restoration

I've had a really amazing past few days. It's amazing how much restoration and reclaiming of sanity the outdoors can bring you. I just got back from 3 days in Joshua Tree with some amazing friends. We met up with a large group of Summit Adventure people but we had our own little camp site. Nadya, Jen, Harris and I left friday afternoon and drove iggy (my car) to Jtree in about 2 hours. Even a little traffic couldn't dampen my excitement. While there we scrambled on rocks, slept under the stars, had ridiculous photo shoots, farted, climbed and enjoyed amazing community. It was awesome.

One night we drove to the other entrance to the park to watch the sunset. While driving, I pulled out my GPS so that we could enjoy a few geocaches. As we followed the ever exciting little purple line on the screen we found our selves off the main road and surrounded by beautiful rusted metal sculptures. We exited the car to examine them. It was like being surrounded by twisted metal fingers reaching out of the ground to the heavens. It was a huge field. Needless to say, we found the cache but had forgotten a pen to sign it. There was another one that led us down this beat up dirt road in the pitch black. It was quite reminescent of some horror movie where the college age kids go out for an adventure and return with a few less friends or limbs. We turned around because we kinda like our limbs.

Another highlight was seeing a mother battling the diasease MS conquer several hard climbs with tears in her eyes. An amazing woman let me tell you. The trip ended with a church service surrounded by God's natural Cathedrals, magnificent rocks jetting from the ground. I'll try and post some pics soon.

On another note, I got to hang out with Barry again. If you don't know who Barry is read a few blogs back. I found him outside the bookstore in Pasadena again. I brough him dinner and we hung out for an hour or so. We talked about how he has been doing. A storm was blowing in so I asked him what he has been sleeping in and if he was warm enough. He confessed all he had were the clothes on his back and 2 woven blankets that were pretty corroded. I offered him a sleeping bag I had in my car and he greatfully accepted. He complained of some pain that a tooth was giving him and I'm hoping to find a clinic or something in the area that could help him out. If anyone knows of anything like this in the Pasadena area please let me know. When I asked him if he had any friends that he hung out with he said he didn't because when several homeless people hang out they are more prone to get in trouble with police or security. I'm sure he longs for interaction so I'm hoping we can begin hanging out more and more. It freaks my mom out, but I would love to sleep on the streets sometime to really understand his plight (or whatever small amount i can). Maybe I will get enough courage to try it sometime.

I think that's about it in terms of updates. Oh, if any of you enjoy reading blogs, one of my favorite musicians, Imogen Heap, has been writing an amazing blog with pics and vids as she travels the world working on her newest album. You should check it out: www.myspace.com/imogenheap just scroll down to her blog section.

I guess that's all.