Albuquerque, New Mexico

Wednesday, August 10th: Wicked long drive from Peoria to Albuquerque. Another totally different landscape. A sort of dusty green spotting the dirt and red rocks around me. Massive cuts of stone in every direction. I love this kind of environment the best. You know these plants are tough, living in 100 degree+ temperatures amidst solid geography. I'm passing tons of signs for Indian reservations and Native American shops. Unfortunately, most of them are travel plazas as well. A small part of me, deep down inside, is feeling guilty. How are we supposed to learn and change when all that's left are casinos and full-service gas stations? Called Doc for advice about NM. He returned the call soon after, with more ideas than I could possibly use. I was having so much fun with Coop, that I didn't bother to check my itinerary; thus, I have less than 24 hours in Albuquerque.

I get there and park. Walk to the bookstore and meet Scott and his roommate Carson. They give me a proper tour, highlighting the useful buildings and where I'd be "living" as a grad student. Went to their house--a three bedroom, 2 bath, with a yard for $1000+/month--and chilled while they went to play their weekly soccer game. Later, we went to a local bar with two names and a slightly secret entrance. Had beers and chilis courtesy of the Prospective Student fund. Bedtime early. Have to (1) eat a breakfast burrito, says Doc, (2) go to Old Town to find my mom some turquoise and (3) sit in the square there for good luck. Folks say the outside vendors give great deals if you get there before the major infestation of tourists. I'm really hedgy about New Mexico right now. It would be the most significant change: more land than water, minority majority, small sects of liberals, and I've heard that there's no good venues and rarely any great shows. Though, some part of me immediately liked what I saw. Wonderful, more thinking to do...

Peoria, Arizona & Arizona State University

Thursday, August 4th: Woke up, repacked and headed to Denny's for breakfast all by my lonesome. Got on the road for my first real time alone since I left. My need for control fulfilled in speed of my car, the frequency of my pit stops, the exact nature of my iPod playlists. The drive was better than I had expected. Hundreds of windmills lining the landscape, California's version of desert beating down on my car. Flat, hot and rugged. Beat Coop home from work. We had some vodka drinks in his beautiful, grown up apartment. So proud of him, of both of us--to think that six years ago I was in a shitty, deadend relationship and Coop was struggling with academics. By comparison, Coop just did what I'm about to--pick up and move across the country and start over. Got some dinner, met his work friends for a drink and made it an early night.

Friday, August 5th: 90 degrees at 9:00 in the morning. Fucking-A! Coop had to work. Worked on my journal, watched some TV and did laundry. Went grocery shopping. Set the table and made rigatonis with meat sauce and salad. I sorely miss meals with Coop. Somehow found the post-pasta energy required to go rent a movie. Ended up with Season 3 of The Family Guy. Just Coop and I on the couch, just like the old days...

Saturday, August 6th: Coop's day off and we slept in a bit. Drank coffee and had a great bleary-eyed, messy hair morning talk--one of those everything and nothing conversations. Zoned out, watched cartoons and Coop made breakfast. Finally showered for the day and decided to go outside in the oppressively hot weather. Went to a real spiffy car wash. Quality! The arcade was packed, so we ended up at Dairy Queen. Went to see Wedding Crashers. Hilarious! Back at Coop's for cartoons, a phone call from Joe, and more words to exchange. Our pizza took forever to be delivered by a confused, stuttering boy. Went to bed early. Coop has the real world tomorrow.

Sunday, August 7th: More laundry. Errands--post office and Best Buy. Back at the apartment, I compiled a commemorative road trip CD; sort of a start-to-finish record of our travels. Burned copies for the kids. Hand wrote the liner notes for all four copies. When I listened to it, I got goosebumps and weepy-eyed. It was like doing the trip all over again; the sign of a good mix tape, sounds like the trip felt. The summer of singer/songwriters is coming to an end. After Coop got home from work, we went to dinner at his favorite bar/restaurant called Blue Moon. It's going to tear my heart out to leave Coop. It was hard enough when he left me. Such a beautiful soul, so far away.

Monday, August 8th: Last morning without Coop. No errands left to do. Really, really missing Dante. Decided to skip University of Arizona. Have heard nothing good about it from local folks. Spent all day coalescing the scenarios I've come up with on these lazy days:

(1) Get into an MFA program. Get a house and a dog.

(2) Find a teaching position or grant writing job. Move West.

(3) Live in Pittsburgh, maybe do some subbing--save money.

(4) Take up the New York job offer. Live in a broom closet. Go into debt.

Round and round and round I go...
...where my anal, future planning, neurosis stops, nobody knows.

Tuesday, August 9th: Coop's day off. Drank a whole bunch of coffee. We were going to check out Arizona State University anyway, so I found a tattoo parlour in Tempe. Went straight there, picked an artist, discussed my sketch and made an appointment for an hour later. Went to breakfast at Chompy's. Had an avacado omelette. Trying to cram in all the fresh produce I can before I get back to Ohio. Had some time before the tattoo appointment. Drove down Mill Street. Here's an analogy: Tempe is to Phoenix as Bowling Green is to Toledo. Although, Arizona is beautiful and the Tempe/Phoenix area is ripe with good food, venues and manageable cost of living. Back to Club Tattoo where Trini finishes my tatt in less than an hour. Hell yea! Went to ASU where they had some ridiculously complicated, self-guided GPS tour that was broken anyway. Convinced one of the tour chicks to just show me a few buildings. We power-walked campus, trying to outrun an approaching rainstorm. Apparently it's monsoon season. I think I'm 100% on ASU, but the school is definitely my number three choice so far (below U of Montana and San Diego SU). Anyway, Coop and I headed back to Peoria, picked up a couple of In & Out Burgers, rented a movie and chilled out. Repacked and went to bed early. I would do anything to not have to say goodbye to Coop tomorrow...

The Town That Wasn't There, San Diego State University and The Violent Femmes

Tuesday, August 2nd: Dad called my cell at 6-freakin-45 this morning. Something about needing Chris' phone number for fireworks?! Had coffee while Ann was getting ready for work. Repacked the car again. Picked up Emily in Santa Monica. Off to southern Cali. Our first stop was University of California, Irvine. Got lost immediately in Irvine. Finally find visitor parking. I see a campus van with what looks like a sloth on it. I panic. Turns out the UC, Irvine mascot is an anteater. We see these creepy prints of Wizard of Oz characters on the Union, except they have anteater heads. Creepy! We head to the information/tour desk where we find a wicked young kid whose is less than slightly helpful. We ask him to help us do a self-guided, walking tour. He starts circling random blocks of multiple buildings ("These buildings are for the humanities...you can eat anywhere here...there are some on-campus apartments..."). Emily asks where we can go downtown for lunch. The kid's face goes totally blank. Apparently this is NO downtown in Irvine. The college IS the town. He recommends Balboa Island. We Google it and find there is only one street on Balboa Island. We check out a map and see that we are surrounded by Huntington, Newport and Laguna Beach. I refuse to live in some MTV-ish, fashion-oriented (there's actually a neighborhood called Fashion Island!) money pit. I feel like we slipped into some parallel universe. Didn't bother looking at campus. On to San Diego, where I'm in love with the area straight off. Checked in to our hotel, then tried desperately to find Mexican food, but didn't walk far enough. We find a place called Effin's Pub with a sign outside that says "Big Effin' Tacos $1.50 / Import Beers $2". Score. Back to the hotel with a 6-pack of Corona, gummy worms and munchies.

Wednesday, August 3rd: Got up early and rushed to San Diego State University. Managed to park as far away as possible from the tour starting point. Gorgeous campus! Big white buildings, tons of public transport--I'm digging it! Went to check out downtown proper. Fell in love. Easy to navigate, not too big and water along the city limits. Kind of like Pittsburgh. Made it to Anaheim quickly, where the hotel had lost my reservation and I discovered my credit card was missing (left it at Effin's and had it next-dayed to Arizona--WHEW!). Straightened out the mess, gave Topher the wrong address and waited around. Went to Downtown Disney and had some drinks at the ESPN Sports Bar and some hideous outdoor bar that was playing awful disco. Off to The House of Blues to see The Violent Femmes. It was crowded and hot, my back hurt and my feet were sore, but the Femmes took me back in the day to junior high. Good music and nostalgia will cure anything. Back to the hotel where I get to sleep in a King-sized bed all by myself!

Burbank, California

Thursday, July 28th: Got up when Sarah left. We couldn't shower because there wasn't enough water. Had to take down the tent, repack the goddamn car again, and cleaned up after ourselves. Got out of Berkeley okay. The kids all passed out and I was struggling to wake up and stay up. Driving along, I got the feeling we should have seen a sign for Big Sur. Jenna got out the atlas and figured out we had already passed it 80 miles back. We were stuck with the dusty, boring southbound drive on the 5. Stopped briefly in Santa Barbara. Walked through the sand. Got our toes wet. Back on the freeway and stuck in traffic all the way to Burbank. Almost got rear-ended by a rickety pick-up truck. Got in to Burbank and Ali and Rob were off to Pasadena. Jenna and I took showers, then went for Italian with George and Lindsey. Went home. Very sleepy. This will be a nice, homey stop for us. Been to LA twice already, so I'm not worried about touristy shit. Put our feet up, recoup and get ready for the second legs of our trips--me driving alone and Jenna's northeast holiday with her family.

Friday, July 29th: Jenna and I both slept in today. Hung by the pool. LA heat is awful. Berkeley was cold at night and the rest of our West Coast trip had at least some breeze. Ordered a delicious artichoke pizza from right around the corner. Started talking about the idea of "home". We both got weepy: Jenna, with parents in the military and boarding school; me, with no real sense of BG as my home and no idea at all where I'll end up. We're both a little homesick for a home that doesn't exist--a home that's waiting in limbo for each of us to discover. We regrouped, did some swimming and I eventually drove Jenna to Pasadena. Driving in LA is both easy and difficult. Merging from freeway to freeway is easier than getting lost in the one way streets of a traditional city, but more difficult because California doesn't seem to care about warning you when the next freeway is near. In Burbank, waited for George and Lindsey to finish packing. Went out for Mexican food. Have all day tomorrow to myself...

Saturday, July 30th: George and Lindsey left wicked early and I woke up to a quiet house. Watched some insidious morning TV. Lounged by the pool. Like I need more time to think about my future! Too many question marks already. I'm so used to college life, parcelled off in perfect little semesters, depending on each loan check to survive, just me and Dante, the wunder-kitty. It's time for a change and that's what this trip is about--finding a piece of mind and taking hold of the possibilities with both hands.

Sunday, July 31st: Another day to sleep in. Another day by the pool. Topher called and I got ahold of Emily to make dinner plans. Jenna got in from Pasadena only 15 minutes before I had to leave for Santa Monica. Gave Rob and Ali one last hug. Helped Jenna unload everything from my car and said goodbye. She's a right proper road tripper. She's off to Boston and Ann is flying in from London. 5 freeways later and a near collision with the Weinermobile and I was in Santa Monica. Emily took me to the only smoking bar in Cali! Met Topher at a Japanese restaurant where Emily had reserved a private room. Drank two pitchers of Sapphoro. Ate lobster rolls, scallop dumplings, green bean salad with peanut sauce, Asian fried chicken, and a beef and asparagus dish. Coffee and a small sit down at Toph and Emily's helped me get back to Burbank safely.

Monday, August 1st: Lazy and hungover. Booked a hotel for San Diego and got info together. Sat by the pool until Ann got home from work. Showered up and put on decent clothes. Went to dinner at PF Changs. Both had a couple vodka drinks. Ann grilled me about the past, present and future. Went home and got to bed early.

Berkeley, California

Tuesday, July 26th: Sarah was up early. Back to reality; the sounds of alarm clocks, cereal falling into a bowl, coffee beans spinning. Small bit of sleeping it and a long morning of laziness ahead of me. Spent a few hours catching up on my journal and importing a couple dozen of Sarah's CDs. Watched Regis & Kelly, except it was Regis & Whoopi Goldberg. Really fucking weird to be watching morning TV. Not something I usually do. Had errands to do. Bought some groceries for Sarah, filled my Allegra prescription and headed back to the apartment. Sarah got home from work and we took forever to decide on dinner. Ended up at Berkeley's best Thai place. Awesome dinner, great waiter, free tea. Went next door for a beer (Arrogant Bastard Ale). Followed with dessert and coffee at Crepes-A-Go-Go. A crepe the size of my head with Nutella, bananas and hand-whipped cream. I would move to Cali just to eat it again!

Wednesday, July 27th: Another day with Sarah at work. Coffeed, did laundry, did some blogging, and repacked my bag. The kids called mid-day. Turns out they had been in Berkeley all afternoon, shopping Telegraph. Bummer they never called me. They eventually showed up with a shady looking hippy who works at the hostile they stayed at in San Fran. We all headed to Slurp!, an Asian noodle shop. Had the best bowl of soup and wontons ever! I can never get enough of my ginger and garlic. Went for crepes again. Couldn't resist! Went to the same bar as well for some more ale. I'm finally ready to drink and the kids are all tuckered out from their escapades. Headed home and had a hoot trying to pitch the tent on Sarah's deck. Early wake-up tomorrow. Dreading the trek to LA...