-
Monthly archives for August 2010
-
Kiki’s Big Adventure: End of the Road, Part I
Today’s the first day of week two in my new digs, and it’s a busy seven days I’ve had. My plan all along was to hit the ground running here, in every possible way, and I think I’ve mostly succeeded in that.
I’m 90% unpacked. I’ve been setting my alarm and doing “office hours” at local coffee shops to work on job-hunting and the like. There’s been one interview so far, and every day I’m putting out so-called feelers. I’ve also signed up for a couple of social groups, and I’m going on a hike with one of them tomorrow … driving a carpool even!
I know, I know. Who are you and what have you done with Kiki?
It’s the darnedest thing, really. I mean, I love it here, and, now that I’ve arrived and confirmed that fact, I feel I can reveal that I had some deep, deep reservations over whether that would, indeed, be the case. I thought I would love it. Every indication that I could reasonably assess told me I would. You just never know, though. You know?
So, analysis of the whys and wherefores of my new me-ness is ongoing, though in a very un-me, non-obsessive kinda way. I’ll be sure to share whatever life lessons I glean from it all, but, for now, I’m just taking it in and enjoying each day as it comes.
People who read this post also read …
(Possibly) related items
-
Kiki’s Big Adventure: Day 11 May Contain Tears
-
Kiki’s Big Adventure: Tangents
-
Kiki’s Big Adventure: Day 10 Field Report
Today’s theme was boredom … and the stunning lack of anecdotes. That’s what I thought, anyway. But, obviously, we can’t always be the object of anecdotes, the detached witness, the bemused blogger. Sometimes we’re the subject, er, the protagonist, so to speak.
This revelation came to me during dinner.
Just as I sat down with a plate from the salad bar, my mom texted me to let me know that eggs were being recalled on the West Coast. She knows I like eggs. As it happened, that plate from the salad bar … replete with hard boiled eggs.
Ah, crap.
I texted my mom back to ask if she thought picking them out would be enough. The last thing I wanted was to throw out an almost entirely good plate of salad. While I waited for her reply, I sifted through (the cottage cheese on) my salad looking for every little speck of egg, piling them all on a plate off to the side.
Not even a minute later, I got a text from my mom:
u can eat them. not in cali.
Naturally, I grabbed the plate and piled the eggs back on the salad.
Now, tell me, if you were a fellow patron, would you not find this odd? Would you not recount this as an example of the freaks you encountered on your cross-country road trip? I know I would.
And it’s been like this for the last ten days. The few anecdotes this trip has yielded thus far, feature either me or little black dog being a weirdo somehow. I’m not sure why this surprises me, but it does.
People who read this post also read …
(Possibly) related items
-
Kiki’s Big Adventure: Day 9 Tripus Interruptus
Erring on the side of caution, we’re staying on in Pocatello one more night. The forecast puts temperatures on the road above 90° pretty much until we get to the Bay Area, so I’m trying to get little black dog rehydrated and expelling solids. Also, I was up every two hours last night changing puppy pads, so, honestly, we’re both looking a little worse for wear.
On tap for today: sleep, laundry, pool lounging, soaking pieces of pizza crust in poochie electrolytes and anti-squirt meds. Then the final push to California. If all goes well, two more days! I’ll arrive in my new home just in time to celebrate ma birthday, yo.
People who read this post also read …
(Possibly) related items
-
Kiki’s Big Adventure: On the Perils of Senior Pet Travel
You’ll be pleased to hear Squirty McShitsalot—as Rosie is now known—is doing much better. As I type, she’s lying beside me deep in slumber.
UPDATE: In the time since I wrote this post and when I could find an Internet connection that would allow me to actually post it, little black dog has taken a turn for the squirty. We’ve called it a day early, in beautiful Pocatello, Idaho … in the western foothills of the Rockies. Not to worry, Rose seems fine other than being affected more, uh, dramatically than I anticipated by the long days in the car. I’m thinking a longer break from driving might help her get back to normal. Fingers crossed.
People who read this post also read …
(Possibly) related items
-
Kiki’s Big Adventure: Day 8 Field Report
Greetings from beautiful West Yellowstone, Montana.
It’s 7 o’clock and a balmy 34°. Yesterday was a long haul from Gillette, Wyoming, through the Big Horn National Forest and Yellowstone National Park. Naturally, one partial day isn’t nearly enough to see all the sights, but I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a grizzly bear, a good long stare at a buffalo, and several views of elk grazing.
I chose to forego Old Faithful, which seems to be the kind of thing that should really be savored, but I did get to see lots of little puffs of steam shooting from the ground in random spots and a smoldering basin or two.
Unsurprisingly, cell/Internet access yesterday (and the day before) was almost non-existant. Even now, in my not-so-budget motel (read: hot tub) wi-fi is slower than the five bars of Edge service I’ve got on my phone. So, I’ve got a “mini” from yesterday that’s uploading now. I’ll do my best, too, to get some more pics posted and respond to a couple of comments before hitting the road for Utah-Nevada-ish.
Goals for today:
- no Slim Jims
- eradicate developing tan lines on tops of my feet
It’s the little things, you know?
People who read this post also read …
(Possibly) related items
-
Kiki’s Big Adventure: Sightseeing the Kiki Way
-
Kiki’s Big Adventure: Day 6 Lessons from the Road
If you ever find yourself traveling through South Dakota and thinking you’ll improvise finding a place to stay, don’t. Just do not do it. See, South Dakota middle of nowhere is not like middle of nowhere anywhere else. It’s a whole different beast. Like, not even a beast really … it’s a creature heretofore unknown. An extraterrestrial or a being made of light or something.
So, anyway, I pulled a nine-hour day yesterday, in part, because I overestimated how plentiful accommodations would be in the backwater I was so anxious to explore. Don’t get me wrong … it’s been beautiful, and I expect the best is yet to come. We only just crossed into South Dakota. Buffalo Gap, Badlands, Yellowstone, and the Great Salt Lake all lie before us.
But I’m tired. Little black dog is tired. I’m beginning to wonder if the brave-crazy scales aren’t tipping heavily towards crazy.
People who read this post also read …
(Possibly) related items
-
Kiki’s Big Adventure: Day 5 Field Report
Woke up this morning in the charming little town of Spring Valley, Minnesota … to the sounds of thunder and torrential rain. Feels like a morning for rolling over and going back to sleep or for cracking a good book and lolling in bed for a spell. Related: I finally bit the bullet and paid more than $50 for a motel, so I’m not, ya know, filled with the urge to flee. However, in the words of Frost:
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.Literally. My plan is to make it to Woonsocket, South Dakota, today and to again take back roads (aka, scenic byways). Yesterday’s drive on the scenic byways of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota was all I’d been longing for. (The sweltering heat kept sightseeing to a minimum, as little black dog is not fond of 100-plus temps, but I managed to snap a few purdy things along the way.) Taking these smaller routes lent the journey a much needed personal quality.
For now, it’s getting on 8 a.m. and the rain has died down. I’m gonna get on getting on the road. More field reports, non-minis, and miscellany to come, 3G coverage permitting.
N.B. I’ve not been able to reply to comments since I left Boston, but do keep them coming … I assure you, I read and enjoy them all.
People who read this post also read …
(Possibly) related items
-
Kiki’s Big Adventure: Day 4 Progress Bar
Greetings from Madison, Wisconsin. It’s day 4, and little black dog and I are going to downshift a bit. We’ve racked up about 1150 miles so far and two time zones, but as we hurtle towards the West Coast I can’t help but think of what Charles Kuralt once said:
Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country, from coast to coast, without seeing anything.
Wisconsin marks the first of seven or eight states on the trip that I’ve never visited before, so I’m going to slow the pace for a while and take some smaller routes … open the door to serendipity, you might say.
Also, my ass is sore.
You can see some of what I’m seeing by checking out my geotagged images. I’ll do my best to upload frequently.
People who read this post also read …
(Possibly) related items
-
Kiki’s Big Adventure: The Not-So-Mini
-
Kiki’s Big Adventure: The Call to Adventure
I’m not sure, technically, where Mr. Campbell would place me and my little expedition in his monomyth cycle, but I can attest that my “spiritual center of gravity” has shifted … something fierce, if you must know. And, I admit, I feel pretty corny comparing my move to a Lord of the Rings–type quest, but I’m writing this post from a sketchy motel in Toledo flippin’ Ohio … not so different, really, from traveling through the forest with those scary tree guys.
People who read this post also read …
(Possibly) related items
-
Kiki’s Big Adventure: Day 1 Outtakes
Day 1 went off with very few hitches, likewise very few blog-able anecdotes. In any case, I’m running on fumes at the mo, with only four hours of sleep last night, so today’s video … well, let’s consider it an outtake reel. Hope you enjoy.
Happy trails.
People who read this post also read …
(Possibly) related items
-
Kiki’s Big Adventure: Follow the Periwinkle Brick Road
Incredibly, fewer than 15 hours remain until I hit the road for California, during which time I must compress the proverbial two pounds of shit (my most precious earthly possessions) into the proverbial one-pound bag (my wee Toyota Prius).
There is progress … slow, painful progress: I’ve been forced to leave behind the two boxes of books I’d planned to bring (of the dozen-plus boxes I own). Also nixed: my favorite mini–trash can, my back-up bottle of witch hazel, my patent leather stripper shoes, and my Tempur-Pedic mattress topper. It’s brutal, man. Brutal.
To alleviate the tension, I’ve been eating Cheetos and M&M’s (insanely apropos going-away prezzies from Em Em and Cici, respectively). I’ve also been practicing avoidance by Internet. The result? A mild stomach ache … and a nifty Google map of my anticipated route.
You can follow along at home and comment with deets about the best burrito place in Madison, or whatever strikes your fancy. I’ll be updating it periodically from the road, as I’m able, and adding geotagged images—again, when time permits.
People who read this post also read …
(Possibly) related items
-
Kiki’s Big Adventure: The Trailer
And so it begins.
Follow along here, or subscribe to my shiny new YouTube channel. Still working on quality issues … bear with me, folks.
People who read this post also read …
(Possibly) related items
-
Cracking Up
It is not down in any map; true places never are.
—Herman MelvilleOnce or twice since I relaunched the blog last December, I’ve alluded to a period last year during which I experienced what in another era might have been called a nervous breakdown. There are more technical terms, of course, and I’m sure at some point I’ll delve—in excruciating detail—into the nuances of how to describe cracking up. At present, the laymen’s term should suffice.
It may seem odd to mention one of the darkest times of my life now, positioned as I am on the cusp of a promising adventure. The thing is, people tell me I’m brave to up and move, to start anew. They say I’m strong. Some insist it takes a courage they don’t themselves possess. Admittedly, I’m not all that comfortable with praise, in general, and nervous breakdowns, specifically, don’t do much for your inner rock star. Still, it feels false to hold myself up as a model of daring. (My plucky acts often seem like little more than the path of last resort after exhausting all the more cowardly routes.) So I demure and chuckle inwardly at the thought my epitaph might one day read:
Brave. Or crazy. (Jury’s still out.)
It’s a fine line, after all.
Naturally, I’ve been pondering this brave-or-crazy question, in the background, as I’ve gone about preparing for the move, but it all sort of came into focus for me earlier this evening. It was during my last DBT group session at McLean Hospital, where I was lucky enough to land a spot for treatment last year. At the end of the session, while saying our goodbyes, several people in the group offered encouragement and support, and those words began popping up again … brave, courageous, strong.
It struck me then just how much my time in that room, with those nine people had prepared me for the next chapter of my life. Or, rather, it struck me that I’d never told them how much I’d grown because they’d each had the courage to show up week after week and talk about stuff that can be downright, well, gut-wrenching.
So I told them. And I cried. And they cried. Still, it doesn’t seem enough somehow. How do you ever pay a gift like that forward?
A while back I said, “Being alive to being alive takes a foolish courage.” I still think that’s true. Thing is, sometimes it looks like packing up and driving to California. Sometimes it looks like sharing the details of your darkest days with a room full of strangers.
Thank you, McLean friends, for helping me find my brave fool.
People who read this post also read …
(Possibly) related items
-
The Final Countdown (Featuring Swedish Glam Rockers Europe)
At last, I’ve decided on a departure date and time for my trek to California. In accordance with my irrational affinity for the lunar cycle and Duran Duran, I’ll be leaving Monday, August 9, 2010. It is an auspicious new moon (on Monday). It is also 8/9/10 … so there.
People who read this post also read …
(Possibly) related items
Name's Kirsten. I'm a splitter of hairs, a hillbilly, a rock horns devotee, an ellipses-lovin' fool, and queen of the conceptual jinx. I'm also a geek and the grateful human of littleblackdog. I do this and that and some of the other … up to and including writing this here blog.
random linkage
cheese for dinner by kirsten k. hammann is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
SuperMini by unnerkrunt and nocreativity.