Highway Karma

I haven’t been home for a major holiday in years.  I really dislike traveling around Thanksgiving and Christmas, and, if given enough time off I generally opt for traveling to a new place rather than going to a familiar one.

I had been planning to spend Thanksgiving in Gallup then was invited by a friend to spend it with him in Solana Beach, CA.  True, Solana Beach is nearly equidistant to Gallup as the Bay Area is BUT this particular friend happens to live a block away from the beach.  My heart was set on it.

Wednesday after work I climbed into my Hyundai with my Bossypants book on tape and an assortment of caffinated beverages.   I was so engrossed in Tina Fey’s stories when I noticed that gas was on empty and I had to pee like a racehorse.  I’m usually really good about stopping regularly for gas (so I tell myself), but I’ve also noticed that anytime I am running on empty, it is always somewhere miles and miles away from a gas station.  Yes, I was officially in the Middle of Nowhere, Arizona.

Exit exit exit exit...

In Montezuma, AZ, I finally found a gas station.  Off the exit, all I could see was a gas station and a Mexican food restaurant- nothing else for as far as the eye could see.

I ran in and used the restroom at the Mexican restaurant without purchasing anything (an action I generally try to exclusively reserve for Starbucks, aka the public restroom of New York).  I left and drove over to the gas station, as I was about to fill up my tank, I saw with horror that my rear driver side tire was COMPLETELY flat.  

O jeez... how long has that been there?

Was I really going 80 completely oblivious of a flat?

Can I just put air in my tire and go?

O my god I’m going to be stuck in Montezuma for the rest of my life... am I going to die here?

I went back into the Mexican restaurant trying to keep my cool but dying inside.  I explained the situation.   No problem, we’ll help you get your spare on.  They even refused any compensation for the help.  

Have I been completely lucky or unlucky tonight? 

I made it to Phoenix.  It was past 8; nothing would be open now... and the next day was Thanksgiving.  I pulled into a mall trying to find internet and ended up talking to some people in the parking lot.  

O yeah, Walmart is open on Thanksgiving and they’re right across the parking lot.

I spent the night in Phoenix, got my tire fixed and made it to Solana Beach without any trouble.  The fiasco was relatively uneventful, but if I hadn’t had help I would never have figured out how to get my spare on etc.

Flash forward to the drive back to Gallup 3 days later.  I was about two hours away from getting back to Gallup and pulled off to get gas.  I went to park my car to use the restroom (seeing a pattern? I unfortunately was born with a tiny bladder.  It's on account of my uterus) and saw a man standing on the curb with all his belongings around him.  O god.  I don’t want to deal with this.  I parked as far away as possible.  I tried to look down and hurry past him but there it was...

Going East? 

He asked.  I mumbled something about being a poor helpless female traveling alone NO HITCH-HIKERS He nodded.

In the restroom I saw a mother and little girl talking.

Are we ever going to get home mama?

Don’t worry sweetheart, we’ll get home.  Daddy will find someone nice enough to give us a ride.

O god.  I couldn’t leave them.  I would be the world’s worst person, especially since it was Thanksgiving which is supposed to be about helping people out in need and eating until you vomit.

They piled into my car and we were off.  

I couldn’t have picked a better ending to the trip.  It had an eerie karma feeling to it and left me with a sense of order in the universe (or at least order on the roads of the Southwest).  I have passed the right of passage and am, officially, New Mexican.












Images were taken by me at El Morro National Monument in New Mexico.

Yah'ah'teh'ah'bin'eh!

Good morning!

I officially know four words in Navajo.  It has now been almost a month since I have been back and settled in Gallup from Maryland.  And I am preparing again to make another trip.  I have been so caught up in trying to figure out how to be a pharmacist that sometimes (actually, most times) I have been overlooking the beauty of the people and landscape around me.

The Navajo revere things in fours, which is represented in the New Mexico state flag.  North, South, East and West seem to guide all aspects of life, with each direction associated with a different time of life, a different stone, a different temperament.  The Navajo Nation is surrounded by four sacred mountain peaks, one for each direction.  The Long Walk, when the Navajo were forced to go to Oklahoma, was particularly devastating because their land is not only their home; it is their religion.

An (incomplete) guide to all things in four.

Ha'a'aah.  East Dawn Spirit.

I was told by an older Navajo woman working at the hospital that as a child, she was woken up by her mother before dawn and taught to run toward the east, to the rising sun.  Good things come from the East and as children, they were taught to run out to greet it with arms outstretched.

Mount Blanca is the eastern mountain.

Shadi'aah.  The South.

Gallup is closest to the Southern mountain, Mt. Taylor.  The South is "nahata", planning, knowledge, competence.  Turquoise is the stone.

E'e'aah.  West.

Represented by yellow and "iina": inspiration, life.

The San Francisco peaks near Flagstaff, AZ represent the west of the Navajo Nation.  These mountains also have special significance for the Hopi.  A nurse who had worked in Tuba City for a long time, and was one of less than 30 non-Hopis to speak the Hopi language, informed me that the Hopi believe their gods to live on top of the San Francisco peaks. This land is disputed territory between the Navajo and Hopi people.

There is quite a bit of tension between the ski resorts on the San Francisco peaks and the Navajo Nation.  The ski resorts generate snow atop the mountains to extend the ski period, this snow is made from waste water.  In juxtaposition, only the most revered elders are allowed to climb to the top of these peaks.  It is a sacred place, the mother, that is sprayed with waste water so that tourists are able to come and ski.

Nahookos.  North.  Folding Darkness Spirit.

North is old age.  Si ha sine integrity and hope.

Hope is one of the most important values to the Navajo.  When speaking of bad things, such as possible complications to a procedure or disease state, it is important to speak in the third person, otherwise you may be wishing harm on the patient and taking away their hope.



I have so much to learn.

The Rubix Cube

It was 110 in DC and humid on the day that I left.  As I stood in line outside to check my luggage, I felt as though I were on the border of life and death.  I would have passed out if the thickness of the air hadn’t been holding me up.  

Inside, the airport was packed.  The majority of terminals where I was waiting were also waiting for planes to Dallas.  It was so hot out that the planes were not able to take off with full passenger loads, leaving many, including some of my friends from training who had left for the airport over an hour before I had, struggling to get standby on flights.  My plane luckily boarded me but needed to make an emergency landing in Nashville for fuel.  Delayed taking off and delayed again in Tennessee when a leak in the hydraulics was discovered, I was starting to accept that I would probably be spending the night in the Dallas airport.  

In Dallas, I was booked on standby for a full flight.  I remained hopeful until I saw an entire high school boarding.  There was no way I would make it on this flight.

Somehow, I made it.  I was the last person allowed to board.  I breathed a sigh of relief as I sat down next to an attractive young man about my age deftly flipping the colors of a rubix cube into disarray then back to solids and again into checkered patterns.

You just have to know the algorithms.  he said.  I don’t even look at the cube anymore, you just know it in your fingers.

He was going to a naval academy in Annapolis, MD.  Both his parents were musicians and he grew up on the road.  His friends were shocked when he announced that he was joining the military after growing up in a family of musicians.  He did it for the travel, the education, and to serve his country.

I watched him play with the rubix cube some more.  Making order out of chaos then watching the colors spin out of control again with a few quick turns.

It’s hardest at the end.  You get so close to what you need it to be, then you have to mess it up almost completely to fix it.

I think that its the same in life.  Sometimes you just have to give into chaos, let it overtake you in order to restructure yourself and come out finding more meaning and order in your surroundings than ever before.  As I begin my career, part of me wonders what I am doing by completely uprooting myself and finding work in a place that may as well be a foreign country compared to Boston.  I just have to find the algorithm.