I'm lazy

I have a lot to cover, I know, but the past few days I've settled into a sluggishness. It's not that I want to go home, really. But I do have the feeling that I'd prefer to sit on the internet for more than an hour at a time, in some place other than a public library.

Or,

I'd like to sit in a bathtub all day and not be charged an extra night.

Or,

I'd like if I had a vehicle that could handle the piles and piles of shit I have. Papers, plastic bags, receipts, wrappers, ughh, clothes, ugh.

I promise in the future I will update on the who-what-where. Probably in Houston, where hopefully Rebecca will let me use her computer for more than an hour. Until then here are some bullets.

-Every time I pass a group of black cows, I think they are bears. Every time.

-I've gotten suddenly and seriously addicted to HBO's "In Treatment"

- Injuries
+ the back of my neck is sunburned, rendering me a redneck
+ my left ankle hurts from climbing through the steep, shifting sand dunes of White Sands
+ I have a cut on my left pinky from cutting a mango in a hotel room.
+ about 10% of my left thumbnail is missing from an incident where I tried to remove my key from an inpenetrable keyring


- Towns that I could have skipped and been just fine
+ Carlsbad, NM
+ El Centro, CA
+ Kerrsville, TX

- Something has leaked in my shower kit and I don't know what it is.

- Ross Perot or someone just like him showed me to my campsite at KOA and then invited me to Bible Study, so if I remember anything, I HAVE to remember to avoid being at the campsite at 7, because I think I promised him I'd attend.

- Do tourists think that by purchasing a cowboy hat, they blend in and become locals?

- British people speaking Spanish, unnatural and ticklish

- I considered but ultimately skipped returning to Santa Fe for a green chile cheeseburger at the Bobcat Bite. Sadness.

- The digital camera suffered an injury. I don't know what went wrong. Now I'm using one-time use cameras purchased two for the price of one from CVS, a deal I can only get using my CVS card.

- I ate two banana splits in 24 hours in southern New Mexico

- The stomach of the woman sitting next to me in the library just made a noise that sounded just like the zipper on my sleeping bag.

- Car is doing fine.

Whoops

The library here in New Mexico is about to close. This computer sucks. I will update later on:

Louisiana
a failed attempt to camp
a successful attempt to camp
Witness, starring Harrison Ford
Texas
a successful attempt at smalltalk in Texas
the end of the world in Dallas
western cliches come true

The man at the computer next to me reeks of soap and is probably drunk. But he did echo my sentiments:

Soap: Man it is weird today.
Me: How so?
Soap: It's really slow!
Me: I know, it is! It is slow.
Soap: It's like a woman with a headache. Don't ask me for anything! Ha ha!
Me: [genuine laughter]

Gainesville is good, really

March 20-21

Has Gainesville always been filled with good-looking people? Yes, probably. Wylie, my host and very good friend, made banana pancakes this morning, and they were the banana-iest pancakes either of us had ever eaten.

Now we're in the library at my alma mater. The weather here--well. I don't think the locals appreciate it enough. I don't think I did, when I lived here. It's sunny, it's warm, there's a breeze, everyone is smiling. I wear my contacts and my sunglasses.

Later today we will probably sit on the porch. I want to make some mint lemonade, so I may do that. Though I have a tiny cut on my hand, and I could see this becoming a problem.

Because it was 30 degrees when I left Maryland, it didn't occur to me that packing chocolate chips in my trunk would be a bad idea. Luckily they are all in plastic bags.

Someone left her computer open at the library. She left her backpack, which is unwise. She also left while surfing facebook, and if she's not careful, I may go over there and write embarrassing things on her friends' walls.

My friend Jake encourages me to move on from Gainesville, not to dwell. I am a dweller by nature, but I promise him and I promise you and I promise myself, I will move on.

boring backstory

I started this so I wouldn't have to write separate emails to separate people, and so I could update it as I pleased.

I left Maryland at noon on Monday the 16th. I felt sort of shitty, like I was getting a cold. I was also underprepared. Both these were my fault. Instead of laundering and packing clothes I took naps and wasted time playing Ken-ken online. At about 5 am on Monday I finalizing the first day of my route on a map. The United States is huge and terrifying, especially for people from little states. Most of the time the US is just a jigsaw to me, different themed states like subdivisions of a theme park. Theme parks are so tiring. Imagine camping for three nights a week.

For people who don't know me, the setup is this: I don't have a job, but I do have an unusually large tax return and two returned security deposits. I also have some money saved from the five months I worked as an editorial assistant in Florida and during which my only luxury was my shelter cat.

No one would believe me, but I'm not doing this to delay looking for work, as if I expect the recession to clear up. Actually I got this idea at the exact same time I understood what kind of job I wanted. It was like I had a nebulous cloud of confusion and it split in two.

I would get a job (education, ish). Before that I would do something crazy. I wanted it to be enjoyable and memorable, not just crazy for crazy's sake. But it had to be off The Track, because I had begun to resent The Track. I wanted to know I could do something else, out of order. I wanted to measure myself against another standard of success.

I wanted the power that comes from being on the fringe. And even then I'm not really on the fringe, really, I am by suburban standards.

This is all a long way of saying
I decided to go on a roadtrip before I get a job.
I chose the South and the Southwest because I haven't explored either much, and because they are warm in March.

I bought a camp stove, repaired the zipper on the Coffin (childhood sleeping bag), talked to some friends, checked some books out of the library, bought an Atlas and a bag of apples.