Remember that time I had a blog?

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen.  Or rather, welcome me back.

I was inspired to start this blog up again by reading my friend Colleen's.  She just moved to Germany for a study-abroad semester and I just moved to San Francisco for...no reason?  Actually no.  As my friend Alicia so aptly put it, it's imperative that I move here.  It's necessary.  Sometimes that happens.

So I drove here.  In two cars.  Let me explain on a day-by-day basis:

Wednesday, September 1, 2010
I leave Vermont at about 7 am.  I drive to Utica, New York, and on the way I take a ferry and listen to the amazing mix my friend Elizabeth gave me.  I fall in love with Why?

I have lunch with my brother Travis and my friend Megan in Clinton, NY.  We eat at the Indian buffet.  It is amazing.  THEN I DRIVE FOR ANOTHER EIGHT HOURS.  Or was it nine?  There was construction in Ohio that ended up letting me turn my car off for about 10 minutes at a time before inching forward.  The cause?  Merging.  From two lanes into one.  Not sure why it was so hard, but it made me hate everything.  Also not sure why I just switched tenses, but it is what it is.

I got to Liz and Sejohn's apartment in Bowling Green at about 9:30 or 10.  It was adorable.  We watched Comedy Central and at one point I flipped to a channel where they were showing some hairdressing battle show with people named Cajmonet (cazh-monay) and Tsunami and other unnecessary things.  Then I had Chik'n Nuggets and macaroni and went to sleep on a chair futon.




Thursday, September 2, 2010
Ah, Thursday.  This was the day I met Krista, who writes the blog Effing Dykes, which is required reading for anyone who wants to be in my life.  Well, maybe not my parents.  I had emailed her several weeks prior to my trip through her blog to see if she wanted to meet up for coffee when I went by Chicago.  I originally thought I would be staying overnight there, as well as being there three days later than I actually was, so when she responded the night before I left my reply was rather frantically informative.  She didn't confirm that she could see me until I had decided to go into Chicago anyway on the off chance that she would get in touch.

We had very limited time, because she texted me at 1 that she'd have to go at 2.  But I WAS NOT GOING TO MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY.  I downloaded the Verizon directions thing and drove in fear across basically all of Chicago.  This was when I noticed the bizarre grinding/vibrating noise coming from my car that would later ruin my life.

I met up with Krista at the Star Lounge.  She rode her scooter!  She's great.  I was freaking out but then it was cool.  I feel like if she ever reads this it's going to be awkward so I'll just stop now.

Trying to get out of Chicago was difficult.  Eventually I made it (after almost peeing my pants and finding solace in an Olive Garden) and then went to a rest area where I called my dad and tried to explain the noise and figure out what it was.  We didn't figure it out, but Dad said that I should take it to a shop in Iowa, and I merrily rolled along to West Branch.

I got in around 7 and immediately was sat down to dinner with the nicest people ever in the whole world, Jane Cadwallader and Geery Howe.  Jane is my childhood friends' mom's sister-in-law.  They were wonderful and said they knew of an import repair place in Iowa City that I could go to in the morning.  We watched a movie about making Steinways and then I fell asleep.

Friday, September 3, 2010
Day of reckoning.  I barely want to talk about it.  I took the car to the shop at 8:30am and was promptly told that both rear wheel bearings were failing and it would take $800 and four days to fix it.  I nearly died.  Then, for some reason, I decided buying another car would be the best plan.  After a lot of agonizing and being helped by a really nice salesman named James, I decided on a $3800 1992 Volvo 240 station wagon.  He said it would last forever and I thought it was a great deal, especially since the last owner was a gay guy named Michael Knock.  Great deal, yeah...oh, how things change, but we'll get to that in a few days.  Dad hadn't put the title in the car like he said he would, so he overnighted it.  James said the car would be all checked out and ready the next day.

I spent the rest of that day in a nice little place called Leaf Kitchen and the Iowa Public Library, which is beautiful.  I loved the city so much.  It reminded me a lot of Burlington.  Eventually Jane picked me up and we went to the grocery store and a music shop, where they were selling trumpets with grime guards.  Lame.

Home meant more delicious food and Jane and Geery attempting to watch Battlestar Galactica with me.  They kind of succeeded.

Saturday, September 4, 2010
I got up early, again, to watch for FedEx.  They were supposed to come before 12, but they ended up coming around 1, which was annoying.  I read several issues of Bon Appetit while I waited.  Then Jane took me down to White Dog and I repacked all of my stuff and was SO OUT OF THERE.  Drive drive drive...across most of Nebraska, including a town called Beaver Crossing.  Heh

Sunday, September 5, 2010
Woke up early, got the bathroom combo, showered, and left.  I was driving happily along until I was concerned by the overdrive light coming on.  No big deal, I thought.  Then the car stopped working.  The engine just sort of slowed and stopped.  I pulled over and tried to restart the engine.  No dice.  So I cried.

I
was
so
mad.

I had just spent all of my money on this car.  I called my parents and the insurance company (thank God we'd put me on it the day before) and got it towed (for $175) to Kimball, Nebraska, about 20 miles from the Wyoming border.  There is nothing in Kimball except a bowling alley called Kim Bowl, a Pizza Hut where I had dinner, the Sleep4Less where I stayed, and Schadegg Motors, who saved my life by agreeing to look at the car the next day.  Labor Day.  Nice.

I was given the nicest room by the hotel lady because she'd forgotten the key to the room she was going to give me.  I lounged in the air conditioning and thought positively.  The tow truck guy said that the problem sounded like vapor lock, which shuts down your engine when it's hot (check) and old (check) and at high altitude (check).  Nothing permanent, and the car had started just fine after a while.

I wanted to go to a locally owned place for dinner but everything was closed for the holiday, so I went to Pizza Hut.  I walked in right in front of an older couple, and it took about five minutes of explaining to convince the hostess that we weren't one party.  I had a Miller Lite and it actually got me a bit tipsy.  You don't drink much on a solo road trip.  Well, I don't.  I went to bed at 10.

Monday, September 6, 2010
Vapor lock!  I was in and out of the shop in an hour and left by 10.  The guy said to use the lowest octane or no-alcohol gas and to keep it over half full.  I started out on the road again and everything went swimmingly.  I went through the rest of Nebraska and into Wyoming, which is gorgeous.  I had originally planned to stay in Salt Lake with a Couchsurfing guy, but I wanted to get to California on Tuesday so I drove all the way to Wells, Nevada.

Things I learned:
1) There isn't anything in Wyoming.
2) The Great Salt Lake smells bad.
3) The way to prolong a beautiful sunset is to drive directly toward it at 70 mph.
4) If you need gas or food, never ever get off 80 at Exit 2, the last in Utah.  Wendover, the city, is terrifying.  You want to get off at Exit 4, where there is a gas station with a nice attendant.
5) The sky is more beautiful out West.

The campground in Wells was nice, but I have never been colder in my life.  My two-season tent and sleeping bag didn't really cut it.  I was tempted to wear my snow boots to sleep, but couldn't face getting out of my sleeping bag.  I just shivered and slept occasionally from 11 until 5:40 and then said fuck it, got up, put my boots on to go to the bathroom, and got back on the road.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Drive drive driveeeeeee...there is also nothing in Nevada except casinos.  I felt really bad about skipping my friend Meghan's parents' house in Tahoe, but again, I WANTED TO BE IN SAN FRANCISCO.  I went up mountains and down mountains and eventually hit traffic for the first time in a week--I knew I was close then.  Yay?

And then I was home.  1690 19th Avenue.  It was a beautiful reunion with my boo and my new roommate Cassie, who's awesome.  The apartment is superb and I'm so happy here.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010
This is a day that made me mad.  I woke up at 7 to take my car to the shop for a smog check and a check-up, expecting James at White Dog to have been right and for the car to be in great condition.  After I dropped it off, I walked to the Dolores Park Cafe, a recommendation of Krista's, and looked up how much money I'd have to spend to register the car here, which is a lot.  Lame.  I also found out that I'd paid about $1600 more than the Blue Book value.  Huh.  Managed to ignore that.  Then I walked another four miles home.  Never take 17th Street.  Literally it goes up at a 60 degree angle for many many blocks.  These people aren't kidding around.


I got home and hung out with Cassie, then went to the market to get food.  While I was there, I got a lovely phone call from Andy at Popular Mechanix who informed me very nicely that my front brakes were at 10% and overall I needed about $3000 worth of work on the car, and it had passed the smog check only because the Check Engine light had been burnt out but the guy said he'd pass it if Andy promised to replace the light.  The light should have been on.  Was it burnt out but on in Iowa City?  Probably.  Needless to say I called James and tried to ream him out, but mostly just ended up trying not to cry and not understanding his soft, gentle voice because of the connection and the traffic I was near.

I was not a happy camper.  I went to get my car and forked over $217, but decided to wait on forking over any of the $3000.

BUT THEN ALICIA CAME OVER.  I can't even explain to you how much I love this girl.  I'm not going to try.  We had beerz and talked forever, and then we and Tess went on a search for pizza and walked like 2.5 miles.  It was a walky day for me.  Approximate distance: 7.5 miles

Thursday, September 9, 2010
I was so soreeeeee but I met my future children!  While at Tanglewood, Alicia realized that the family she occasionally nannied for would be perfect employers for me, because I'm awesome and could take the kids regularly.  I had a sort of phone interview with Lisa, the mom, and it went swimmingly!  I was basically hired then, but of course I had to meet everyone.  Alicia brought the Kelly boys (Ryan, Colin, and Max) and their friend James (little shit) over to meet me and we all went to the Exploratorium.

IT IS THE COOLEST PLACE EVER.

It's like every awesome science experiment you ever did at nerd camp in one place.  They even had a cow eye dissection going on.  UGH SO GREAT

The boys were adorable.  They weren't bad at all and yet Alicia said they were usually much calmer and sweeter.  I was/am psyched.  Alicia dropped me back off at home and I commenced to watch a lot of TV on my computer.  Also I walked to get pizza with Tess.  Again.

Approximate miles walked: 2.5

Thank God I can end this post, because now it's Friday so it can have its own post.