I like serendipity, and sometimes it happens best when I loosen the reins and welcome in whatever comes my way. It’s one of the easiest ways for me to be present in the moment, when these little bonus things happen.

I hope this trip can continue to help me embrace the undefined time. The trip is bringing me joy and discovery and connection, and I’ve let go of much of my natural organizing drive. May that serve as a model for life writ large. Undefined and evolving is where I need to be right now.

41 was a birthday that fit the year. I started it with pastry and latte treats, proceed on through the Time Travel Mart and funky hipster Echo Park, LA, meandered through the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, chilled at the swank and luxurious Prospect Hollywood hotel, ate delicious mozzarella and dinner with Kim Gouveia.

I finally made it to the Museum of Jurassic Technology. I won’t say anything to spoil it, but I will say that it’s by turns charming and weird and lovely and eerie and macabre and funny and thought-provoking. It makes you question what museums are for and histories of display and how you “know” something is authentic and what even is the concept of authenticity, anyway.

An incomplete list of things that made me very happy today.

&

An incomplete list of things that made me anxious today

I love a ghost town. I love places that are still extant but clearly decayed from their glory days. I love the sense of mystery and layered stories these places exude. I love the aura that floats thick in the air of unknown people whose lives were lived there and unknown occasions the places have seen.

First, some bird watching.

Second, some oasis watching.

Third, some watching of… I don’t know what the hell Pioneertown is exactly.

I’ve bid my darling friends farewell and camped in Joshua Tree National Park and avoided all information about the Oscars until the flood of text messages that came in today when I came back out of the park.

Some highlights and thoughts from the past two days.

These ladies are ride or die. We’ve seen each other through so many hilarious moments and traumatic ones. We’ve been through major life milestones together, and also little moments whose only consequence is that we’ve shared them.

This trip, to me, is a collection of places to see and experiences to be had, and partly that’s mundane realities like getting my first ever Del Taco or chilling out at a funky rental place without feeling like I “should” be going out to see or do something new wherever I’m at.