...is the one night when I saw the galaxy with my own eyes. I don't have the date committed to memory; rather, it was the night after Hurricane Isabel tore through my state, knocking out the power for miles and miles around us. I had never seen so many stars in the sky before, and never have since then, not even on the few camping trips I went on as a teen (I guess they weren't far enough away from the city to compare).

for years I've daydreamed about taking a road trip out to the middle of nowhere, just for this purpose. you'd think I'd have prioritized it higher, being @astral and all, but I never committed to the idea. and, well, now I don't have a car, so the friction and cost are a lot higher than before, which sucks. I still want to make it happen, though. (hey, isn't it kind of fucked that seeing our galaxy is gatekept by having a car? I mean, you could also just live in a rural area, but that's not realistic for a whole lot of folks.)

part of me wants to mythologize this mission as some life-changing event that I'll be writing songs about for years to come, but I know that's not a healthy mindset. I dunno, though, maybe some acid under the stars would do the trick? is that a good idea or an extraordinarily stupid idea? it's definitely one of those two options

@dsy drove us out to a nearby state park to get a good view of the stars last night... even with the full moon and a good-but-not-perfect viewing spot, I'm pretty sure we both correctly identified the Milky Way in the sky! she pointed out a cloudy-looking star in Orion, and upon looking it up afterwards we found out that was a whole dang nebula!! that's so cool... I'm actually excited by the prospect of getting that view without the full moon on a future trip