Bone tired. Drove home from Vegas this afternoon. Loaded up on cheap dried snap peas and gas station coffee with a shot of hot chocolate.  Since getting back from Minnesota last week I’ve done that combination twice. Until the coffee set in I was going south on I-93 in a dream-like state. I just kept driving with both hands on the wheel praying to everything good and holy that I’d get back safely. The sun set over hills and valleys of dirt and sand, Joshua trees and Juniper. The landscape out here takes your breath away and makes your heart feel like it’s up in that pink hazy sky somewhere- floating away faster and further. You can’t keep up with the beauty of the desert at dusk; it envelops you and captivates you forever.  I was always meant for this place. Everywhere else in the world pales in comparison. My thoughts throughout the drive were running wild, the possibilities of my future sporadic, without borders or boundaries. I was in Vegas visiting a couple of friends who moved out there this fall. There are five of them in a large house on a boulevard only a short distance from the center of the city. Silver Lasso Street. There were palm trees reaching towards the brilliant blue sky. When I drove up on Friday there were several neighbor children playing street hockey. Christmas decorations still out next to the cacti and rocky yards. We made squash and rice for dinner, took a couple whiskey shots and went to the arts district for 1^st Friday art walk. Everyone was creating things right before you. Young hipsters playing guitar and dancing blissfully on sidewalks. Large fires to ward of the slightly chilled desert air. Art and antiques and live paintings and humanity. People painting old kids play cars, hot dog stands and falafel stands and art installations. It was a new perspective on Vegas. People live and dream and follow ambitions there. The lighted streets of the Vegas Strip seemed far away. These people weren’t out to get rich and drunk. They wanted to remember. The next day we hiked out by the red rocks. The sun was peaking through the corners of the mountains.