Day 44: Viking Warrior Princess + Jimmy Google = Oh, What A Night

Day Forty-Four: Viking Warrior Princess + Jimmy Google = Oh, What A Night

7/26/11:

Yelena, Noah and I recorded sites on the south side of Bill Williams; Yelena referred to me as a “Viking Princess” on the phone to a friend; Noah drove a truly terrible and therefore awesome forest road; I got to play with what can only be described as a puff-dust plant—and yet, the most memorable bit about July twenty-sixth, believe it or not, was the fact that it was Noah’s twenty-first birthday.

Neil, wanting to be the first to buy Noah a drink, took the crew out to the Route 66-themed Twisters (and yes, my chocolate milkshake was delicious). Back at North House, Joe displayed his culinary talents with a steak dinner while Noah drank in the glory of legality. Later in the evening at the Salty Tuna, I commandeered Micah and Tyler’s game of darts (to marginal success) while Joe, Noah and Travis became bosom buddies with two vacationing Australians intent on the Grand Canyon. Full of stories (and marvelous accents), the two Aussies took turns brandishing a Shrek doll emblazoned with the words “Jimmy Google” across his rotund midsection. Yes, America was treating them to its finest.

I got talking to Micah and learned about the tattoo on his forearm—a physical reminder of sorts of his years as a soldier in Iraq. Noah impressed upon me, somewhat repetitively, how much he absolutely loved Grinnell. Travis—in a conversation I still find myself thinking about—told me that the college years were all about wading in a mire of existential crises, that I was going to make some decisions wrong no matter how hard I tried, and that sometimes things were just what they were, neither good nor bad. Not every moment was life or death, no matter what it felt like at the time, which (as someone with a tendency to think that way) was incredibly comforting to hear. It also didn’t hurt that Travis, who’d worked a number of fire seasons, had buttered me up by telling me I was hotshot crew material. I’d been working on a pretty healthy admiration of all things firefighter, so learning that Travis thought I had it in me to work on one of the most difficult types of crews was a sure way to get me smiling.

The night wound down with large quantities of syrup and pancakes, which Joe demanded Noah eat. I laughed over Yelena’s description of me as a “Viking Princess” and declared that I would own it with the inclusion of “Warrior” to my title.

Watching Noah singing to himself and playing with his soggy pancakes, I thought we’d given him a pretty good twenty-first birthday.

Oh, what a night.

Photos: 1. The crew at Twisters 2. Noah and Elvis (photo credit: Neil)