Albuquerque to Phoenix
113 degrees. That’s actually a temperature that we experienced today. Downtown Phoenix is very nice other than that. The hotel is very nice too, and very affordable, and right across from the Footprint Center, so maybe we’ll come back for a Suns game this winter. But holy shit it is hot here right now. Also, take a trip through the Tonto National Forest when you get a chance, it’s beautiful. We spent a little time in Old Town Albuquerque for coffee before we hit the road and it was nice there too. I’m kinda getting a little burned out with these posts, but it’s perfect timing, because this is the last stop of what has become over a month away from LA. Five and a half hours on the road tomorrow and we’ll be back at Bronson and back to the grind of real life. The final stretch of the year will be upon us and we’ll have to complete our most ambitious project yet, and that’s exciting and scary all at the same time but before we get there I think I’d like to just reflect on this trip a little bit.
It’s really been refreshing to see different parts of the country, and to take the time it took to get home on the ground instead of by air. It reminds you how big the country is and for me personally, it reminds me how much I tend to rush things. This whole year and for many years before that - my whole life basically, I’ve been trying to teach myself patience. I’m the kind of person to think of something, imagine it in my head, tell a friend about the grand plan and then get really, severely bummed out when that plan doesn’t come to fruition immediately. I mean immediately, too, like right when I finish talking about it I get bummed that it doesn’t just happen. People say it all the time but it’s hard for me to accept that the journey is the destination sometimes… and not being able to appreciate that can really put a damper on your experience… and that can be really sad because as far as we know, this is the only chance we have to enjoy this experience, so spending it bummed out is essentially missing the greatest opportunity we’ve been given. There have been a lot of conversations this month with Understanding, Bryana, my parents about the state of this company. We’ve talked at length about what’s working, what’s not working, people have made suggestions, I’ve been trying to think of adjustments, trying to figure out a way to break through, and I often get really overwhelmed and it gets pretty dark. But getting stuck in that mindset, approaching our challenges from that mindset… it’s like shooting ourselves in the foot. I’m limiting myself because I’m looking at it from a negative perspective, and I’m not putting my best foot forward because people are smart and they can see when you’re not feeling what you’re doing, and if that’s the case, why would they want to engage with that kind of energy? You have to find a different way to look at it.
So this is my different way of looking at it. We’re doing everything we said we would, and we’re doing it all ourselves. And it’s going to be a long journey, just like this month on the road has been. And at the end of the day, that’s a good thing. It’s a good thing because we’ll get to see so much on the way there, and that’s the point. I’m gonna try to be patient. We’ll get there when we get there.
Time to get back to Hollywood.
-J.P.