H^H

So I'm going to be unemployed after June 1. My parents will likely be looking to sell their house, so I kind of want to go back and take care of my stuff. I could fly to North Carolina, but I was sort of thinking that taking a road trip would be more awesome, and it's unlikely that I'll have a month free in the nearish future to do this sort of thing. I think it could be a really cool opportunity to see interesting bits of the country, and also to do a shit ton of self-reflection.

The stops I'm currently thinking of hitting go something like:

Pasadena
Grand Canyon (via Vegas)
Atlanta (via Albuquerque, Amarillo, Tulsa, Memphis)
NC
Charlottesville
Cincinnati (via Charleston, WV?)
Chicago
Jackson, WY (probably, depending on whether my cousin is around; via vast expanses of not a whole lot)
Seattle (via same, plus potatoes)
San Francisco (via Portland, something else in Oregon?)
Pasadena

It would take about a month. I would probably leave mid-June. There would be much couch surfing, and probably camping, depending on how stupid an idea that would end up being. I haven't really asked around to see when/if people will be where I expect them to be, but I'm obviously quite flexible. I would probably want to budget an extra day in San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, maaaybe Charlottesville -- there are a couple of short drives on either side, but I don't want to short that visit -- Chicago, and possibly Portland, and three or four days in NC. Chicago is potentially unnecessary; the last time I was there was when I was about eight, but I'm sure there will be other opportunities to visit it. Weather obviously a problem, but there's not much I can do about summer break being during the summer.

Comments on feasibility, esp. from people like quartzpebble and avhn who've done the drivey thing before, most welcome. I've done the Cary-Charlottesville and Pasadena-San Francisco legs before with minimal issue. Pasadena-San Francisco took me about 7.5 hours (total, not just driving), and I felt like I probably had another hour or so in me. My car is comfy and awesome, and I just discovered that it has ninja cup holders. With the right music, pushing for mileage is not a problem. Is car camping a bad idea? I'll be broke. I mean, not broke, but living on savings, which is sort of the same thing.

So yeah. Thoughts?

A happy post!

It was very laundry day today -- no clean jeans, or undershirts, or bras that I like. Problematic. I decided to be a little experimental, and wear a skirt that I haven't worn forever with a pair of tights that I haven't worn at all (I may be OD'ing on fashion blogs a little...). Sports bra, threadless t-shirt, good to go.

But then! I went on a bit of closet cleaning spree. Skirts that I didn't see myself wearing ever went, and a few other shirts. There's an H&M vest that I got at some point that I liked, but stopped wearing because I thought it felt too tight, or something. I tried it on to see if it was in fact too tight...

... and realized that I was wearing an outfit.




I will probably never make an outfit post ever again, but felt the need to let the internet know that I can wear clothes that make me feel awesome.

Life is much better when I do moving stuff. Like today, for instance: it sucked. Then I dragged myself to the "Fitness Center," did Week 1, Day 1 of the Couch to 5K program, and it is suddenly better. And I have energy! Although of an extremely undirected sort. I will attempt to use it to be productive.

This has been one of the most difficult weeks of ever. I won't say worst; I've been collecting a lot of useful lessons to meditate on in a useful way. Said lessons have been obtained in rather painful ways, though. Overall, I'm really glad that I took this job, and I think I will be a better person for it. Mudd's Admission Office will probably even survive. *ahem*

In other news, Firehouse Subs appears to put honey-baked ham on their Italian subs. It tastes a little sweet, and I'm guessing that's why.

I am such a radically different person than I was a year ago. Just now, I actually had the thought that I am basically a happy person, and that being tired and stressed is a deviation from that. And I actually realized that I should be tired, after having stressed out my body this weekend with about 15 hours of blues dancing and lots of late nights, instead of wondering why I'm not working right.

In general, life is good. I'm still working out what I'm going to do next year, but I have a resume and a couple of professors who are willing to give me advice and networking opportunities. I have a lead on an apartment in Pasadena, if there end up being jobs in SoCal (please please please). I have an awesome boyfriend who cares about me a lot, and figured out on his own that misdirection is the best approach when I'm being depressed and self-pitying. I don't think I quite figured that out, even. I don't have tons of friends, but the ones I have are good ones who care about me, too. I have little bits of time to knit, and little bits of time to read, and even though I've done next to no schoolwork over the past couple of weekends (yay Pasadena), I'm staying on top of my classes.

I'm really, really lucky. There's no way I ever would have thought that, a year ago. Being happy is a nice change.

Respond to my complaint that nothing like a particular thing exists for Linux with the comment that another thing exists that is in fact nothing like the thing I want. Yes, thank you, I just said that.

In other news, still awake. I'm attempting to write a better board score function for mancala, which involves brainstorming about what makes a good mancala layout. It would be more fun if it weren't four in the morning.

Ben and Jerry are keeping me company.

Have had a super fantastic awesome weekend thus far. It has involved seeing Up, getting an unofficial tour of CalTech's campus (three weddings taking pictures! a very heavy cannon!), being applauded by anonymous protesting at the Church of Scientology near Neil's house after our impromptu WCS performance to a Rickroll, and late night Carl's Jr., followed by a brief appearance at Third Saturday Swing.

I'm really enjoying this whole beginning of relationship with someone who's goofy and fun to be around and actually likes me as a person thing. Been a while.

Breakfast for dinner! Turns out both french toast and scrambled eggs are ridiculously easy to make, and scale down very well. One egg gets you about two slices of french toast.

I'm not going to bother posting recipes for my own or anyone else's edification, because both consist of approximately three ingredients.

French Toast:
-- Next time, a little more vanilla and a little more cinnamon. I didn't want to add too much of either, and I think I went the other way. Wheat bread is really boring, so more flavor would have been excellent.
-- Also, try with powdered sugar and jam, instead of syrup. I anticipate great things.
-- I really dislike soggy french toast. It just occurred to me why that happens: the egg soaks into the center of the bread, and never quite cooks all the way through. At least, that's my theory. Thus I conclude that when the recipe says to hold bread in egg mixture for several seconds to soak, it is not talking about my bread, which is like a slightly-more-edible sponge. If I'm using this kind of sandwich bread, I really don't need to do more than make sure that egg has stuck to the whole bread.

Eggs:
-- Three was maybe too much. Accordingly, need to use less than a whole sausage. The pepper and onion was probably about right.
-- I can think of nothing else to say other than yum.

Also, it's nice that if I make dinner, I can feel perfectly justified and not at all guilty when I throw things away that I do not want to eat, like soggy french toast, especially when there are more eggs in the pan.

Something I'm finding helpful in the process of learning to knit is treating it like An Adventure! Adventures aren't supposed to be perfect. In fact, there really isn't a right way to go about having an adventure -- you just sort of keep going until you run out of adventure. Considering the issues I've had with perfectionism and how much that got in the way of me learning to knit, it's a useful way to think about the process.

I should post a picture of my practice knitting when I finish with it. There's a lovely hole right in the middle where I did something weird, and it randomly started increasing and I'm not sure why, so I tried stiching things together at the ends (which worked, incidentally), and right now it's about an inch of garter stich and an inch of stockinette. But it looks like knitting! Which is exciting.

( bullet points about Alaska! )
There are things to say about Alaska, and how different it is from anywhere else I've been, but I have to go make dinner, and go to Lindy Groove! I'm planning on bringing my knitting, which makes me... something, I haven't decided yet. Yeah...