My happy place

Adventuring Rule #23: Leave the knowable safety of dry land. 

     So. It's official. I am an underemployed college grad living with my parents, writing my blog from my childhood bedroom. For a few weeks post Austria, I was able to blame jet lag and wanting to spend summertime with my family for my lack of a real job. This last week it finally hit me that this is my own choice. No one is going to seek me out to hire. This is my game and my life and I have to do it myself.  The bad news is that until I get that job and am able to move out, I am increasingly frustrated.

No job applications here. Let's stay forever. 

     Before I had that moment of real world clarity, however, I went on a fun weekend adventure with the tall twins. Their parents are the cool kind with college friends they've hung out with on the regular for forty years, and they invited me to join them for this September's edition. We met up with the group at a house on the Russian river and enjoyed a mucho delicious meal. The food was amazing all weekend, actually. Good wine flowed, good conversations were had. I feel very grateful to have been invited to spend time with these people. It's not often a group of intelligent, successful and friendly adults ask me to come hang out with them.

Path to the river.

     For me, though, a major highlight of the weekend was learning to kayak. The learning curve wasn't steep, though balance was a constant issue. The tall boys and I put our kayaks in the water next to a shallow dock blocked in by a massive redwood tree that had gotten stuck on its way downstream. We thought the biggest problem would be getting around that tree. It was not. Out in the river, some portions were so shallow that our kayaks scraped bottom. After many attempts at paddling out, Jeremy secured his paddle and used his hands to push his kayak off the sandbar and into deeper water. Justin and I did the same, but the rocks were slimy and gross so I used my paddle to push against the sand. A girl's gotta do things her own way.

Jeremy is grumpy faced because I was winning.

     Finally we were moving. The next three hours were spent in calm contemplation of the river and its banks. The nearby highway was visible on certain curves, but for the most part we were cruising on nature's highway entirely under our own power. That was a very cool feeling. If I wanted to catch up to the guys, I had to work. To turn, I angled my paddle against the current and let the river move my vessel. If I did nothing, the current would pull me backward. This place was magic. I wanted to stay there forever. My stomach had other plans.

Tall boy (Justin) dragging kayak over massive tree. 

     We had to leave the next morning, so that was the only river adventure of the weekend. Doesn't matter. I'm hooked. Rivers are beautiful places and kayaks put me right in the middle with no undesirable side effects like carbon emissions. Okay, yes, I have to drive there. The world isn't perfect, but this part is very nice.
I still have to secure a job. But work is just part of my life. I truly get to do whatever I want. And what I want is to hang out on rivers.