Desert reflections

I have always loved deserts. I took my first backpacking trip in Canyonlands National Park when I was 18, and I think that experience made deserts near and dear to my heart. It was three weeks long, and unforgettable. We spent three days solo by a creek. I used to go out and use my water bottle to bathe every morning, taking delight in how cold the water felt on my skin. At night, coyotes howled at the moon, and I curled up in my sleeping bag trying to count the stars until my eyes grew heavy and the next thing I knew it was morning. I emerged from the desert lean and strong, knowing I would return.

I keep finding my way back to deserts. I spent a whole month with high school students in Morocco. Three weeks of that time, I lived in a remote village in the High Atlas Mountains. Every night before I went to sleep, I heard the call to prayer echo from village to village in the valley below. My host sister, Naima, and I had incredible conversations, aided by three dictionaries. We talked about faith in a mixture of French, Arabic, and Berber -- the language only the two of us knew how to speak.

I fell in love with the desert before I fell in love with plants. And I fell in love with baseball before anything else. I was 13 when my Mariners went to the playoffs for the first time. I jumped 10 feet into the air when Edgar Martinez's beautiful double down the left-field line in the Kingdome sent Junior sprinting from first to home. We'd done the impossible. We'd beaten the Yankees.

So, for me, this desert trip to see some baseball was much needed. Both baseball and the desert are good for my soul. I got the chance to relax, go some places I'd never been, and just recharge. I'm back now, happy and refreshed, ready for the next curve ball life throws at me. Show me what you've got and I'll hit it out of the park.

Guess what I kept taking pictures of -- plants! I decided that Saguaro cacti look like little green bandits, and kept taking pictures of them. Desert plants are so alien to me. In the Northwest, we have so much water that most of our plants are in various shades of green. In the desert, things are spiky, colorful, and poisonous. Desert plants have to protect their precious water.

I saw Joshua Tree N.P. and Saguaro. I didn't find a random butte on which to dance, but I did do a great cactus impression while at a rest stop. And I had the best day ever. On the same day, Felix Hernandez and Jay Buhner signed my baseball; Junior hit a walk-off grand slam; and I hit a double bullseye twice playing darts at the cowboy bar.

That's right -- two Mariner all stars signed my baseball. I'm still a little giddy. I have it sitting in a plastic bag on my bookshelf, awaiting the shrine I'm going to buy for it. I will pass it on to my kids -- unless they become Yankees fans. (I'm convinced my children will become Yankees fans just to spite me.)

I caught up with old friends, and made some new ones, too. I spent a wonderful evening lying on a San Diego beach and drinking margaritas with my friend Ben, whom I see not even once a year. I hung out with Cris and Kerry, whom I hadn't seen since college.

I think I need to take advantage of spring break every year.

Anyway, I came back to find that my tomato starts are quite a bit larger, and that I have ripe radishes! Hooray! I plan on picking some this afternoon to put on my evening salad. Perhaps I will take a picture of them once indoors to show you. They're so cute right now -- little green tops peek out of my garden over the radish's pinkness.

Some of the leaves on my tomato starts are yellowing, and I'm trying to figure out why. Hopefully someone from the Garden Hotline will get back to me soon. I think it might be a nitrogen deficiency. I just started watering them with a weak fish fertilizer, so we'll see if that helps. Some of them look great, and I started too many tomato plants anyway.

I had a great idea for this garden blog, based on something I found in the New York Times. Apparently, some of the most popular photo blogs are based on pictures people take of things they eat. My twist on this is to take pictures of things I make out of my homegrown veggies, so y'all can see the end of the journey -- from seed, to plant, to stomach! What do you think? I promise to pair these photos with recipes, so you can make your own, too.

On another note, when moving stuff around on my bookshelf to make room for my baseball, I found the list of stuff I'd decided I was going to do before I turned 30. I was 25 and living in Serbia when I made this list. My first real serious relationship had ended that summer, and I was reflecting on that when I made my list. You would think I'd remember that as a sad time, but I was just so excited by all of the possibilities that had opened up for me that I remember it as a happy time. I wrote in my journal "Mislim da moj život će biti velika aventura. -- I think that my life will be a grand adventure." So far, this has been true. And I don't think it's going to stop anytime soon.

Finding this list was really cool. There are about 20 things on it, and surprisingly, I've already done most of them. These include things like getting a master's degree, singing on stage again, auditioning for an acapella choir and learning yet another language. But there's still some things left, and I've only got about 20 months to go before the big 3-0 is upon me. I need some help deciding which of these things I want to accomplish. Keep in mind that I'm not made of money, so some of these things may be out of my means for a while. Of the things that aren't too esoteric or philosophical, here's what's left :

Summit Mt. Rainier (Probably involves too much cash to do now)
Learn how to dance
Bike the STP
Hike the Wonderland Trail
Go to Ireland and see my family's estate (I do have many frequent flyer miles)

So what do you think? Which one of these goals should I realistically try to accomplish in the next 20 months? What should my next adventure be?

After finding this list, I realized that I did accomplish the biggest thing I promised myself. I am not living a boring life. Every day is full of the promise of adventure.