Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Traveling
Today we will drive Bob to the airport. He is flying to the east coast to give a lecture at the Gardens, then enjoying a little vacation away from Hawaii. He returns home after an additional stop in Arizona. Tolver is flying out to meet him there for the last couple of days of his trip. They return home the same day, although on separate planes, mid-October. This trip, for Bob, is one of the original reasons that he considered taking us on; back in February he knew that he was going to need someone to look after the farm while he was away. Now that we are tending the farm full-time he has little to worry about.Tolver is making the great sacrifice of getting on a plane again, in order to meet an artist friend of Bob's. After almost 10 years of consideration and discussion, he has decided to have the peanut butter cup tattooed to his back. Actually instead of a tattoo, it will be laser branded, for a more subtle and less brand logo look. The trip, sponsored by Bob, will be to have the work done by arguably the most well known branding artist in the world, who has done past body modification work on Bob. Tolver sees this as a good bonding opportunity for them; I agree.
At about the same time that this decision was made, we heard that the parties at the House of the Golden Bull (as we knew them) may come to an end after this coming Winter Solstice. This led to the discussion of a plan for Bob and I to have a similar bonding experience with a trip to San Francisco for the party; as I would take him on a whirlwind tour of San Francisco, our past friends and past way of life. However, although we did contact a couple of people concerning the logistics of such a trip, we decided to table the discussion, without having decided yet to go, until after Bob returns from the current traveling nightmare.
As the old adage goes: telegraph, telephone, tell-a-faerie. It seems the not-yet-publicly announced return of the Reese to San Francisco was picked up by the gossip train, and has already made the rounds as a topic of discussion. O well, so much for my showing up incognito! I mean, how many of my friends would actually recognize me with a tan?! Unfortunately I must set the record straight (gayly forward) as the visit is not yet a sure thing. December is a busy time on the farm, and we have been hemorrhaging money all year. Plus traveling so much is quite tiresome for Bob, and I must recognize that he will have already dealt with enough of such financial and physical expense for the year.
There is obviously the option that I might make the trip alone, however not only does that option remove half of the original reason for going (taking Bob), it requires that I come up with the internal motivation to do something entirely for myself (something, many of you know, is not easy for me to do.) The question of whether or not the trip will actually happen has caused within me more sadness than I have felt since we made the move to Hawaii. I miss many of my friends terribly, and I miss the fraternity even more so. Yet I am left feeling that the choice to be made would be between my new way of life here, which I love very much, and old addictions. It has been made clear to me, that my motivations for going could be mis-trusted, and Bob sensing this, is reticent to do anything that might cause conflict between me and Tolver.
Comments are welcome. I will probably not be in a position to make a final decision about this until sometime late October... link | posted by Reese at 11:01 AM
