As I waited outside the agency’s parking lot, I knew something was off when Ken did not answer my text right away. Ken was a mentor at my first collegiate internship — we bonded over walks through the West Loop, before it was hip.
As an intern, I was new to and struggling with the prolonged durations of sitting indoors that are inherent to office life. Through my short experience at the agency, I learned that Ken is very dutiful. Therefore, I knew something was wrong and it was my fault; he would have let me know if something changed.
My life is dictated by my Moleskin planner. In my planner, I wrote his visit to San Diego on 10/30. I checked my phone, message from Ken, lunch on 11/6. Throughout history, I have only made this mistake once before — thankfully, both times have caused zero negative repercussions. I was still perturbed by my mistake — my week was jammed pack and I could have used the extra space. Extremely hangry, I debated heading home to use the free-time to catch up and pack for the weekend. Instead, I went to Trilogy Cafe.
At Trilogy, I immediately ran into one of my best-friends, on her birthday! She had been on my mind all day, as I was disappointed to be missing her party due to my trip to the desert. As I ate my favorite tacos and coconut ice cream and brownie, I literally beamed with gratitude over my scheduling mistake — it led me to CiCi!!! Then, on my way out, I had a meaningful conversation with a friend — a conversation that set some positive things in motion.
That evening, I drove to Borrego Springs, California. As told in A Trip to the Stars, I chickened out on my first nighttime trip to the desert a couple of weeks back— a creepy encounter with a car on the side of the road kept me in the car versus under the star light, where I wanted to be. Had I stayed outside of the car on that first excursion, I probably would have not scheduled another trip back out.
After a stop for sushi dinner in the small town of Alpine, California, I arrived to La Casa del Zorro shortly after 10PM on Friday. Even after viewing the photos online, I was so surprised by the expansiveness and luxury of our room— truly first class glamping. We set our alarm for 2AM, I wanted to lay in the middle of the desert under the stars late at night (then crawl back into a comfortable king size bed).
By the time the alarm went off, I was dead asleep on my plush pillow. We groggily layered up and headed to what appeared to be a makeshift gauntlet for star-viewing. The resort constructed a large, walled, roofless structure for stargazing on the border of the premise. While Borrego Springs is in the absolute middle of no-where, the few homes and businesses within the 10 mile radius do give off some light — the archaically designed structure helped provide maximum darkness. With nothing but our hoodies on, we laid right in the middle and watched as three shooting stars streamed by.
As we crawled back into bed shortly after 3AM, I set the next alarm for 6:30AM. 6:30AM was a little harder to get out of bed for and thankfully, it was more fulfilling.
Moments before sunrise, the sky transformed to a deep, light blue. I felt as if I was walking to the place were the sun started. I swear, if we walked a mile closer , we could have practically touched it as it creeped onto the horizon.
Blazing over the edge, the mountains glowed with a purplish-pink-red hue; the sky, a greenish blue. It was surreal — astral. As the sun smoldered into the sky, round with a, gaseous haze, we sat down and meditated.
The energy I experienced in those moments is indescribable. Kind of like a, “yup, you’re on to something” feeling. Later that morning, after breakfast, I journaled over my gratitude over wimping out on the first trip — initially, I viewed my behavior during my first stargazing journey to Anza Borrego as “bad”.
Had I had a “good” trip, I probably wouldn’t have come back to the desert for awhile.
Had I not come back, I would have missed out on an incredible sunrise, followed by an overpriced hotel breakfast, a dip in the hot tub, journaling by the pool, a major defeat during a game of ping-pong, lunch at a restaurant straight out of the 1970s, a visit to their local Art Gallery, a trip to the metal sculptures, a hike through Palm Canyon Trail, apple pie, ice cream, and cider in Julian, Whole Foods macaroni and cheese, AND an 8:30PM bedtime, followed by 10 hours of sleep.
Missteps happen, so do miracles.