The Desert

I just got back from the desert today. It was amazing. Death Valley is the shit. You should go there. As you may or may not know, my digital camera is and has been dead since that fateful day in January at the Ink Factory when the shutter mysteriously stuck. So I shot 2.5 rolls of film. The desert is really poetic also. Elena, Haley, and I couldn't decided whether the Joshua trees were dancing or writhing in agony. We settled on dancing in agony. The desert flowers are really cool too. They are so tiny and delicate, but the rest of the landscape is incredibly spiky and harsh.

I don't want Intraterm to be over! It was so fun. Despite serious car hours, there is nothing like going for a swim after a hike through crazy extraterrestrial terrain. I loved being able to escape from everything except who and what was real and salty and sandy in front of me, if that makes any sense. College news came out while we were away and there are few things that can keep your mind off of it as well as a 10 mile hike through Joshua Tree to an oasis and back. It was a good group of people although it did tend to segregate gender-wise and age-wise at times. The boys ate a ridiculous amount of ice cream. Like two or three per day. Coakley and Vanessa were fantastic as usual. Coakley is such a sweet sweet person and a funny guy. Vanessa is adorable and it was also cool to be able to say 'the Vanessas would like ice tea,' although it did get confusing at times.

Gwen, Elena, Haley, Tate, and I discussed the best desert soundtrack for Death Valley. It is not surprisingly difficult to find the right music for that unusual place. We listened to Modest Mouse's The Moon and Antarctica, which is one of my favorite albums of all time. Tate and Elena agree that it is most excellent. Buena Vista Social Club was also prevalent on our Death Valley ride. I was super disoriented then. Like, I kept forgetting what state/country/time period we were in.

There was an interesting myth on the back of a menu at this little cafe we went to in Shoshone about Death Valley Slim and Charles Brown, two characters straight out of a Western movie. They had a "frolic" in the saloon and all sorts of mayhem ensued. I still need to find out if there's a shred of truth to it, but I'm too tired right now.