Helping to build a library and teaching people to read and traveling to foreign countries (SOUTH AFRICA) sounds like a dream job.