You know what’s funny?

It’s pretty funny that yesterday was my birthday and no one knew until I told them at the campfire. It didn’t really seem to matter; it was another day, with good things (weather, biking, friends) and bad things (camera not working, waiting for my bike to get fixed.) But now I am 19, not 18, which changes something, I guess.

I am tired and cold. Tired because it just isn’t as easy to sleep when the wind is blowing the tent halfway over and my hip is digging into the ground. Cold because that same wind exchanged clouds for the Arizona sun. Now it is only as warm as Illinois was last week.

Yesterday I was taking a shower and washing my clothes when I started thinking about how I am in a desert, and there isn’t much water, and how all the water has to be piped in or drawn up from a shrinking aquifer. I thought “maybe I should try to use less water.” And so I did, if only to take a few pennies off the park’s water bill.

I wonder how the area farmers view water. In the midwest, they just hope they get enough rain, and if they don’t, there’s nothing they can do but pray. Here they are bringing the water in, like a commodity. It’s in a natural and continual state of drought, so they already have a system in place to deal with it.

. . .

The thing about being at home is that you feel settled, like you have systems and routines. A set-up for food preparation, meal clean-up, bathrooming… I am at home in my dorm. I am no longer as at home at “home.” I use a futon, laundry baskets, and a cosmetic bag instead of a bed, a closet, and a shelf in the bathroom. I have that same level of at-homeness (in that sense) here, except that everything is new.

. . .

I hope it warms up now.
I hope the sun comes out.
I hope that generator quits.
I hope my camera can be fixed.