Travel 21.05.2008
So after a few years of sitting quietly in Chicago, with the periodic trip to the Twin Cities or Milwaukee for a bike race, I’ve jumped back on the road again.
Few days in Omaha working for Napoli on a site, then back to Chicago for a week days, then down to Jacksonville for four days shooting the NPPL Jacksonville event.
It’s the first pro paintball event I’ve shot since Huntington Beach 2006 and, honestly, I was scared shitless to roll back in. No idea what it would be like. But everything was so familiar that it seemed impossible that it’s been three years. It was like I had never left – things just fell back into place.
And there I was, with Matty and Nicky (Cuba and Vegas) and Eggs and Ryan, slamming shots, screaming over the din at bars, talking shit, getting one hour of sleep, working from 7am – 7pm with no food, sidelining with Showers and DerDer, hating on the new photographers, the Ref’s and TV guys blocking our shots, the players who sit still and shoot and won’t die spectacularly, racing to the airport, barely making a flight, fitfully sleeping all the way back to Chicago, staggering into my house half awake, half drunk, burnt and happy. Like I hadn’t spent the last three years sitting on my ass in an air conditioned office, making decent money, getting old, the best parts of my life being totally disconnected from what I did sight hours a day.
I felt like me. The same velocity and energy that makes me blow red lights and take stupid chances on my bike was right there. When I played paintball what I loved was that you were totally in the moment. What I love about biking in the city is that you’re totally in the moment. No reflection, no hesitation, no higher brain function. Just lizard back brain fight, mate, kill, survive. Your body as an engine of motion, as a machine built to your will. No rent. No job. No friends. No problems. Just movement and reaction and the moment.
It’s different now though. I have roots at home that I didn’t have before. And that’s good. I’m not sure how to describe it, but the duality of my life, the way I compartmentalize and separate disparate parts of myself, seem to have evaporated. I’m not worried anymore. I’ve got connectivity. I feel like I’m back.
