i had these grand plans to leave you guys some interesting stuff to read while i was gone...interesting websites, things to read, places to go...all these ideas. didn't want to leave everyone hanging for an entire month. but, alas, it's now almost noon, and i have to go to the airport. i feel like saying 'bye! going to find myself! back soon!' :) since i am running out of time, just a big goodbye! thanks for reading. I promise good stories when i return. :) have a great month!

where i am right now....
NOLS southwest - the gila range

6 hours....

my mp3 player? it stopped working at the climbing gym today. it turns on for a second and then turns off. yes, the battery is charged. talk about bad karma!! :(

damn, that was a whiny (i usually prefer wine-y. red.) post. sorry. i miss my college life a little sometimes.

the mp3 story? after skiing a month of so ago, i had left my mp3 player in the pocket of my shirt...and put it through the washing machine. needless to say, i killed it. i was really bummed. a $250 mistake. ouch. i had bought it at costco.com. still had the reciept in my inbox. feeling evil, emailed them about my 'suddenly non-functioning' mp3 player. They responded with their 100% satisfaction guarentee. told me just to take it to my local costco...i did. i feel really really evil. but i now have a 128MB player instead of a 64MB one for the same price...i just hope it doesn't die because of the bad karma i likely caused myself....

i think i am going to have ice cream for dinner. now i just have to decide what kind. phish food? osw? apple crumble? from russia with buzz? half baked? decisions, decisions...

am now on day 6 of decaf. no more headaches! woo! damn, am i going to get a coffee buzz when i start drinking it again after my trip...

one day. tomorrow. leavin' on a jet plane...dunno when i'll be back again...

was in san luis obispo this weekend...it's somewhat strange to go back to my old college town and not be a college student. it's not the same there...maybe it's because i am older and see things differently, maybe it's because the college kids have changed, maybe it's because the town has changed. i think it's a combination of all three. they've built a costco and a target there.

the housing prices, always expensive, have absolutely skyrocketed, with the average single family home price jumping to over $400,000. many of the adorable downtown bungalows and cottages are now rental properties and not taken care of. there was a gorgeous house down the street from where i used to live that always had blooming flowers in the garden, clean and neat. now, with three cars parked in the driveway and weeds in the garden and overgrown grass, it is obviously a rental property. it's sad. pretty soon the town will be comprised of college students and retired people - the only one who can 'afford' to live there.

i told the girl working at the coffeeshop (the ben and jerry's across the way had closed down, and i asked her how long it was gone) that i was there before the gap and the downtown center was built. she gasped. 'where did you buy clothing?'....*sigh* i never bought gap clothing - everyone else on the campus wore it. (the gap opened my second year of school there)...it's now a 'cool' school - populated with new-suv-driving suburban kids living on their parents funds. yes, those kids were there before, too, but the percentage of them on campus has grown. guess everything changes.

there was an article in the school newspaper about the new dorms they are building on campus. there has been a severe shortage for the past five years, growning worse as the cal state system admit more students each year. they have finally started constructing the new dorms. with no new parking. there wasn't enough parking to start out with, now it will be that much worse.

'we're going to discourage kids from bringing cars' says the administration. ha! like that will stop them. now, i wish that fewer people would drive to school, fewer freshmen would bring cars...but, in reality, it ain't gonna happen. who was the genius who thought of the no-new-parking idea? they pulled the funding for free bus service for the students when i was still there. i used to walk 40 minutes to school because i would have to leave earlier than that to find a parking space and make it to class on time...it seems silly to purposefully exacerbate the problem.

i do miss the central coast, though...i forgot how nice it is to live surrounded by green hills, rocky peaks and only 10 minutes to the beach...i'd love to move back, but not with such expensive housing - considering the tiny number of well paying jobs. visiting will have to do.

my new mp3 player? (i'll write the story later)...it has the same shuffle problem - same songs. but it's favoring my jack johnson songs, so i won't complain. :)

we used to laugh a lot
but only because we thought
that everything good always would remain
nothing's gonna change there's no need to complain...

i love doonsbury. love it. comic one. comic two.

well, after that little blurb yesterday, there is a full page article today. (looked for a link...it's from the boston globe, but i can't seem to find it anywhere. someone needs to design the perfect search engine....so here's a scan you can't really read. but it's a pretty good picture.) an iteresting quote, talking about being compared to dave:

"when people brought it up, i used to say 'dave who'?" says mayer. "it frightened me. but now i say it. under the table and dreaming was a huge influence on me."

interesting, isn't it?

well, i wrote the post below around noon YESTERDAY but goddman blogger publishing was down. when i get back i'm gonna work on a redesign and start using something other than blogger. :)

my head is spinning, my emotions all over the place...nervous, happy, excited, a little scared...4 days. wow.

headed down to san luis obispo this weekend...dan's cousin's lacrosse game and a huge beach party with his work friends. i miss the beach. when it's 100 degrees here, the river just doesn't do it for me. gimme waves. and stretches of sand. and that line you see way out there on the horizon where the sky and sea meet. and seashells. and saltwater. camping on the beach tomorrow. you'd think i'd get a bed these last few days before i embark on many many bedless days...

PIG! yeah, i know you all know that. and are geeked over it. will it cease to be a rarity this tour? the setlist from last night has me all kinds of excited for this tour. dave? and the boys? and whoever decides the setlist? i'm going to be at 8 shows. please can i have a say goodbye? and a pig? and NO true reflections? just three little requests. thanks! i'd appreciate it.

someday i'll have coherant/possibly funny/at least interesting entires here again... :) my brain has been in random mode lately.

as she uses pictures to make up for the fact that she has boring blog entries...looks like john mayer has really hit the big time...or, at least, got some recognition in not-remotely-hip sacramento.

from the sacramento bee:

packing is at the pile stage now. yesterday was laundry and haul backpacking stuff out of the garage day. last night was grab everything you think you may need and put it on the spare bed day. this morning was sort the mess on the bed into relavent piles. clothing for backpack, bath stuff for backpack, random stuff for backpack, stuff for trip that doesn't have to do with the backpack, things that i'm not sure if i am taking yet, and how the hell did this get on the bed it has nothing to do with my trip. lots of piles. i am always paranoid i will forget something important - i make lists, go over them in my head, check items off them...yet something always seems to be forgotten. trying to avoid that...

they did a study recently and discovered something i could of told them without having to survey 2000 people. the findings? americans are rude - a wave of 'discourtesy, profanity, and lack of consideration in daily life.' yup. drive on the freeway. shop at a crowded grocery store on a saturday afternoon (better yet, the day before a major holiday that involves food) and you will witness our self centered society. though, 90% of the people surveyed said they thought that respect and courtesy were contagious. so be nice to someone today. it's sad that it is the exception when you are polite and friendly and helpful...it should be the norm.

go dave. ice cream to save the world. i like that. i want them to give free samples at the shows. how nice would that be?

one week...

It's been, one week since you looked at me,
Threw your arms in the air and said, "You're crazy."

crazy? perhaps. it's funny...every little part of my normal 'routine' takes on a different meaning. i brew my coffee, realizing i only have 7 more cups to go, hug my dogs, knowing i will miss them terribly on my trip, wonder how weird it will be to drive after not doing it for a month...but also being outside, drinking in the sun, looking at the pale green buds on the trees, knowing that i will be in nature for a month, where i, too will grow.

piles of things to pack are starting to accumulate, as are post-it notes listing things to do. so many things swirling through my head. doesn't make for interesting blog entries, i know. i can't formulate thoughts that make too much sense to me, let alone to any of you reading. i feel as if a giant field of uncertainty is ahead. one that is there for me to explore. i hope i have the courage to do that...to take as much in as i can, instead of fearing what may be lurking there.

i bought the fight club dvd recently...i have seen it a couple of times (borrowed a friend's copy)...think it's due for another viewing. probably my favorite movie. me, who abhorrs violence, loves a movie titled 'fight club'....

what really drew my attention was the underlying theme that you have to break yourself apart to build something new. it's only when you realize that you're not your lousy hair or your bad debts or your fears that you're not good enough that you can actually create a new life for yourself. what was exciting and dramatic about the book is that one character forcibly brings about the awareness in the other by willfully destroying everything to which the unenlightened character is attached. - ross grayson bell, in the fight club liner notes

been kinda melancholy and introspective...30 days without a computer...funny that i spend many years where i rarely touched my computer. didn't even have one til my last two years in college. now it's a window to knowledge, communication, friendships, music...