Life Outside NY Part 6: California, My Goddamned Graceland

In early October, after spending a bitter sweet summer in Seattle I said goodbye and headed South with great relief. Although I neglected my typical costume creations during this festive, and favored time of year for me, I endured some great adventures. I set on my way on a road trip into Northern Cali with an old friend, as mountaintops, fields of wheat and graffitied trains painted the Indian summer shades of gold and green around me. Soon we fell off the grid as Autumn disappeared into the smell of the night and coniferous plants took the place of the amber colored turning and dying tree's which had surrounded me in the week before in the Pacific Northwest.

I will not say so much about the bizarre adventure that I endured for the month of October and the early weeks of November. I will say that I found my heart there in California this past fall, as painful and uncomfortable as moments of that time may have been. It was not a bad time, and quite frankly the whole period was visually stunning; between the exquisite golden roadside fields off of the freeway, the vivid mountains of Mendo-smelling sweet with pine, distant from the world-and the gorgeous Golden Gate Bridge, spilling me out into San Francisco when I journeyed in and eventually came to live for a bit. I will also say that for the first time in my entire life I did not dress up for Halloween this year, a realization that still stings me to think of... my favorite holiday got away from me this year.

Here is a bit of the story in pictures of the place that owns my heart; California, My Goddamned Graceland.