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| Moritz Aust | Watching The Storm - Day Seventeen |
A little note known fact is the alternate title this photographer considered: "Let's go put on matching suspender outfits and watch the tornado tear up our corn. #nohomo"
People have been asking whether I had trouble adjusting to humdrum life after Burning Man. And it's vaguely embarrassing to realize that I do not have the right to notice much of a change, but this is because (1) I am funemployed and (2) I live in a co-op, (3) in Oakland.
I come home through ganja fog to smiley strangers handing me fried okra and pancakes on the regular, so yeah, it's a little dry out there in Nevada.
The not-working part of my life is certainly going splendidly, though it has only been almost two weeks. This means that it is still socially acceptable for me to tell everyone, "All I did today was climb, go to yoga, and pick tomatoes while half-nekkid in our garden."
Soon I'm going to say it less cheerfully and people will wonder if I have a trust fund. Or met a hippie sugar daddy, let's be real.
Life really is very much on the side of awesome, even if I occasionally feel like I'm off-track, whatever race we're running. I just know that currently I'm being paid on the side to write a screenplay about the Holocaust, I'm camping away, and I really want to complete the whole wave-soaked meander up the Lost Coast trail soon.
This past time was a scouting trip basically, and while it's a little tangled and mangled in some parts, the Tolkien views more than make up for it.
There were just a lot of surreal moments where you think, "So this is nature, eh?" The five of us slipped and sliced our way through immoderate amounts of wilderness, made camp in little glens fit for Bambi and his dead mom.
Places where some nice hobbit boy might run off with ya.
Just this month, I literally won four sets of free tickets to plays that I would have otherwise paid to see anyway. This year has been an excellent haul for my uncanny ability to win chance contests and drawings, an iPad and a trip to Canada for three being the highlights. And I swear that most of the time, it's because I'm the only that cares about winning.
And I was vindicated recently when I won tickets to a film festival by filming my stuffed Thai cat Dinga as he gyrated to the Scissors Sisters for fourteen hot seconds. I can now add "award-winning film-maker" to my list of titles, but again, I found out at the screening that I had been the only person to enter the contest.
Woo, go me, go.
So I'm applying for a few jobs on the daily, figuring that I'll land something ridiculous again.
Eventually.
The past two years since law school have been amazing experiences, so I'm trying to continue this upward trend toward whatever I'm supposed to end up doing with my life. I've embraced the fact that I'm somewhat off track for most lawyering, but if I can get people to continue paying me to do interesting things around the world, I'm pretty okay with that.
Next steps will mean a solid chance I'll be leaving the Bay Area, which will be interesting since it's been home for twenty-three years, if not twenty-seven for all that I remember of Hong Kong.
Not that I haven't considered it before, but it's much more real when I'm looking at postings in Bangladesh, South Sudan, and Afghanistan. I'm in adventure mode, and I want to get out and tilt at windmills.
And it's simply been easier to think about it once close friends moved on to other places: Danny to Japan, Erik to Madison, Tristan to his own jetsetting adventures, etc.
While I still have a good circle of amigos here, it's hard not to think about leaving too when you have to hug a friend really hard, realizing that tonight is the last night you'll be clinking beers for a while.
But we're still on the hunt to recruit for Musketeers. I just might take the search abroad.
People have been asking whether I had trouble adjusting to humdrum life after Burning Man. And it's vaguely embarrassing to realize that I do not have the right to notice much of a change, but this is because (1) I am funemployed and (2) I live in a co-op, (3) in Oakland.
I come home through ganja fog to smiley strangers handing me fried okra and pancakes on the regular, so yeah, it's a little dry out there in Nevada.
The not-working part of my life is certainly going splendidly, though it has only been almost two weeks. This means that it is still socially acceptable for me to tell everyone, "All I did today was climb, go to yoga, and pick tomatoes while half-nekkid in our garden."
Soon I'm going to say it less cheerfully and people will wonder if I have a trust fund. Or met a hippie sugar daddy, let's be real.
Life really is very much on the side of awesome, even if I occasionally feel like I'm off-track, whatever race we're running. I just know that currently I'm being paid on the side to write a screenplay about the Holocaust, I'm camping away, and I really want to complete the whole wave-soaked meander up the Lost Coast trail soon.
This past time was a scouting trip basically, and while it's a little tangled and mangled in some parts, the Tolkien views more than make up for it.
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| Our campsite on the last night of the backpacking trip |
Places where some nice hobbit boy might run off with ya.
Just this month, I literally won four sets of free tickets to plays that I would have otherwise paid to see anyway. This year has been an excellent haul for my uncanny ability to win chance contests and drawings, an iPad and a trip to Canada for three being the highlights. And I swear that most of the time, it's because I'm the only that cares about winning.
And I was vindicated recently when I won tickets to a film festival by filming my stuffed Thai cat Dinga as he gyrated to the Scissors Sisters for fourteen hot seconds. I can now add "award-winning film-maker" to my list of titles, but again, I found out at the screening that I had been the only person to enter the contest.
Woo, go me, go.
Eventually.
The past two years since law school have been amazing experiences, so I'm trying to continue this upward trend toward whatever I'm supposed to end up doing with my life. I've embraced the fact that I'm somewhat off track for most lawyering, but if I can get people to continue paying me to do interesting things around the world, I'm pretty okay with that.
Next steps will mean a solid chance I'll be leaving the Bay Area, which will be interesting since it's been home for twenty-three years, if not twenty-seven for all that I remember of Hong Kong.
Not that I haven't considered it before, but it's much more real when I'm looking at postings in Bangladesh, South Sudan, and Afghanistan. I'm in adventure mode, and I want to get out and tilt at windmills.
And it's simply been easier to think about it once close friends moved on to other places: Danny to Japan, Erik to Madison, Tristan to his own jetsetting adventures, etc.
While I still have a good circle of amigos here, it's hard not to think about leaving too when you have to hug a friend really hard, realizing that tonight is the last night you'll be clinking beers for a while.
But we're still on the hunt to recruit for Musketeers. I just might take the search abroad.
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| Dark Horse creating his "Chris Kosienski" identity while I stand amazed. |
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| Soup dumplings, then goats at the zoo, and then Dolores Park make for an excellent Saturday. |
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| Feeling rosy today, Mysterio?! |
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| We have a habit of fitting both of us into small places. Or big chairs. |
Okay, I have to go back to tending my cardamom kombucha. And in other news, we have fleas in our house.
I have spent two months with permanent night-time itchy leg, and more than one morning has me waking up and watching small black dots bounce on my blankets.
Again, remember that part about how normal life presents no culture clash?
I have spent two months with permanent night-time itchy leg, and more than one morning has me waking up and watching small black dots bounce on my blankets.
Again, remember that part about how normal life presents no culture clash?
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