Before the West

Hey. So - it will take me a few days to write up my LA report in my journal and then transcribe it onto here. In the meantime, here's the blog entry I wrote while on the plane on Friday:



I’m flying over the Rockies as I write this (obviously not connected to the internet), and I am once again overtaken by the vast and varied beauty of this planet. Oh, but it is wonderfully and fearfully made. How could one ever think that such a piece of artistry ever came about by random astronomical chance. I suppose there’s wonder in that line of thinking too, but I know what these mountains say to me.

I’m on my way to LA and I am so excited. I know people generally hate that city, but I love it in ways I couldn’t really explain if I tried – so I won’t. It feels wonderful to be going back, if only for a short while. But it’s strange, the last time I was there I was so certain that eventually I would be returning for good. Now, I wonder if I ever will.

I never went to Austin thinking I would stay. I kept my expectations as low as I could, but I suppose that I hoped this year would be fun, fulfilling, and somehow altering. What I got was all of that and more – maybe even a home. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what Austin means to me. I say how much I love it all the time, but so much of that love is tied to the people I know here. And everyday that chance that those people will leave grows, and I have to wonder how much I would love my city without them. But my experiences wandering the city at South By, and riding in the ambulance (more on that in a moment) have shown me that Austin does indeed feel like my city.

I love my friends here, but I also love the way the tall buildings, like Frost Tower, grow out of the concrete sidewalks downtown, and the way the trees twist and curve like their frozen in dance, but never grow too high. And I love the way that everywhere you go here and almost everyone you meet, there’s this pervasive feeling that we’re all just so damn lucky to be here. To have found this place and to be able to stay here. It’s this – I think – that I love most of all. Because this is what reassures me that even if everyone I loved in the city left, there would just be more people here for me to love and be loved by. So I think I will stay here, for at least awhile – until my heart calls me elsewhere.

Ambulance. Wednesday night I did a ride-along with my friend Erica’s husband who is a paramedic in Austin. I shadowed him and his partner for a full 12 hour shift from 7 pm to 7 am and it was so totally awesome. Maybe not quite as exciting as one would hope – we only got 4 calls and none of them were urgent – but it just set me on fire. I feel like being a paramedic is something that’s been floating around in my head for years, as something I always thought would be incredibly cool to do, but assumed that I couldn’t because of how horrible I am at science. And now I’m on this different path – this filmmaking/writing path – but after Wednesday night, I can’t help but think that maybe in another lifetime that could’ve been my dream job.

* This is where I stopped, so I'll leave it as is - but look for my LA update soon.