Yahoo!!!! I finally talked to Dad about the road trip and he gave me the (grudging) green light. We still haven't discussed the details of the cat, but he said I could go without him being too upset with me, so I'm sure we can work the rest out later. So - Nate, Reen, Matt, Carrie, Mark, S-Lo (and other Clevelanders), Chicago people, and Kate - I will be departing Charleston around next Friday, June 20 (give or take a couple days) and heading towards Pitts. Lemme know when you'll be where and if I can crash at your place without inconveniencing you too much. :-)

Carrie picked up "The Best American Magazine Writing 2002" for me, and what do you know, the first piece is "Gone" by Tom Junod, about Americans kidnapped in Ecuador. I've been meaning to look it up, because it's the piece on which the movie "Proof of Life" is based. I'm still undecided as to how I feel about Junod's writing style, but I s'pose it's somewhat irrelevent - he made me cry, so I guess that means it worked.

*Finally* got my hair cut. Thank goodness, as I was about to shave it all off. Made my hair dresser's day too - apparently it's very exciting to cut about 5-6 inches of hair off someone's head. :-) Now, if I could just teach the cat to eat wet food out of her bowl, instead of dragging it onto my carpet like it's something she's killed....

I have got to start working out again. Too bad I don't have Deb to kick my ass twice a week anymore. I think 7 days of sloth are more than enough for me. Then again, maybe moving heavy boxes from one room to another counts as at least some physical activity.

ps - Jennings called from Ireland tonight to brag that he was in a bar with U2. Lucky bastard.

pps - why does friendster sux0r so much sometimes?

Tonight was a good night. More time at Uno's with Timmy, Kelly, and Amy. Spent a good amount of time discussing various pets with Kelly and Amy. You'd think they were our kids. Ah well. Better pets than actual kids, I say.

Was dumb and lifted a box full of books poorly this afternoon, so now my lower back is bitching. On the plus side, I now have about a half dozen boxes packed and labelled and ready to move to Atlanta. Also decided to actually put pics in something resembling chronological order, so have a couple hundred pictures spread out in various piles in the living room, waiting to be put back into albums. Hopefully I can finish that up tomorrow, plus perhaps even get back to doing some actual work. You know, the type people get paid to do.

Well, my goal for tomorrow is to wake up before noon, so let's see how that works out, shall we?

So I found the floor in my room today. Which was actually very exciting, as I was beginning to wonder if it really did exist. Also bought two photo albums yesterday and have already nearly filled them (who would have expected that I'd have nearly 400 pics in my room, not even counting the ones I brought back from school?!). So those will make nice coffee table books...whenever I actually have a coffee table...and an apt. in which to put a coffee table. Anyway...hung out with Kelly, Amy, Timmy, Donna, and Topher last night. They taught me how to play spades (don't even bother commenting in disbelief that I didn't already know how to play spades, you'd only be the millionth person to tell me so). Actually, had quite a nice time. Shouldn't be surprising, I enjoy Kelly, Timmy, and Toph. But my last outing with Amy left something to be desired, and I had pretty much decided that I couldn't really hang out with her anymore. But Kelly promised that she's calmed down a bit, and it's more like hanging out with the "old" amy (whatever the hell that means). Which is mostly true. So it wasn't that I didn't enjoy Amy time last night, it's just that we've drifted so far apart at this point that it's difficult to have much to talk about. In high school I needed her to be my wild and crazy friend, to remind me not to work too hard and go out and do fun, stupid things with her. But I've developed that side of me enough on my own now that I don't really need her to bring it out anymore...and she's gone so far to the wild and crazy side that it just seems kind of sad now...well, I guess I should stop talking about that in the present tense, since it seems, at least based on last night, that she is calming down/growing up. Which I know makes me sound old and lame, but I'm not going to get into it right now.

Still working up to mentioning my road trip plans to Dad. I know he'll be against it. And I have a "good" answer to most of the points I think he'll bring up except for the cat. Because it is unfair of me to dump the cat responsibilities on them for weeks while I'm gone. And she will be upset since she has completely glommed onto me (yes, even more than usual) since the move. Currently taking suggestions as to how to handle that one. The other stuff I know he'll object to is easy - it's unsafe for a girl to road-trip* alone (all the legs of my planned trip can be driven during the day, most are 5 hours or less; and I have friends to stay with in every city), I shouldn't put that many miles on my car (it's my car, I can do what I want...perhaps not the best response, but it'll work), I shouldn't spend that much money right now (staying with friends = it'll be cheap), there's no reason to go to all those places and be gone for that long (this is quite possibly my last chance to do so, at least for a long time, and there's no reason not to, so I'm jumping at my chance).

Anyway....that's probably enough rambling for one night...just a quick friendster check and then the battle with the cat for the bed.

*at this point my right side, possibly my obliques, started muscle spasming like crazy, for the hundredth time today, and it's driving me nuts. that is all.