Jenn

I leave again for Ecuador in only a few days and am a bit freaked out and anxious that the time has approached so quickly. No matter how much I travel I still get anxious before a big trip each time. This time especially has been hard. I don't want to go back. The adventure has lost its luster and I'm just tired, though I know this too will pass. To be honest I suppose it is just nice to be back home around family and familiarity, something constant and stable. There are times for transience and times for stability and the wanderlust feather on the wind lifestyle just isn't cutting it for me anymore. Increasingly I question the meaning of what I do and where things are going....and I'm coming back stuck.

In this vein I met my aunt Stephanie in Richmond in the afternoon. She is a wonderful aunt and has always been there for me in the best of ways. She is hip and fun to be around and I relate to her in a way I don't always with other parts of my family. Like me she is open and interested in alternative forms of spirituality and understanding, like astrology and zen. In the spirit of the new year and my own crossroads we went in for a reading together. I have only done this once before and have a healthy dose of both optimism and skepticism for such things. In a small back room at a table the reading lasted an hour and I won't divulge the things that were said, almost nothing at my prompting to go off of, but it was unusual, uncanny, and very interesting in a positive way. Many things to think about and rather than wholly dismissing or embracing the messages given to me I want to simply be open to see if they will fulfill themselves or not, unattached to a determinist outcome. Fully present, the future wide open...

With so many things to ponder, electric with energy I later went to meet Jenn for dinner. Like Mike, she is another one of those rare constants in my life and one of my best friends. Tonight is our night to hang out together. I met her in Church Hill, an old part of the city downtown where she just moved in. Playing with her pets while she preens and gets ready I convinced her to pose for a few low light portraits like this one. Whenever I go out with Jenn I feel underdressed. I've always thought she has the appearance and style of a fashion model, though she would laugh at that idea out loud, always downplaying herself. She took me to her new favorite spot, a little restaurant called "The Black Sheep". It was perfect. We completely stuffed ourselves with beer and wine, an appetizer of roasted red peppers, goat cheese, and white beans in herbs and olive oil....yum. Crawfish ettoufe and fried catfish for me, and even crème broulle to top it all off with a cup of coffee thrown in for good measure to keep me awake. Chatting, laughing, unraveling our lives from now to last we saw each other. It was a late night and after dinner we caught a movie. We saw Avatar, which happens to have amazing special effects I might add but is also so long, an uncomfortable combination for a full belly, but worth it all the same.

The day that just kept going. Packing it all in while I can.