sometimes, in the life of a hopeless romantic, come moments where you no longer wish to wear your life on your sleeve. moments where keeping the thoughts that you pile through at night in your own head becomes important. and sometimes, in the life of a hopeless romantic, you learn that’s impossible.

so you do anything you can to let it out without revealing it - conversing in metaphor and distant example, responding in short, terse answers where friends expect you to ramble, hiding behind cryptic words and writing. and why? because it’s somehow easier - you feel as if you aren’t imparting your own problems on the world, dropping your own decisions and words onto another being, a friend. and cryptic writing? because it sells books. because people think you’re a genius for dancing around simple points - they can fill in the blanks and insert their own life… and if that’s a question, look at how well books like the alchemist or jonathon livingston seagull sell.

and then you hit moments with friends who jog you through the field of words and pull out (or trigger) a moment of clarity - often unintentionally, often when you’re fighting to listen (really listen) to what they have to say instead of just waiting to tell your own story. clarity that may only lasts seconds but will ring for days. clarity that brings calm, brings laughter.

good moments.

Posted by noblehobo at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

deep breath.

sigh.

relax.

the transition is done - after four days on the coast of antarctica, hanging out in mcmurdo, countless hours of flights and many, many nights in between this summer and home i’m here. my old room beckoned, the station is familiar as always, the friends as welcoming, the place as exciting, the horizon line as steady, the sky as blue, the south pole as it always has been.

i haven’t made a solid home - a place of my own - in over three years. everything has been a transitional lifestyle, a job or a home that lasted for no more than a few months. at the pole, however, there is consistency and familiarity, a return to the same faces and spaces that leave me comfortable. and this time for a year… it will be the longest i’ve lived in any one place since 2001 and, assuming that my dreams don’t change in any exceedingly large fashion, the beginning of settling a little more regularly.

it’s a grand adventure about to start, filled with the myriad mix of emotion that place it as perfection for the challenge it will be.

Posted by noblehobo at 01:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

made it to the coast today - we landed on the ice outside of mcmurdo station. more soon, the winter air of antarctica’s summer calls…

Posted by noblehobo at 06:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

so this site is up and running in a sort of fashion - a car frame on blocks with a running engine, maybe. there’s definitely a lot more work to do - major, minor and cosmetic but she runs for now. comments work too - save a catch. you need to log in to a “type key account” put together by the company i purchased the software for this site from. it’s an extra pain in the process but should keep spam from occuring. besides, all of you reading this find me worth it for an extra second of time, right? [insert sarcastic comment here]

to sign up for the service just click on the “comments” button. when the comments page comes up you’ll see a bit saying that you are not signed in and that you must click to sign in. click there - it says, “sign in”.

you’ll be taken to a new page. in the center will be a button that says “create a free account”. click it. you’ll have to fill in a brief bit of info, pick a log in and password, and then confirm through email (so use an email address you can actually check). you’ll get an email from typekey asking you to click on a web location for final conformation (this is after you filled out the form and submitted it) and that should do it.

after i approve you. [insert evil laughter here]

if this sounds confusing, don’t fret, it’s much easier to follow and understand if you click the buttons. and email me if you have any questions.

happy typing in the mean…

Posted by noblehobo at 08:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

made it to new zealand safe and sound, and a little sleep has left my soul a little closer (it doesn’t seem to move as fast as my feet can) and my perspective far lighter.

there’s been a fine rush of friends upon hitting the final transfers in flight and gathering into the community of the pole is a warming experience indeed. homogenous, in some aspects (politics in particular) but vastly different by way of experiences, travels, and paths here. it’s a set of refreshing waters to dip into for conversation - an easy space to build dreams.

and busy…so to playing in the city (and safety trainings, orientations, clothing issue, flu vaccinations, etc.) i go.

Posted by noblehobo at 08:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

and thus it begins again, sitting in the airport, waiting on a flight, stuck in that horrifyingly boring limbo between one life and another. it’s a strange feeling indeed, balanced here at my gate, surrounded by souls in transition and feet in motion. everyone is waiting or running somewhere else - there is no call to home here, no easy comfort. it leaves me wishing i could sleep through the lobbies to jump that much faster into the next adventure.

one long, incredible adventure too. a year in one of the most remote places on the planet, a year in a day (i’ll be back in the states tomorrow morning, if day is defined by a sunrise and a sunset), a year at the south pole. should be something amazingly crazy and wonderful, even if occasionally mundane. and it pales so completely to the adventure that starts when i return…

and here boards the flight.

Posted by noblehobo at 08:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

happy, happy nate.

Posted by noblehobo at 10:30 PM | Permalink