City Cliche in the Country

So often in my life I try to extract meaning from the moments that happen to me. That meaning gives purpose to otherwise random, and often, excruciatingly awkward moments.

Not this time.

Sometimes things just happen and become a meaningless detour, a brief aside to the business of living.

And that is this story.

On a Tuesday I left Georgia to head towards the Tennessee Mountains. I had reserved a cabin and had the intention of surprising L for her birthday. The drive was beautiful, the mountains, the leaves changing, I stopped in the middle of the road just to take in the view. And get some pictures because its not real if you can't post it to social media. Am I right?

The road takes me up into the foothills and then back down in a valley by the river. The GPS is telling me my destination is on the right, in 1000 feet. Something doesn't look quite right. But google wouldn't steer me wrong would it?

I see a gravel hill leading up to a worn house. "eww," I think. "God I hope that's not it." I want to pull up the photo to confirm but, of course, no service.

So I pull up the driveway, the very-steep-covered-in-gravel-over-mud driveway. Because I drive a stick shift this in itself is a challenge. Once I got to the top, I felt pretty sure this wasn't it. I wanted to back up and leave only backing up put me at risk of going off the steep side.

I tried to go forward. I couldn't. That's where the gravel ended and only the mud remained. And that's when my car started to slide backward. That was ok, I just corrected the wheel so I wouldn't go flying off the edge. Except I corrected too much. My car started backing up over a ledge, and it kept backing up. At that point I lost control of where it was headed and it just kept backing up. And that was ok. Until it started tipping over. And when I realized it was on two wheels, I figured I better get out before I rolled off the side of the hill.

Things were not great. Here I was, in the middle of no where, with no service, low battery (of course) no one to be found. While I considered what to do I snapped a few pictures, you know, for evidence. As a I considered my situation, I became all too aware that I was A) Parked under a lot of walnut trees, trees that were literally trying to smash out my window or give me a concussion. Walnuts grow in giant green baseballs and when they are ready, they throw them at anyone naive enough to stand under them with great force. B) Bugs really like the green baseballs and they had found me to be a satisfying second course.

Across the street was an empty field and a river, beside me was a graveyard and a church. I decided to walk over and see if anyone was at the church.

No one was.

Feeling slightly panicked I decided to wave someone down, maybe some kind resident of Briceville, TN would stop and help. Unfortunately the residents were far too nice, every time I waived at one, they waived back and kept driving.

Time to change my waving strategy. I tried the two-hand over the head wave. It worked because the next car stopped and a nice young guy, employed by Dayton Pest Control, offered to help. I couldn't have been more grateful or sorry. Having just finished a day of work and still being an hour from home he did everything he could to get my car unstuck.

It didn't work. "If we just had one more person," he said as I launched myself out of the sideways car, no easy task.

So we decided to flag someone else down. We had to wait a while because of course we were in the middle of no where, but finally someone stopped. A nice elderly lady who I immediately apologized to because of course she couldn't help. I told her we would flag someone else down and she told me she'd go down the road and get Zach. She did and came back to tell us he was on the way., like we knew him.

We both agreed, me and Dayton Pest Control, that we hoped Zach would prove to be an asset to our team.

So Zach showed up and Dayton Pest Control described him to me later as "backwoods," he was missing a few teeth, he was a coal miner by trade but also took odd jobs like mowing though he was looking to get out of it. He only became a coal miner because there were no opportunities when he graduated highschool, He didn't do much fishing because the lake they said was poisonous to the animals and anyone trying to eat the fish and he often saw a good amount of deer in the area. These were all things I learned about Zach throughout the evening.

The first thing he told us though was that my car was the 4th or 5th that had been stuck up there like that, his words, later it became 7 or 8, then 10 or 11. I didn't mind though, the more people that he talked about the better I felt.

It turns out I had stranded myself in front of Lula May's house. Once when she broke her hip the ambulance had gotten caught trying to back out and taken their muffler off  and when Zach tried to help they made him liable for the muffler. Well, that was it for Zach. " I ain't responsible for nothin', " he told me and dayton pest control as he threw up his hands. "Soooo," I thought "does this mean he's not going to help me or what?"

Well as it turns out Lula May's son works as an electrician for the city in another town and Zach not only had the keys to her house but also her son, Jimmy's, number. Great, only Lula May's phone was disconnected because she isn't there right now. Zach has me and Dayton Pest Control walk down the road until we get signal. He then calls Jimmy and tells him what has happened, well he says to go on ahead and try to get it unstuck but notes its a shame Jimmy someone-else (everyone from here on out is literally named Jimmy) isn't there with his tractor because he could just pull me out. Thanks Jimmy.

Does this story feel long? Imagine living it. Why didn't we call a wrecker? Well, because right in front of my car, beside the house was the gas tank that fed the house, A wrecker couldn't reach me. Of course.

So me, Zach and Dayton Pest Control go back to the car. I throw myself back into the drivers seat as Zach repeatedly tries and fails all the things Dayton Pest Control has previously tried. "I got one more solution" he says and at this point I'm ready to just leave my car to Lula May's offspring and call it a life.

Finally, Zach says "If we just had one more person..." now where have I heard that?

So I say, moving to action, "Why don't we flag someone else down?" "Who are we gonna flag down?" Zach asks. I mean, I don't know but are we just gonna stand there? So we stand on the side of the road like idiots, Dayton Pest Control talking about his ancestors who were coal miners, Zach telling me we only have 45 minutes of daylight left and me, laying my head on  a bottle of bugspray for comfort.

Finally Zach agrees we should flag someone down and about that time a purple truck pulls into the graveyard next door. "How about that guy?" I ask. "Nah he probably won't help." Zach says. You know what Zach, you're really starting to turn into a negative Ned. He goes down to talk to what turns out to be a man in his 100's, I think. About literally 10 years later Zach comes back and the man pulls off. "Helps coming, " he says. Great. Finally. "If they come you'll have a lot of help." If? You know what Zach....

It's so hot, and bugs and the  walnuts. After about 20 minutes I wonder if they are coming. Should we flag someone else down? "Who?" Zach says discouragingly again. About that time a car passes with two young guys. "We could have flagged them down." That was Dayton Pest Control, he's been on my side this whole time. "Well we don't know what  kinda shape theys in now do we?" Zach says, ever the model for positive thinking.

So Zach finally agrees after another 10 minutes that if no one stops in 10  minutes we should try for someone else. Five minutes after that a truck of 6 guys pulls up. Sadly my camera died otherwise I would have loved to have a picture that looked like the scene out of movie. Except in that movie Briceville would have been a sun-down town and I would not have hailed this truck full of men as help.

As it was, I wasn't too keen on the fact that I was alone in the country with 8 strange men. Zach decides to ask me in front of all of them if I was staying alone out there. "No, staying with friends" I lie. That night I was alone. Thanks Zach...

So anyway, they pull up and say "What seems to be the trouble?" They all laugh at me and my city ways and Zach tells them this is the 15th car he's seen stuck like that.

But they help me, they get me unstuck in a matter of two minutes and they back my car out of Lula May's driveway. And I am thankful. Dayton Pest Control stays with me to the end and I'm thankful for that as well because I felt safe with him, probably it was the uniform I don't know. I'm thankful for out truck of reinforcements, and even Zach, yes, even him. Actually I really was grateful for everyone, they didn't know me and didn't have to help me and I had spent the good part of the past 3 hours telling them that in a million ways.

A lot of other things happened that night that left me with a stress headache but, I made it to cabin only about 3 hours after I arrived.

And I took a Tire Iron with me into the house, just in case.

And we saw Zach the next day mowing the grass. "Now you ain't drove up that hill no more have yea?"

Very funny, Zach.

Its never what it seems? Is it.......

Surrounded by mountains, I slid the long, yellow Kayak quickly into the water. What waited for me was a lake of glass, covered in fog, it rolled down from the mountain and I imagined myself being swallowed into it, swept away from the world I'd left behind.  I was alone on the water. with the wind in my hair and  only the sound of my own quiet song keeping time with my paddle. 

So I like to sing sailor songs when I'm on the water and yes the Kayak isn't much like a ship is it? Never the less,  the question, "What does one do with a drunken sailor?" still needs to be answered. I only know like two sailing songs so the sound track does tend to get repetitive. 

Anyway, it was lovely. Thus began my love of Kayaking, in the summer of 2017. Yeah it really just began. 

So I was pretty keen to get my own Kayak, in fact I was dying to. The Summer of 2017 also happened to be one of the busiest summers of life and that dream seemed a little out of reach while I tried to keep the proverbial plates spinning. 

But anyway, I bought one. And the how and why of that situation is not the purpose of this story. So, I bought one Ok? 

Now, I ordered a hand cart on Amazon so that I could move it easily from my driveway to the small lakes in my neighborhood. But, I grew impatient so I just went to a sporting goods store and bought one. 

So I was ready. Overworked, coming off days of rain and stress, a free hour and a break in the clouds. I was so ready.

So I go to the basement, I've got my kayaking gear ready. I've got water and special shoes and music and sun screen and snacks and just ...everything. 

I take out the cart thinking it will be a snap to get it on. 

Obviously, it wasn't a snap. Unless a snap consists of irate mumbling under ones breath, a fist shake at the wordless diagrams  and a general feeling of defeat. As much as I hated to do it, I finally gave up and asked my husband for help. 

So the cart, for the non-kayak-er, rests under one end of the kayak. One then secures it to the kayak using two straps. So we strap the kayak to the cart, my husband gives it a very quick test and tells me to have fun. 

I begin pulling it out the door, but wait, it doesn't fit out the door, I thought it did, it looked like it did, nope, after all that work, it slides off the cart and lands sideways out the door, meanwhile, the cart has made its way down the path. Its almost as if it it doesn't WANT me to use it. 

I resolve in my mind that I am going fix it on my own, I must if I am ever going to be an independent kayak-er. I mean, I try. but I can't do it. So I go back up and get the husband again. After some minor mocking he tries, unsuccessfully to fix it. I suggest we try bungee cords. 

Another time, we agree. 

We carry it to the road. Reattached the cart. And I start back on my way. I made it off my street even. Somewhere along the next street I hit a hill. and that's when things fell apart, literally (see pics). The cart got a flat, the strap came off. So I just stood there, with a broken down kayak in the middle of the street like an idiot. A school bus stopped, some middle school boys snickered as they walked past. I tried to get it back together once but when it fell again, with quite a bang, the neighbor came out and stood in front of their garage to see what the spectacle was about. And their dog was super helpful with its incessant barking. 

So as I said, I stood there like an idiot. I debated what to do. I called the husband again. I asked him for bungee chords. He brought the car, took some pics, and dropped me off by the lake. 

After so much struggle this was it, the maiden voyage. I stopped my push off from shore to take a picture, only my camera had disappeared into the deep crevices of the Kayak, I never did find it. So there is no picture. 

Oh well, I don't need it I thought, I am here to be fully present in this moment, an hour later than I planned. But I am here and nothing can stop me now!

Yeah then it started raining. 

Remember the mountain? The fog, the sailor songs. Remember those times? 

They seem so long ago, in both this story and that day, the day of my struggle August 2017. 

But this is life, isn't it? The awkward stages of learning, the trying and trying again. The idealized and the reality. There is beauty in both. The glory of triumph and the acceptance when we fail to reach perfection. 

I earned the peace that finally came, after the rain stopped and actually after I climbed out of the water. It was the effortless strength of the bungee chords, allowing me to walk home with no further accidents, Kayak in tow, that let me know I'd won. I may have lost my water bottle on the way home, and never found it. But that's ok. I. Did. It.  

Next time, tomorrow actually, it will be easier, and every time after until its habit, until its as easy as home. 

It, life I mean, its never what it seems is it? It rarely meets our expectations, but there is beauty in every stumble isn't there? And when we continue to stumble, when we need help, when we refuse to quit. There is beauty. 

When the highest of highs comes with the lowest of lows

I must admit I didn't realize it had been almost four years since I last wrote in my blog. 

I haven't stopped writing since then but I made it private temporarily and that short break turned into a few years. At the time, a publisher and editor were talking to me about turning it into a book. They were quite interested and considered my humor and failure to take myself too seriously a refreshing take on yet another millennial trying to tell their life story having lived, as of yet, hardly any life. 

After working with an editor and going through several revisions, I quite frankly gave up. He would come back with the same feedback each time he read a new version. He wanted to know more about the world and people around me, things I never bothered to introduce in my writing. But I never could get it quite right because, as much as I love the people and the world around me, the thoughts in this blog were meant to be about me growing as a person, my own development, a tiny space in which I am the leading lady and, only in this blog, am I surrounded by cameos rather than recurring characters. I created it to reflect on my growth as a person, good and bad, and it seemed disingenuous to develop other characters. So, as I stated, I sort of... I gave up. 

And honestly, its fine. Because the world doesn't need another reason to call Millennials selfish and I don't need the world to read this blog either. I decided to bring it back because I've missed having an outlet in which I can recall those precious times when my underwear falls off in public or I find myself caught in a case of mistaken identity.  I want people to read it and laugh, and maybe learn something too, but in the way they were meant to, by peeking inside my inner self, . 

C.S. Lewis says in the most profoundly simplistic way that the highest of highs often come with the lowest of lows. I found this to be true.

While I felt fairly sad that I was never able to publish this book, I have another in the works, one with a legitimate contract and one that is far more important then discussing my time in grad school. 

On the day I defended my Phd dissertation and thus, became a PHD, I walked out to my car and found, in the moment of my greatest exaltation, I had received a parking ticket.  And that seemed about right.  As far as lows go, it could have been worse. 

On the day of my graduation party, a day I had been anticipating and planing for years, it snowed and the whole thing was cancelled. And that seemed about right. But I had the party any way a few days later. 

On the day I broke my own swim time at the gym and I burst from the water in triumph, I found myself alone in the pool with a guy who was putting on socks in the water. So I had to make an exit. And that seemed about right. 

I have come to expect this balance of life, and I no longer fear it. 

Four years brings an awful lot of growth in a person and I look forward cataloging at least some of it here. 

The Adventures Continue...