Tag: Drive Across The States

news

I’m alive. I’ve been thoroughly fooked 10 ways till Sunday (in a good way mind you), but I’m alive. Tired. But alive. 🙂
Anywho, a lot of changes have been taking place round these parts. So here is a listing of what’s going on:

  • The cam has a permanent home! You can now found Paul and I swinging from the chandeliers at: www.geek-haus.org. We’ve broadcasted our first party from there and the came has been running pretty smoothly since we got the cable hooked up in Fairfax. I had automatically changed all the proceeding links so if you are not a cam watcher, become one 🙂
  • If you’ve been sending me email to lisa@simunye.com, STOP! That domain *might* be going away in the future, and I need everyone to list me as either lisa@simunye.org OR lisa@geek-haus.org. While I own 6 domains, only one is being hosted at First World (formerly Slip.Net) and they have been screwing with accounts and could cancel me at anytime. So you’ve been warned ahead of time.
  • Yesh, that’s the happy couple to your left. 🙂
  • I’ve put up a new section called “Files” (located under alt.stuff->files). What this is a listing of stuff I’ve uploaded in the past like .wavs, .zips, etc that were part of a chronicle or what have you and became lost in the shuffle. So if you’re looking for stuff that I’ve mentioned to download in the past, it’s now listed in one brand spanking new place.

time line
Friday 10.8.99: Leave Oakland and start the drive cross country.
Tuesday 10.12.99: Arrive in Atlanta.
Thursday 10.14.99: Paul arrives in Atlanta and we don’t leave the hotel for four days.
Sunday 10.17.99: Paul goes back to Miami, I drive to Virginia Beach.
Saturday 11.6.99: I move from Virginia Beach to Fairfax.
Monday 11.8.99: I start working at UUNet.
Tuesday 11.23.99: Paul arrives @ Dulles from Miami for Thanksgiving week.
Tuesday 11.30.99: Paul flies back to Miami to tie up loose ends.
Thursday 12.30.99: Paul flies back to VA for good. (tentative. could be sooner.)
those are the losers, and we are the champions!
as i write this, Pauly is now half way home back to Miami. I hate, HATE taking him to the airport. It always feels so final, even though I know he’ll be back. bah. Anyway, his flight was originally scheduled for Sunday but that got bumped to monday night as he had an interview with Andover yesterday afternoon. it was schweet! We got to have lunch with some of the guys from Andover as well as meet the people from ThinkGeek. I finally tasted my first bawls. Tasty stuff.
so we are driving to Regan National, and Queen comes on singing the above song. Paul and I were rocking out to it on 66 and it was just amusing how it seemed to fit our mood so perfectly. it’s like, when we are together, everything comes into play. everything works out, there are no problems, it just happens. Both of us are sitting back wondering when the shoe will drop and we’ll fall apart, but it’s like none of that has happened yet. we’ve had setbacks but it’s stuff that we can’t control. it had nothing to do with us. Paul also forced me to watch rasslin’ last night. 😮 that peegfooker! 🙂
We get to Regan National and find out that United had cancelled their flight to Miami and that they were bumping everyone to American Airlines, which was Pauls airline, and that flight was booked solid. Also, they had screwed up when Paul had made the changes and put down that the change was to December 29th, not November 29th. So we changed the flight to this morning and woke up at an ungodly hour to take him to Dulles (which, is thankfully, near our apartment) and sat there till his plane left the terminal. he’ll be back soon — unfortunately not soon enough.
The funny thing was that last night on our way back from Regan National, we drove by the Washington Monument. I was like yelling and screaming “Pauly, look! We /really/ are in Washington. We are really here!!” and Paul had this half-bemused look on his face and just said “purty”.
For me, it hasn’t really clicked in that we are making this work. I know that back in March when I met him that I had no idea or inclination that it was going to go this far. He said he knew it — it was just the matter of timing. He says he’s been obsessed with me since the beginning but it wasn’t until I had that crush on cartoon boy that he realized that he either snagged me or lose me. and thusly, the eternal obsessive/possessive dance begun again.
Many people have commented to me that they want to me to write about Shellys reaction, what else was going on, all the little nit picky stuff. I’m getting there, I just need time. I’m now settling into my fourth week at UUNet, the apartment is finally coming into shape. Pauly’s signed the lease and we have bills coming here in both our names. We also signed up for a joint checking account :o. It’s almost scary man.
Several people have said “well, now that you are happy, you won’t chronicles anymore.” It’s not that, it’s just that everything has simply been overwhelming. I mean, it’s not been a piece of cake putting this all together. We’ve had problems from the start: having to find the money for the down payment and rent for the first month. the phone getting shut off (accidently). Half of the appliances not functioning correctly in the apartment. Always seemingly feeling like we are out of money. The downstairs neighbors already complaining about the noise (oh, that was fun!). I mean, there has been a lot of static since day one. Just for once I choose not to write about it because I didn’t see the point.
That’s all going to change now. Now that I feel more comfortable with things falling into place, I feel more comfortable writing and telling the world about it once more. Good thing I didn’t go IPO as planned — my investors would be demanding their money back! 🙂
x0x0x0x
moi

Thank Yous

Well, seeing as it’s after 4am and I can’t sleep, I thought I would finally write a chronicle. 🙂 I’ve been pretty freaking busy and haven’t had much time lately to much, so, this one promises to be pretty freaking long.
Before I begin, I need to give “shout outs” to several people (who, because of recognition and fame) who came to Paul and I’s rescue this week. You see, we finally got approved for our apartment this week. Now, the exciting thing for both of us (well, probably more so me than him) was that we didn’t need a co-signer (something I had feared due to bad credit habits in my tumultuous youth), but the deposit ended up being first months rent NOT just the meager 300 dollars as promised (well including the 300). Several people came to our aid to make sure that we (not I, bad habit to get rid of) got moved in this weekend. So, hugs and kisses and yes my first born child will be named after you guys. 🙂
If you are curious, we are getting “The Penderbrook” and the bedroom to your left is ours while the bedroom to the right is the server room. Paul is excited about the god damned (*g*) space for HDTV and I have become Martha Stewart — ph33r.
On that note, I’m going to start at the beginning and carry you faithful reader up to now as surely a month has past since I’ve written — and I’ve only jotted down notes to keep those of you bugging me for info at bay.
The Drive
total miles: 4011.2
states driven in: CA, AZ, NM, TX, MS, LA, AL, GA, SC, NC, VA
total time driving: 5.5 days
My initial plan was to leave early Friday October 8th in the afternoon, drive to San Diego (and visit Jonathan, ducky, bear and batty and possibly TJ); leave early Saturday and start the drive to Atlanta. Arrive in Atlanta in the whereabouts of Tuesday October 12th, stay until Sunday the 17th and drive to Virginia Beach, VA and move in with Shelly. After driving I would be taking a short break and then driving up to Fairfax, VA to interview at UU Net for the position of LAN/WAN Engineer.
What actually happened was this:
Me, being me, dilly dallied around until the point that I did not leave Oakland until nearly 4pm Friday afternoon. After much consideration and debate with myself, I had decided to NOT drive to San Diego. Since I knew Paul was not flying in until Thursday morning, I did have plenty of time, however, I wanted to have enough time to meet up with Graham, Dan, John (hugme) and other assorted Ufies as we were preparing to descend on to Atlanta. I also had friends who lived in the Atlanta area and wanted to spend time with them as well.
So after finally getting all my shit packed up and on the road — what happens? I got snarled in a traffic jam by the 580/680 exchange, no more than 20 miles out of Oakland. Even though this little drive should have taken me moments, it took me an HOUR to get past 5 miles. Yesh, the traffic was that bad. I finally settled in somewhere past Bakersfield (I knew I was about 75 miles north of LA at that point) for the night. I stopped, as the good doctors had wagged a finger at me for, every couple of hours for a “break” and write in my journal.
Saturday I made the long haul from North of LA to Phoenix, covering nearly 500 miles. I had woken up late, gotten into another traffic snarl around LA and opted to stay at some Days Inn by the Phoenix airport. After finally figuring out the toning sequence for doing calls via calling card (18 seconds here, 10 seconds there) and got the local access number in Phoenix and got online.
Now, I knew, that a lot of people were worried about me doing this drive alone. Hell, I was fooking worried. I mean, anything could have happened, and while there were a ton of people literally sprinkled on my route who could be of help, i was utterly alone. It was a scary and very liberating feeling.
After plotting with Graham and other people on #userfriendly, I had figured the drive from Phoenix to Abilene, TX wouldn’t be that long of a stretch. Wrong. It was nearly 1000 miles and I was stupid to even have attempted it. I ended up driving from Phoenix to outside of El Paso, TX into a crappy little motel in a town called Fort Hancock, TX.
If you can’t find Fort Hancock on the map, trust me, it’s there. The drive from Phoenix to Ft. Hancock was almost 600 miles in it self and the additional drive to Abilene would have put me at another 400+ miles. Now that isn’t so bad, but when you look at the map of Texas and see that there is basically NOTHING between El Paso and Abilene, you’ll see my problem.
Now during all of this, I had Shelly calling me at various times to make sure I was okay. A few weeks prior to me leaving I had gotten the boot from FirstWorld (nee Slip.Net) and suffered a stress/panic attack that freaked me out so bad I had gone to the hospital (hence the doctors warnings above (seeing lightbulb appear above your head)). Now driving during the day was fine by me. I was bouncing along, bopping to music. Stopping to write in my journal occasionally, talking to Shelly and plotting my course towards Atlanta. But even though I was feeling carefree — something was eating away at me. Thus, Sunday October 10th, I had another panic attack at the hotel in Fort Hancock Now Fort Hancock is so small, that the nearest hospital is in El Paso (50 miles back west) and we were so close to the Mexican border, that when I picked up and tried to use my cell phone, I got a lot of dialogue in Spanish instead. The people at the hotel were very gracious in calling the EMS that was local — where they checked my vitals and other cool stuff, gave me oxygen from a bag and told me i was fine — just another panic attack.
Logically i knew this — but subconsciously, I was born to worry. After tossing and turning all night and finally being told “yesh, you’re fine. you are going to live.” i saw things in a new light.
I left Fort Hancock with a valuable lesson and plowed my way to Dallas/Fort Worth.
I did the drive in less than nine hours and no one believes me.
You see, when speaking with the caretakers at the hotel in Ft. Hancock and with the check in chyk at the Days Inn in Dallas, no one believed I did the damn trip in that short of time. Everyone told me that the trip would take a minimum of 14 hours and maybe as much as 16.
Well I did it in 8.5, thank you very much.
The wonderful thing about driving through AZ, NM, and TX was that the speed limit is 75 — so, hypothetically speaking, you can do say 80 and the cops won’t blink. Well, there ya go!
I arrived in Dallas excited and even more bouncy. By now it was late monday night and i had completed nearly 2/3rds of my trip. I had, thank ghod, gone through Triple A for trip tik’s and maps and was calculating every step of the way my drive east. I knew what cities I was stopping in, how far it was between gas stops, etc. So, when I mapped out the trip from Dallas to Atlanta, I figured “Oh, about 700 miles. I can do that if I get up early enough.”
Well this is me we are talking about here.
I didn’t roll out of bed until nearly 10 and checked out of the hotel until 11am. Once I got on the road, I knew I would lose an hour for the time changes — and thusly showed up at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel in Atlanta at almost midnight Tuesday October 12th.
The thing is, when you have been driving for so long and you are basically staring at nothing but on coming headlights and shrubbery for nearly 5 days, AND YOU ARE ALONE, you sort of start to hallucinate. And somewhere between Alabama and Georgia (or was it Louisiana and Alabama?) I did just that. I just was so freaking tired of driving and so hungry to meet Paul. I as tired of fast food, tired of sleeping in motels and tired of being alone. I NEEDED HUMAN CONTACT! But my own drive, which sometimes surprises me, kept me going. And I swear to christ i almost kissed the well lighted and well paved ground at the Waverly when I pulled in.
Now, what I’m going to do is talk about AFTER being in Atlanta, cos Atlanta deserves it’s own section. So this is Sunday, October 17th we are up to now.
After dropping Paul off at the airport (and promising not to cry, even though I started shedding tears in the ladies room at the Waverly), my friend Dan and I packed up my Saturn (I really, REALLY need to email them with my story *g* — I wanna be in a commercial!), took the last few remaining shots left in the disposable camera and took off towards Virginia Beach.
Now the drive from Atlanta (or “Hotlanta” as several people have told me) to VB takes about 8-10 hours depending on traffic and weather. We did it in nearly 13. We got caught up in Hurricane Irene (ironic that the hurricane is named after my cunty ex-roommate in California).
We had a blast driving up through GA, SC and stopped to play some Tekken 3 in a small gas station in SC. I kicked Dan’s ass btw — 🙂 I rock at Tekken! We saw signs for “billions and billions” of fireworks and went to stop to check it out, but late Sunday afternoon, in the south, just ain’t kicking it for a couple of city kids like us.
The drive was pretty effortless. I was contemplating on driving Dan up to Syracuse, NY and drop him off — but it was depending how I felt. Dan snored I bopped to music and then we hit Ole’ Virginny.
Now, both MapQuest and Triple A say if you are driving from the south and going to VB, to get off of 85 onto 58 and take it the whole way in.
DO NOT DO THIS!
58 is an in-state “highway” (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA) where you can do no more than 50 at any given time and there is no gas stations or anything open (it felt like) between the turn off and hitting towards the Hamptons Roads area. I am SOOO happy that I got gas before getting there — we would have been fucked. We ran across a 7-11 on the route and Dan and i were both thirsty for a slurpee and dying to take a piss when we find out that it’s FUCKING CLOSED! What 7-11 is closed? BLASPHEMY! Dan, being a guy, pisses alongside the store. I end up holding it in.
Once we started towards the shore, we came across the rain (hahahahah) of the aftermath that is Irene. My driving was reduced to 40ish speed as we crept along the “highway”. When we finally found my new apartment (thanks to Dan’s ereet skills) it was nearly 5am in the morning and we were both soaking wet from running up and down looking for the apartment. The next day, I dropped Dan off at a Greyhound, in which he took that back up to Syracuse.
And save for the little trip up to Fairfax for my interview, I’ve been here ever since. Well, until this Saturday when I move up to Fairfax that is 🙂
Oh, strange thing about VB: I’ve been able to use my cell phone effortlessly across country during my trip. It seems that my cell works EVERYWHERE but in VB. I was able to use it outside of DC and in the general Fairfax area, outside of Richmond (the capital) but once I got to VB, it would switch over and “force” me to pay with either a MC or AMEX for the calls and the charge is 1.95 a fucking minute! And the phone menu to make the fucking call is absurd! god. I can’t wait to move!!
Actually, it’s nearing 6am and I have to be up in three hours. So, I’ll leave this journal here and start in on hotlanta tomorrow. 🙂
I promise.:)
x0x0x0x0x
Mrs. R-S.

i’m in love

i have a longer chronicle written out — but I’m tired. this is just a short note to say:
Atlanta rocked my world.
I met Paul (sad|st on #userfriendly). He and I didn’t leave the motel room for three nights and four days. literally. Con? What Atlanta linux showcase?
Paul and I fell in love.
We made love to “The Fragile” by NIN the whole weekend. 🙂 hehehe.
We are getting an apartment in Fairfax, VA. end of this year.
We are getting married in May of 2001.
I’m dead serious 🙂
Love,
Lisa
(i won’t let you fall apart — la mer)

Phoenix, AZ

miles today: 495.7
miles total: 720.5
states driven through: CA and AZ
Greetings from Phoenix, Arizona!!
It’s approximently 10:13pm and I’ve been sitting in my hotel room for about an hour ircing. Stupid Slip.Net only listed the ISDN access numbers for Phoenix NOT analog lines. I had to dial into SF, wait 10 minutes (literally) for PSI Net’s webpage to load, grab a listing of a few more numbers locally and dial back in. I have this strange feeling that even though the call was local, I’m going to be charged for it. Oh well 🙂
Depending on how you look at it, I’m either ahead of schedule or behind schedule. First off, I didn’t leave SF till almost 4pm Friday evening. I was to drive to San Diego last night and then start the massive haul this morning, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it into SD till late and I was concerned about my health. I got as far as Bakersfield last night (224 miles from Oakland) and wrote for about four hours watching cheesy movies on the tee-vee. I didn’t fall asleep until late and woke up a few hours later at 5am, rarin’ to go. By the time I did get up and get my shit together, ate and left, it was almost noon. I was on the road today for about 8 hours and finally started screaming “HELLALUIAH!” when I crossed over into AZ. I even called Shelly when I did that because I was just soo happy to be out of that fucking state.
I’m surprised that I’m tired — I mean, honestly, I don’t see how sitting on your ass for extended amounts of time can be tiring — the energy I felt when I was cruising towards Phoenix made me want to almost drive to Tucson (another 100 miles). In a way, I’m glad I didn’t, because once I got into the hotel room and threw my shit around, I was yawning left and right.
So far, the drive has been fine. I’m not bored out my head like I thought I was (though I already can see that I’m being bored with my 96 packed CDs). I hit major traffic getting out of Oakland (by the 580/680 exchange) and it took me nearly an hour to move 10 miles. I was so stressing last night that my head was pounding to the point where I had to (literally) start talking to myself to voice my problems. But today was a lot better and I’m hoping tomorrow is yet still better. 🙂
I’ve stopped about every 2 hours (per doctors orders) to walk, write and get some fresh air. I’ve been doing a lot of writing and wrote quite a bit last night. What I am going to do on this trip is give moments of clarity when they come forth. I mean, driving 200 miles in Arizona desert territory isn’t exactly Pulitzer prize winning stuff, but my thoughts along the trip will be. 🙂 And if I stop at one more Dennys, I’m going to scream!
* * * * * * *
100 miles into the trip
I was bopping along to something in my cd player and a smile played upon my lips — I felt giddy with excitement — I started shivering in anticipation. This IS a grand adventure. How many people can say they’ve driven cross country — alone? I looked at the speedometer. I had driven 16 miles from “home”.
—
“You are a Californian as I am a Texan” – Jaffo
“And Olive Garden is high falutin dining.” -me
—
Somewhere, back there, in the open fields along I-5, I saw a very young calf running along with its mother. I glanced quickly at the car ahead of me and the car behind me and noticed that they too were watching my future pair of shoes gallop clumsily along.
—
“The energy created during sexual intercourse is roughly the equivilant to climbing two flights of stairs. Get ready to walk up the Empire State Building.” — Durex Condom ad in this weeks Rolling Stone.
—
343.8 miles into the trip
I’m somewhere near Palm Springs. Sometimes I have the intelligence of a dork: blank pants + black car + driving across the South Western US == hot and sweaty Lisa.
On the way from Bakersfield to LA, I started bopping around to Sarah McLachlan. “one does not listen to Sarah when one drives through LA,” I think to myself, “one listens to NIN!” And I threw in The Fragile and cranked “StarFuckers, INC” appropriately.
Sometimes my own naivety amazes me. Upon seeing the Welcome to LA sign, it was like I expected all my favorite stars to be hanging out on I-5 just waving at me as I sped across. I had half a mind to drive to Beverly Hills (90210 baybee!) but didn’t. Somewhere near San Beradino, I started playing car tag with two cute guys in an electric blue Del Sol. It was fun crisscrossing the five lane highway for about 10 miles. They left me a few miles to go to a rest stop.
—
6:15 pm
I’m still in fucking California! Blyth California! Goddamnit, am I ever getting out of this state?
6:20 pm
Lisa calls Shelly to tell her that she is now safely in the state of Arizona.
—
And now it is late and I am getting more tired as I type. I have mapped out my plan tomorrow and it looks like, if I get up earlier than noon that is, that I will be in Abilene, Texas. Woofuckingwoo. I had hoped to get to Dallas, but Dallas is 1100 miles from Phoenix — uh no Dallas for Lisa. I will be getting into Atlanta on Tuesday as presumed, I just don’t know WHEN!
The one thing that amazed the hell out of me, was that since it started getting dark at about 6:30, my whole trip into AZ was in darkness. The cool thing was that speed limit is 75 in AZ (which means one can do 80 safely *g*) and I did 256 miles in four hours (seeing as I had called shelly to tell her how far I was from phoenix at 4:15,called her at 6:15 when I crossed the border and rolled in at 8:15pm ish into the hotel. The drive tomorrow is going to be from Phoenix to Abilene,TX and that is about 800 miles. Wooha.
But anyway, the sky was pitch black and since there is literally no light pollution (small “towns” between Blyth and Phoenix), the stars were so close, it looked like I could almost reach up and touch them.
x0x0x0x,
Lisa

Getting the Fuck Out of California

Today is the first day for the rest of my life.
Or something.
I have had several long chronicles planned out about why i came to California and how i felt about being here and finally my thoughts and feelings about finally leaving.
But you know, i just don’t want to dredge up all those old thoughts and feelings.
On that note, I’m leaving now. I’m gonna be driving solo to Atlanta from San Francisco and I think I’m going to have fun. I know I can’t wait 🙂
I’ll be updating while I’m on the road, and the worse case scenario is that once getting to Atlanta, I’ll end up just doing one big update. I’ll keep everyone planned on everything I’m doing — and I’m sure you guys won’t get sick of me. 🙂
I’ll see everyone soon.
Love,
Themla (minus Louise, minus brad pitt)

rhubarb

man, i need to stop writing these things late at night. I’m getting mahself all confused.
On Sunday, my friend Keth came by packed with her Final Fantasy game, an extra controller to pick me up to head to Andrew’s and Godmomas new place in San Jose. The meeting was a bittersweet one. We met to congratulate Andrew and Gunilla on their new apartment and to say goodbye to me.
I find it hard, in some strange and broken way, to come to the realisation that this week will be the final week I will be in the SF Bay Area. I sat talking with Caroline (Cathleen’s sister) the other night about my 2.5 years here, and in many ways, I can’t quite come to grips with knowing that what I’ve put myself through. I know, personally, that looking back through my discussions with her, that my own life seems so damn ridiculous. How you may ask I know, personally, that if someone related to me about what I’ve been through and what I’ve seen right back to me, I would have said “man, that chyk is on fucking drugs. she’s not trustworthy, independent nor is she even really COOL.” However, ones own assessment of themselves seems to be way harsher than reality. We had a fairly healthy debate about women in technology (ironically, it was four women and two men at the shin-dig) and my basic stance is this: while i believe in the fight for equality for all sexes, women need to stop bitching about what is “owed” and start proving that they are worthy of their own due. I cannot take feminism seriously as long as those who claim to fight for “women” end up reading Cosmo, Vogue and other mags when they are done at the end of the day. ’nuff said.
On that note, i actually got packed this evening — man — three boxes worth of crap and i haven’t hit books, CDs and clothing. I can’t believe how much toys, knickknacks and overall crap i’ve accumulated since i’ve been here.

———–

you know how it is. you start looking at one friends webpage, which means you go to another and yet another. fortunately, i knew two of the people and knew of the third.
two of the pages i quickly skimmed were of course journals. not to the extent of which i have written, but, journals nevertheless (how cool is it to say that i have entries going back to 1996?). Since I knew of the persons, at one time, fairly intimately, it seemed strange to read their entry and feel — nothing.
Not strange perhaps, but more of an “gosh, they got what they wanted — why can’t i?” kind of feeling. not one of jealousy per se, but one of “why is it always THEM that gets the goods and not me?” kind of deal.
Last night on the phone, Paul babbled for some time about music and how it affects us. The strange ironic part of the conversation was that earlier in the evening, Justin and I were on our way back from running errands and I was grooving to NiN’s new cd (which, ironies of ironies CDNow finally shipped two weeks AFTER and I had already went and purchased the cd since I had never received it). I loved watching the back windshield pound to the beat of the bass of “Even Deeper” and Justin looked at me and said “I just don’t get it.” I replied “Don’t get what?” and he said “Music. This does NOTHING for me”. Justin knew, since the beginning of our relationship nearly 2.5 years ago, that music was a huge HUGE mainstay in my life. I used it for many reasons. And there are songs — some of which I’ve stolen from people I’ve met and some i’ve conjured on my own, that makes sense to me. I need the music in my life in order to survive.
but that is not the point and neither is this really.
lately i’ve been feeling detached. i toyed today with ideas of things and nothing. and i’ve been spending like mad (3 lipsticks, 2 pairs of shoes, boots, 4 pairs of pants, 3 shirts, 4 pairs of tights, the checkbook is hurting!). Most people spend their cash on hardware — i look to outfit my wardrobe. I heart being a girl.
I am not copesetic on everything right now. in fact, i’m choosing NOT to think because it’s so much easier than thinking. It hasn’t dawned on me that i’m leaving in 2.5 days.

I don’t feel right, I’ve got a crack in my heart

“You know Lisa, when you do something, people think it’s cute. When I do the same thing, people ignore me.” – Paul
Paul and I have been having this on-going “disagreement” on who started what and when and how. Simple euphemisms and mannerisms have become intertwined no one can remember who is a lisa-ism and what was a paul-ism. Scary.
Anywho, Paul and I talked about which songs describe us to a T. Paul picked No Fair Fights by Prick as one of them. He ripped the song for me and now that I finally have a working sound system, I finally downloaded it and have been replaying it over and over again. And anyone who knows me the slightest knows that I have a thing for lyrics (hello! Why I love Afghan Whigs and like bands) and I really dig the lyrics for this song. Paul will probably sit and smirk but hey, the words rock.
knee hurts. ow.
Anyway, I haven’t been writing much cos my life was anymore of a mess it would be a soap opera. Well, it is. Let’s see, in the last three weeks, I’ve had the following things occur:

  1. Roommate sideswiped car trying to miss one of our nine cats (damage estimated at one thousand dollars)
  2.  I got canned from Slip.Net. That was fun. I won’t go into reasons why I was canned (the following Monday after being said canned, my website got hit from 80% of Slip.Net’s SF office. Word on the street was that I had “walked” out. Wrong, I was canned.)
  3. I took myself to the ER for “feeling funky” — found out I am slowly killing myself with stress. Basically, what had been happening started out with ear ache for the last couple of months. Then I was always so damn tired. Then for the last week I’ve been feeling like “airy” like I’ve been really high and i was losing sensation in my body. I remember standing, naked and dripping water on my bedroom carpet looking for the strength to get dressed. Sharp shooting pains going down right side of my body. Nine hours in the ER and find out it’s stress. Which I kind of thought.

So, I have start eliminating stress from my health, quit smoking, quit drinking caffeine, lose weight and get in shape.
And that alone above isn’t stressful? heh.
(Damn! I wish I was your lover)
Oh and the trippy thing? Save for the ER, all of these occurrences happened on a Friday. And on THIS upcoming Friday, I’m moving:) wooha!
“Time flies by when flirting with Lisa.” – Paul
Argh I’m so excited! I’m leaving and going down to San Diego and hooking up with Bear, Ducky, Moe, Jon, and others. Than driving to Texas and then ON TO ATLANTA BABY!!!!!!
Four days and three nights.
Yum.
I had more indepth things to say, but yanno, it’s 3:54am.
I’ll save the bitching for another time.
x0x0x0x0x
Angel Baby Heaven

mom’s birthday

Today is my mom’s 57th birthday.
I got a few emails from friends of the family asking if I was gonna call her and I haven’t made up my mind yet. Last time I spoke to her, which was a week ago, I started crying after the short 10 minute call. I’m sure my brother will call her. Hell, she’s found Jesusâ„¢ now, so what does she need me for?
Ufie dotted — again
Several weeks ago, my cohort Thyla and I put together a page simply called Carbonated Borscht for the Evil Geek’s Soul that parodied some funny stuff. It got mentioned on the news feature of UserFriendly and actually got /.’d. This week, Godmoma put together a page called Illiads Harem.
I have no idea what’s going through Godmoma’s head. 🙂
So, any rate, I’ve been Ufie Dotted — again. Got over 500 unique hits yesterday. Woo. That surprised me 🙂 So I felt I must update. heh.
Blatant Promotion
My buddy and yours, Mike Norton recently finished work on his new comic The Waiting Place. I got to see the um, rough draft of it when I was in Mayumphis in July. The story is really cool and the drawing is incredible. Mike is obviously, ultra excited about this.
Since I’ve met Mike back in May, he’s helped influenced my non-comic reading butt into reading comics. Now i’m addicted to Strangers in Paradise and have been looking at other comics as well — namely ones that Mike and other people have recommended.
It goes without saying I was completely detached from the fact of just how many people read comics these days. It’s almost as bad as the damn Trekkies. 🙂
Regardless, Mike came to me and asked me to promote his work since I have gotten a ton of people to read SIP and they all adore it. So PLEASE PLEASE go support a young starving artist before Mike makes me buy 15000 copies!
Speaking of comics though, I’ve been neglecting my own habits. I’m only up to early Vol 3 in SIP and haven’t had a chance to catch up. People have been offering new comics left and right and I’m going insane with the divulge of offers. Calm down people, after i move and get settled in, i’ll start my addiction back up again.
Lisa-Cross-America ’99
Well it’s been official for awhile, but you all know I’m leaving the greater Bay Area in early October.
My numwitted ex-fiancee Danny has recently informed me that he cannot drive with me and thusly I’m doing it alone. I had a brief panic attack (like ohmygodwhatifigetcaughtwithaflattireinbfetexas) — but after a minute or 100, I calmed down and realized that spending four days alone, in my car, could be a good thing (you know they say if you keep repeating something, it just might come true).
I’ve been mapping out my itinerary and it looks like i’m driving south to SoCal and then straight across crossing through NM, AZ, TX, OK, etc on my way to Atlanta. What’s in Atlanta? Why Atlanta Linux Showcase my dears. There will be the BIGGEST party that side of the Mississippi for geeks. I hit LWE, now it’s on to ALS.
I think it’ll be cool though. I will have my laptop, cell phone and all my credit cards. I will be updating on the road as I plan on spending about four days driving — maybe less depending on my speed. heh. I might end up in Atlanta on Monday night. Who knows? Anyway, I’ve been attempting to coordinate with friends about crashing at their place on the way across. So, I’ll be okay. Just look for the black Saturn with LNX and LinuxGurven stickers plastered all over it doing 80 and you’ll find me.
I realize that driving cross country is something that I’ve been dreaming about for years. I wanted the opportunity to see this great land we call home before I flee this white trashy country and go to Europe. What I can’t understand, is that with so much time available for me to do it, why I’m planning on taking a more direct route and not seeing the country. My friend James, who drove solo from SF -> Gainesville FL was telling me about the pit stops he made when he drove across — which he did twice. Not many people get the chance to see this wonderful country of ours and I’m worrying about all the extra time I’ll have.
My favorite catch phrase recently has been “But I worry”. It’s driving me insane.
I’m gonna end up in Virginia, where Shelly already has our apartment that she’s cohabitating with her bf. Everything is set into place. On one hand, I’m ultra excited about doing the move. On the other hand, I’m afraid of falling on my face.
This should be very interesting.
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moi