hardly art, hardly starving

I spent the last hours of my vacation-weekend driving home in complete terror of what might not await me in my P.O. Box. The poor boyfriend had to endure hours of me telling myself it’d really be ok if I wasn’t offered a thesis, I mean, I got that B- once which could have killed my departmental 3.5 but really I could be an ok individual if it wasn’t offered to me but I would maybe have to hang myself.

So I got offered the thesis! Yay! More about that later when I actually have figured out what I want to do. This past weekend was a lovely blur of a road trip and I should tell you about that instead since I can’t sleep.

Thursday: I left school early (ish) after doing a bunch of paperwork to try to secure my summer job making a lovely government salary. I was able to make it into the NC mountains during one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. I stopped near the Wilkesboro Drag-race to take some pictures of the setting sun behind the cemetery of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church.

I need to figure out how to work with the white balance on this camera though, as you can see the unfortunate result of the “auto” setting is that it blew everything out. I still like most of the pictures though, and wandering around the quiet cemetery with the sun dragging twilight over the mountains, the sound of drag racing below me, the smell of Carolina barbeque and burning rubber, it was a really lovely moment.

I got to Boone rather exhausted, and we called it a night pretty early on.

Friday: D. (Z.’s bassist/ one of his best friends) picked us up around 2 o clock and we were on our way to Norfolk, VA to see the amazing post-rock band Explosions in the Sky. The drive was about 6 hours across the state and up into Virginia; it was warm and sunny, just the right amount of music and chatter and spring breeze. I sat in the back while the boys up front talked about bands and chord progressions and the structure of sound. I dozed off a few times, wrote some poetry in my school books, and planned my third paper for a class. Once in Norfolk, we wandered around the streets bathed in bluish twilight; the city itself was like a tiny Baltimore or DC, different than Roanoke in its attempt to be metropolitan, northern, something. Our spot in the venue was one of the furthest back I’ve been in a while; I’ve certainly been spoiled by the front row (Iron & Wine, Avett Brothers, PopFest). The show was different than any other I’ve been to — the band introduced themselves first, played 8 consecutive songs, said goodbye without an encore, and still took an hour and a half. Their songs are epic instrumentals that really bank on the crescendo; I always get the feeling I’m floating through space when I hear them. Z. and I danced to our song, slow and steady, and I realized just how much of a lucky girl I am.

After Norfolk, at around 1AM, we headed to VA Beach to get some pizza and survey the surroundings, D. and I never having spent time there. Z. played tour guide to the mess of clubs and sea-side resorts, late night neon pizzerias,  the lamp posts with the “NO CURSING” signs. Apparently it’s a fine-able offense.

I fell asleep soon after that, and woke up once in a gas station with a particularly creepy Radiohead song blasting, and then later as we pulled into Z.’s mom’s driveway in Kill Devil Hills, NC at about 4am. We fell into bed immediately.

Saturday: We woke up at noon and had lunch with Z’s mom, who is one of my absolute favorite people on this earth. Z. and D. debated indie ethics, whether they’d sell hypothetical songs to Hummer or Walmart-esque corporations. After lunch we went to the beach on Pea Island and sloshed through the surf in our jeans and bare feet. The wind was ridiculously strong and created torrents of sand. I collected a few shells (including a mostly-formed conch!) and chased seagulls. After that we packed up to leave. I love that I now have a connection the the outer banks; in a few weeks we’ll go back to see Z’s friends get married and I’ll be excited to spend an extended trip there, swim and take in the landscape.

We left by way of Manteo, a scenic route to Raleigh. We arrived at D’s parents’ house at around 9 or 10, and headed out to survey the scene at around midnight. We hung out with a bunch of D’s friends, heading from apartment to apartment. It was kind of like a Hold Steady song, only marginally less “fucked-up.” There was a jam session, two guitars and a cello. I fell asleep at around 2AM on Z’s lap right after he played me a few Iron & Wine and NMH songs on his new (old) guitar. I woke up to a particularly good episode of the Office. Then we headed back home to sleep.

Sunday: Z. and I awoke around noon, talked for awhile in bed, then headed downstairs for breakfast. D’s evil satan cat (and I usually LOVE cats) lurked like a shark and attempted to kill us on a few occasions. We ate the baked goods Z’s mom baked for us (omg BEST FOOD EVER) and waited for D to wake up. When he finally did, we all had a sort of upgraded version of breakfast, then wound up leaving Raleigh at about 3. We toured the nearby industrial city Durham, then took the long way back home to Boone. I slept alot in the car, waking up for sunsets and the oil fields near Winston-Salem; the Wachovia building nick-named the Phallus Palace. I got sick along 421, sick of days and days of fast food.

Once back to Boone I packed my bags quickly and departed, ending the weekend with the usual tears and melodramatic goodbyes. Only this many more days until he moves to Roanoke. Only this many more days until I visit again. It’s all this big countdown.

But the weekend was beautiful, a collection of warm drives and bad jokes, new music, old stories. I finally feel at home these days, everywhere else but this tiny little campus.

But hey, I’ll have a thesis next year