God's country
Trip Start
Aug 21, 2008
1
2
Trip End
Sep 02, 2008
Columbus, Ohio
Saturday, August 23, 2008
was actually a god forsaken land, that working at abercrombie was just
leading me down a path of temptation but i quickly got over my
presbyterian upbringing despite the "HELL IS REAL" billboards along
I-70. coming back to columbus reminded me that the reason i loved this
place was precisely the reason why i left it. it is forever unchanging,
homogeneous, and a locus for that quintessential all american-ness that
exists only in one's imagination, colored rose by the film and music
industry. it was also a place where the locals and my company eagerly
shared in my desire to be marked by difference. and there the
contradiction lies - in a place that i appreciated for its conformity,
i loved being out of place, but then struggled with the creative
limitations inherent to the space.
i still think working at
abercrombie is the bees knees - where else do you get repeatedly told
you are the smartest, coolest, best looking person they could have
found for this job (ON EARTH)? unfortunately, it was a continuation of
the harvard elite message (minus the cool and the good looking) and i
needed to be humbled accordingly.
the 9.5 hour drive was
relatively painless, though the first few hours were kind of tough.
running on low sleep, thanks to the double chocolate chip frappachino i
had the afternoon before, the 2 beers, and 5 pitchers of margaritas
around dinner time. (SC whom i met backpacking in bali came to ny and a
suprisingly dynamic and hilarious meeting of abercrombie and
backpackers resulted.)
luckily, i was cruising to dylan, the
beatles, bloc party, wolf parade & the occasional lapses in my ipod
of britney spears and mariah carey. when i hit west virginia, it was
like my ipod could sense we had hit another world, and started crankin'
out o'death (the band from o brother where art thou).
and what
was my very first stop in columbus, ohio? the WAL MART. so cheap and so
lovely. life is just very, very good here. next stop TENNESSEE.
