So since I decided to use this as some kind of journal in hopes of getting me back into a writing mode. A long shot but still. I figure I shouldn't be all whiny woe is me about my problems because you have to take the good with the bad. And for the whole 2 of you reading this you might be in awe like I was with what happened Friday.
So unless you were under a rock there was an epic solar storm that hit the earth. I don't know much about solar storms or what the terms mean really but this was a G5 event which I guess hadn't happened since 2003. Which ultimately meant Northern Lights could be seen in places not usually seen.
On twitter I was seeing all kinds of reports about seeing them in the UK, across the eastern US, and I of course got my FOMO moment because seeing the Norther Lights in person has been a bucket list of mine for much of my life. So my OCD brain (be it because of ADHD or Autism, whatever) paid off.
I became consumed by where in the US people were reporting Northern Lights. Then I saw a map similar to this one, but on a local news station that suggested there was a chance to see the Northern Lights in California.
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So, after I got off work, I continued down my obsessive rabbit hole. Where could I drive in California that I could make it by night fall to see the northern lights. Surely I wouldn't see them in SoCal so I had to drive somewhere. Death Valley I knew was a chance. It was farther north, great viewing for stars, clear weather, but did I really want to drive the four hour drive to get to there only to see nothing? Northern California was another shot but still, even that was a seven hour drive to get to some place with a realistic chance of seeing the lights. As crazy as I am, I wasn't that crazy.
I continued to hem and haw over it, watching people on Twitter posting their northern lights experience, seeing a couple of friends in the midwest post their experience, and again I went back to the map.
The bottom line of that map (that I wish i could find again) curved just south of where I live in Southern California. It was like this little voice saying "haha you can't see me", Taunting me. But then on Twitter there was a magical moment. Someone in Florida, FLORIDA, reported seeing the Northern Lights. So I googled where they were, around the Kennedy Space center. I zoomed out on the map and saw where it was in relation to me in SoCal. They were farther south officially so if they could see it, surely I could, right?
But still. My brain, despite being stuck in this obsessive spiral, convinced me I wouldn't be able to see them. I'd have to drive somewhere away from light pollution, at night, by myself. Now for being as much of an introvert as I am, I'm also incapable of doing things alone. I don't get it because you'd think I'd be perfectly okay doing more trips alone. But I can't, it's a force to get myself to do it. In order for me to accomplish the mission I'd have to be in the middle of nowhere, alone, well into the night. The idea just didn't appeal to me so my brain kept me on that rut.
When I get into that kind of mode I usually flip a coin. Best two out of 3. If I accepted the coins terms, then I'm good. If I didn't accept them, then obviously I wasn't as on the fence as I thought. Well the coin told me stay home. So I continued down my online rabbit hole.
