Or, ten days left in my trip.
Welcome back. I’ve licked my wounds. I’ve huddled with my soul. I’ve cried a lot. I spent a good deal of time wondering if I should cut my trip short and just return home where my people are. Four days later, I’m still on my trip, and really glad that I am.
I should catch you up…
This is the section where I just tell you what I did and where I went and who I saw and there will be pretty pictures.
Last we talked, I was in LA with a friend, and we were going to bed (though as it turned out, not to sleep) after watching millions of people choose Donald Trump. Millions of people who didn’t choose him even in 2016, when he last won. I didn’t sleep. I posted a lot to Facebook. Like a lot, a lot. I texted back and forth with friends. And finally, at 2 am, my friend crept down from upstairs and asked if I was awake, she’d seen my posts. She held my hand while I cried. We talked about it, about her experience as a Black, queer woman, about my loneliness, about our collective despair, about the inescapable fact that the country actually chose this. That most people in the country are okay with this.
Then we both managed to get a few hours of sleep.
I fled that morning to my next stop in California, just a few hours away, where I was going to be staying with family. Even coming down to Los Angeles, even climbing out of there into the hills, the land is still shockingly gorgeous.
I cleared my head with a run, then talked to my cousin for a while. I checked in with friends back home, and I broke down and cried again. The next day, I stuck around and spent time with more cousins and more family, and it was really lovely.
Then I drove up the coast past the Bay to stay with a queer friend who lives in the woods west of Sacramento. And this is what I needed. This is what I had wanted to go home for. She, and her friends I met the next day, were people who get me in a way others don’t. They are my age, many of them are queer, they were having many of the same reactions I have, and when at the end of the day my friend and I left, every single one of them gave me a hug.
The scenery up here is stunning, but the warmth of the people I met, of my friends and family, is just as amazing. I remind myself every day on this trip that I’m doing it to connect, or reconnect, with people. Purple mountain majesties are just a bonus.
So. Here are some pictures.
And… that’s where I have to leave it for now. Love you all!
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