5 states. 2 countries. many many hours on airplanes. it's been great, if tiring.

after some time in southern california, flew to durham, NC. then drove back to my house/work in reidsville, 2 hours away, packed everything into my car. it was a weird feeling of 'how did i get so much STUFF here??' combined with 'how nice is it to be living out of what fits in my car (and i can still see out the rearview mirror)!'. had very little sleep before i left so cal (flight at 8am, up at 5am to catch it. traffic at 5:30am. yup, definitely southern california), lost three hours, 2 hours driving, another hour at tar-jay in search of a stove, cooler, and plastic storage bin.

first the bin i wanted didn't have lids that fit...me and another woman (also iso the elusive lid for the 32 gallon bin) finally tracked down a red-shirted target employee. (only after trying to get the attention of two other target shoppers who wore red that day and were mistaken by us as being employees), who also could not figure out how there were 10 or so bins and no lids. there were 30 or so lids for the smaller bins - and only about 20 bins. either there's a bunch of people who went home with a lid that was too big (why oh why wouldn't you look to see if it fit before you left the store?), or there are lid gnomes running around laughing at the two perplexed women in the storage department. for some reason, two small bins didn't seem like enough, and the 48 gallon one just seemed *too* big. fortunately, 20 minutes later, 4 lids were discovered. on to picking out a cooler. didn't realize there were so many to choose from - not just small medium and large, but with wheels, without wheels, ones with those funky lids that don't 'remove' and are awkward, ones that plug into your cigaretter lighter (when will they stop calling them cigarette lighters? cell phone chargers is more appropriate these days)...after way too much debate with myself, ended up with a turquoise 'picnic basket' model. finally, a stove. saw the sign for the generic coleman two burner. grabbed two bottles of propane, and with it nearing 9pm and a lot of packing yet to do, headed to the cash register. amazing how much time you can waste when you really should be packing, not purchasing. he rings me up.

$130.

what? oh, oops. the stove above the $40 coleman sign was the $80 model. i thought picking up the stove took way too little time. trudged back to the stove dept. and picked up the cheaper model. (above the sign for the $60 stove. go figure)...finally, at almost 10pm rolled into my house in reidsville, which was now filled with the college age counselors for summer camp. i felt old. and really happy i wouldn't be there this summer, sharing both the phone and the internet with 20 people, not just 8.

spent an hour arragning and rearranging stuff...bonnaroo pile, canada pile, california pile, do-SOMETHING-with-it pile. then prayed it would all fit in my car. it did. :) after a couple of fitful hours of sleep (the sounds of mice running through the walls was a little unnerving. never noticed it in my room, but heard it in the room i ended up sleeping in), hit the road to nashville at 5:30am, with a stop at the greensboro starbucks. :)

8 hours later....rolled into nashville, had lunch with liz, who was so very kind to store my stuff while i roamed around the northeast and went to bonnaroo. nashville airport. flew to baltimore. changed planes. flew to buffalo. (airport number 5 in 3 days!) drove to the toronto area. which is where i've been since last wednesday night. thursday morning it's back to nashville and bonnaroo.

whew. it's a strange feeling...not really feeling like i have a home. i was sent an 'invitation' (e-invite) for a party and whitewater rafting at 'dan's house' in sacramento. apparently, it's not my house anymore. not that i was planning on staying there past the summer, but it is odd to think of it as not being my house already. the best (and worst, i suppose) part about it is that i'm not bothered by the fact that i don't have a 'home'. i feel like i *should* be worried about this fact, but it is also a overwhelming 'free' feeling. i don't want to go home and face all my 'other' stuff. i've survived without it for this long - how important can it all be??

on something completely unrelated, i really miss climbing. :(