laura lippay

I like to laugh and sing and skip and laugh and laugh and laughSomething flits around in my heart, bouncing off the walls of it, when I think about traveling and learning and exploring. It Goes out through my Veins and up into my neck And chin.I’ve raced my friends through the backroads of PA at night with our headlights off, explored the country from one side to the other and back and around, climbing every peak, exploring every cave, and jumping off waterfalls and cliffs along my way. I unknowingly dated someone with a devoted girlfriend for a year and still gave him ten bucks to get the train after he told me. I’ve been through the crash of a dotcom! I’ve sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge, I’ve canoed alone amongst alligators in the Everglades on New Years Eve, I won a spelling bee, a poetry contest, gymnastics meet, soccer game, football game, softball game, pumpkin carving contest, Halloween costume contest (thx mom), mother’s day giveaway at Ames, but I got second place in the handstand contest in 2nd grade because – I only came down because I thought everyone else was down & I had won. I’ll never forget it. I’ve hung out in the chairlifts in summer, and sledded in garbage bags down the mountains in the poconos at night when the slopes were closed. I’ve signed autographs, toured with the circus, seen hundreds of beautiful, serene, and always different sunrises. I’ve sung karaoke, been the subject of a documentary for a Japanese TV show, floated down many rivers on sunny days, spent countless days and nights playing in the rain in the streets, in my yard, or in the woods, enjoying the cleansing realness of such good feeling rain. Hung out for a day in a tiny silver town in Mexico with a beautiful guy that didn’t speak any English, singing and playing instruments in a café on the square. Been in the rainforest, the desert, the mountains, the oceans, the bright, non-stop cement cities, and the observative, muddy little towns. I’ve dated a guy in a wheelchair. I’ve slept on the floor at Port Authority, and on the counter at a Laundromat, in a canoe, and in my trunk. I’ve asked people for money at a gas station, and I’ve traded things for food at Dead shows, often smiles. I’ve bathed in an ice cold stream, I’ve seen the blackest nights littered with stars like an explosion of jewels in the sky. I’ve bottle-fed a monkey, ridden a turtle, ridden an elephant, and I’ve seen a hippo shit and it isn’t pretty! I’ve driven in a blizzard so bad you could only tell where the road was by aiming between signs, I’ve ridden my bike in a hurricane, and watched turbulent waves roll in from the ocean during it, and crash into the bottom of the cliff I was standing on. I’ve been in a few accidents, mostly that I can remember were my fault. I’ve moshed, been floated, and dove off a rafter into a crowd. I’ve hung out in plenty of trees and once on top of a port-a-pody. I’ve walked the streets in St. Louis with a herd of elephants, horses, llamas, and zebras. I’ve spent many peaceful, solitary days and nights in the woods. I’ve hitchhiked, skitched, ridden on the hood (and fallen off), and had people in my trunk. I’ve had a broom broken over my head, a bottle broken on my ear, I’ve been punched in the face through my car window and I’ve been punched in the face INTO my car window. I’ve been kicked in the head by a skinhead. Girl. I’ve broken ankles and wrists bajillions of times and I’m sure every one of them was worth it. I’ve walked backroads barefoot for miles, smelling everything. And when it was hot I walked the painted line. I’ve bungee-jumped, parasailed, cliff-dove, bridge-jumped, front-flipped, back-flipped, mountain-climbed, rollerbladed, rollerskated, skied and snowboarded. I’ve done all this and I feel like I’ve done nothing. There is so much I want to do and to learn that every day I find it hard to keep up with myself. Will I ever rest? EVER? What if after I die I become a poltergeist? What am I looking for? Something to make me complete? Where will I find it and what will it be?Oh, and kidgets are fun.