EST v PST Round 7

I woke up yesterday and I was a bitch.  There I admitted it.  Living alone most of my life, I am used to following the signals that my body gives me.  Yesterday it just wanted to stay.  It wanted quiet.  5 days of nearly constant motion either by car or by foot.  5 days of nearly constant rain and being wet.  5 days of wind and near freezing temperatures.  5 days of mostly generalized wandering.  5 days of togetherness and space filling words.  Maybe it was just overload.

I tried to push through that sensation, but failed.  We got in the car and left Vancouver, WA with no plans and the alien thing just erupted from my chest with all its truth right over Duz with its full bitchitude.  "I don't want to letterbox.  I don't want to walk anymore because every joint in my body hurts.  I don't want to wander aimlessly.  I want to stay put."  He wisely chose to backtrack to a place we both had liked in Portland where we went to sip and savor some food and tea.

Even the stasis of sitting in the tea shop helped me feel more grounded and less unanchored.  The steamy warmth created by the stove, a stark contrast to the near constant cold dripping of outside.  Sweat collecting on the cool windows until they became opaque like bathroom glass creating a separate world from the out there that had suddenly seemed so hostile to me.  The comforting aroma of hundreds of teas and savory food.

Maybe it was the Mate Chai with its sweetness.  Maybe it was the tofu with mate, lime and ginger.  Maybe it was the lotus seed moon cake with its at first strange then spreading delicious taste.  But I think it was just honoring that demand for more quiet and less "out there."  We sat for a couple hours.  Bought more tea - of course!  And then were able to get back in the car and wander happily back to the airport a couple hours away.