Wednesday, September 29, 2010

So Little Time!

I have neglected to post an update about my whereabouts since San Francisco. After I left California, I headed to Salt Lake City for a few days.

Salt Lake City was a lot of fun. It was nice to have a break from "big city" life for a few days. Most of my time there was spent among nature instead of skyscrapers, and it was just very enjoyable. Even the part where we got stuck on top of a mountain when the brakes went out on the so-called pedophile van (it was just a really sketchy van, ok). Luckily, I had my AAA card with me, so that worked out well in the end.

I had nice hosts in SLC, too, which helped to make the time more enjoyable. And I also met some other CouchSurfers! There were three staying with my first host when I arrived - two guys from Australia and a girl from Houston, TX. All nice people, and I'm very glad I had the chance to meet them.

Tuesday night, I left Salt Lake City and now I'm sitting on the floor at JFK waiting for my plane to Austin, TX. I have no idea what I'm doing in Austin, but I'm sure I'll figure it out as I go. Right now, the first thing I would like to do is nap a little. I wasn't able to sleep on my flight because of screaming babies. I'm not even going to get into my feelings about that. But I'll leave you with a picture of the dodgy, awesome van.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

I LOVE THE PACIFIC OCEAN!

Today, I walked about 50 blocks (that's my guesstimate) here in San Francisco to get to a spot where I was pretty sure I'd be able to view the Pacific Ocean. I was greatly surprised to discover that, not only could I view the Pacific Ocean, I could touch it! And play in it! And revel in its oceanyness!

While I was walking there, I got to a point on a hill where, if I glimpsed down a side street, I could see the ocean on the horizon. I literally almost peed my pants because I was that excited (and I'd had to pee for like the past 30 blocks). Gross, but true, folks. I can't give you enough words to tell you how much I loved this experience and how absolutely amazing it was. But I can give you a few pictures. I took over 100 today while I spent a few hours dicking around by the sea.
The ruins of the Sutro Baths were also available for my exploring pleasure.

Hi, ocean!

Cliffs and something sneaky hiding out...

Hi, Golden Gate Bridge!

Dear Pacific Ocean, I am in you.


More pictures of other things will be uploaded to Flickr or something when I'm back in Charleston. So far San Francisco has been great and I'm glad I chose to come here!

Monday, September 20, 2010

It looks like....


...placenta. Am I right?!

That's what it says when I log in to CouchSurfing from Long Beach airport.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Portland?

So I made it to Portland at the end of last week. It was very hard for me to leave Seattle after having had such a good time, having met some awesome new people, seeing some great older people, and figuring out that I actually like Seattle a lot. All of this stuff combined made my trip to Portland very emotionally stressful, and at first, made it seem like something I didn't actually want to be doing.

When I arrived in Portland, I was not feeling so sure about my hosts here. The actual person who agreed to let me be a guest in the house wasn't here, and the other roommates in the house seemed almost as if I was in their way by being here or like they felt awkward about me being there. It was a very unpleasant (mostly because of the emotional leaving-Seattle issues) first evening and it cemented the idea that I shouldn't have left Seattle into my head. But, because I can't leave a place without booking 3 days in advance, I was stuck anyway.

Over the next few days, the hosts I was (and still am as I'm typing this) staying with warmed up to me a little and seemed to be much kinder. It made my stay here a lot better. I think any "badness" was all my interpretation and not a true reflection of the situation. After exploring a little bit, I warmed up to Portland itself too. I've grown to like it here. Still not as much as I liked Seattle. But, it's nice here and I'm glad I decided to make it part of my trip and glad I had the chance to meet these people. I'd like to visit Portland (and my hosts) again someday.

Tomorrow I'll be heading to the airport again and flying from Portland to San Francisco (with a stop in Long Beach in between). I'm excited about San Francisco, but worried that I'll be feeling the same way when I arrive there that I felt upon my arrival in Portland.

After San Francisco, things get a bit messy in my head because there are a few different options that I could take. I just don't know which I really want. But I will have to figure it out very, very soon...so things could get interesting.

I know I said I'd post pictures, but I just haven't gotten to even uploading them. It might end up that I'll wait and do all of that when I get home to Charleston. Who knows. But there are a few pictures to be shared.

So far, the trip is going well and I'm happy that I've been given this opportunity. Like anything, it's kind of bittersweet, but I think it will all work out okay in the end.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Hi, I'm in Seattle...

My JetBlue flying extravaganza began at the end of last week, and so far, it's been awesome. I left Charleston for Charlotte on Thursday night around midnight and arrived in Seattle a little before 2 p.m. on Friday.

I've been lucky enough to have really awesome hosts (with an awesome house!) and friends here in Seattle that have been kind, funny, overly accommodating, and willing to show me around a little bit. It's been really amazing so far - I love Seattle - and, while I'm excited for the rest of my travels, I know that I'll be very sad to leave here. But I'm sure I'll be back sometime in the not too distant future.

Pictures will be posted somewhere eventually - probably on Thursday because I'll be bored at the airport, waiting for my flights to Portland. And I'll definitely check in with some news from my next destination!

Sunday, September 05, 2010

I may be a robot...

I'm generally not good at the whole Captcha thing, but this is just ridiculous. I got these three back-to-back while hitting refresh to try to get one that I could actually read/type.

Saturday, September 04, 2010

Last night, I met up with my friend Jordan and some of her friends in Myrtle Beach to see Tears For Fears at the House of Blues. I figured the show itself could've gone either way, but I just would've been happy to spend time with Jordan since I hadn't seen her in so long.

I got to her apartment fairly early and we spent some time catching up. Seems like her life is going mostly well for her and I'm glad to hear it. We had a couple of hours to discuss where we both were at in our lives and the things we hoped to change and where we'd like to end up in the near future. It was not only a chance to have a little friend chat, it was kind of therapeutic for both of us.

After our little hangout session, we headed over to HOB. We ended up having to wait about 50 minutes to get a table for a quick dinner because the place was so packed. Luckily, Labor Day weekend usually starts to wrap up tourist season down here. So hopefully the ridiculous-wait-time-for-everything ordeal will end soon as well. After we had a little dinner, we went over the the venue (it's just right across the patio from the actual restaurant) and met up with two of Jordan's friends from work. They happened to be right in the front, so that worked out well for me because I'm short and can never see unless I'm up front.

It was mostly an older crowd, obviously. But that was fine by me, because it meant I didn't have to deal with as many rude people as usual. I did see the occasional little kid there with the parental units. I attribute this to the House of Blues being a family venue and touristy thing. Everybody there seemed to really enjoy the show, and it was VERY good. Really enjoyable. I have no pictures to share - it was one of those "no photography/video" deals. They seemed to very heavily enforce that, but didn't have an issue with the people smoking pot a few rows behind us.

After the concert, I drove back to Charleston and headed straight to bed. It was, overall, a good little trip and a fun show. Now I just have to finish prepping for the big trip coming up!

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Jet-setting or Something Weird Like That

August was a rather unpleasant month for me. Lots of stress, frustration, disappointment and tears. There are still several things that are throwing me off and slowing me down a little bit. I've been contemplating disappearing a lot...just kind of getting away from everywhere and everyone and having some time to sort things out. That's sort of like running away from problems, but, so it is. Anyway, I did have one little good thing so I figured I might share it.

In the middle of last week, I happened to stumble across a particular entry on Michael Musto's blog over on The Village Voice website. You can view that entry here. It describes a contest that Musto was hosting, in which one lucky, hand-selected, 250-word piece would win one lucky participant a JetBlue All-You-Can-Jet pass (more info on what that is over on Mr. Musto's blog).

So I took a few minutes out of my ridiculously shitty weekend to pull together about 240 words. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a brief congratulatory e-mail in my inbox slightly after midnight Tuesday morning from Michael Musto himself. I'm not a "writer", but I somehow won the pass and now I have the next month to travel to a number of destinations, starting at the beginning of next week.

I'm happy I won and very excited for the travels - it'll be nice to be away from "home" for awhile. I'm also very nervous, though, to be going to a bunch of new places alone. I don't really have a very good idea of where I'll be going yet or any of the specifics. Who knows if there will even be specifics. But I've been thinking about potential destinations and things I'd like to see. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to finalize at least a few things and book some flights. I'm sure I'll have more to say about all of this and some photos to share, whether it's day-by-day throughout the trip or when I get back. And of course, there will be the little piece on Michael Musto's blog when my month of travel is over.

So, wish me luck! I'll be off before too long...