Mischief & Events Posts

Location: Casa Arguello
San Francisco, CA

Miles Logged: 17433
Hours Driven: 29.5 (includes meals/nap&gassup times)
Hours listening to the Comedy radio stations on XM: 27+ (I *heart* Mitch Fatel)
States Driven Through: Texas, Texas, Texas, Texas (that damn state just goes on for fricking *ever*) New Mexico, Arizona, California
Weather Conditions: Dark=>Overcast=>Sunny=>Desert Sunny Dry=>Snow. Yes, Snow=>Chilly SFish weather minus the drizzel.
Memories: Too many to count
Rolls of film (yes film) to be developed: 5
SMS photos sent: 28
Phone calls made: 8
Number of times I referenced the exact same set of directions off of TellMe: 31

Kisses Blown to the wind: Innumerable

Prayers said: 252 Hail Mary’s within a 20 minute period of time when my car was running on fumes as I pleaded with God to make the next gas stop immediately migrate to be at the next available exit.

Bunnies inadvertantly run over: 2. Maybe 3. I cannot be held responsible for involuntary bunnyslaughter if the bunnies felt a compulsive need to fling themselves in blood sacrifice before my caffiene charged might driven car.

Dogs passed by the side of the road.. on a Benjie’esque journey to go home: 2 (So cute. A tiny grey terrier peaking out along railroad tracks to peer in at the cars of people stopped at an intersection. Hope he makes his way home. The other poor hound that I spotted an hour later, looked like he had been abandoned and needed new friends)

Overall distress on my car:
– More than effectively doubling the # of miles on my car since I left SF on January 6th.
– Totally needs a carwash, inside & out
– Some errant dallas neighbor scratches on the car that should be able to get bugged out
– The moonroof got more excercise this weekend thatn ever and is behaving a little snippety when driving & trying to close it.

Sweet Dreams: I think 1 solid very deep dream of pillows, besos, hugs, and giggles.

I am renewed.

Fricking exhausted.

But definitely renewed.

Today was delightful chillout in dallas day.
Good coffee, a driving tour of ridiculously affordable housing in dallas, decent vietnamese food, warm intimate conversations, and watching Lost on someone else’s couch for once.

No matter how little or far you drive, some things are just good to do.

The cowbell goes *Clang* for today.

Current Location
Dallas Tx, Casa Navarro

I have arrived!

Another 212 Miles under my belt and a scant 4 hour drive.
That, my friends, may officially be considered a cakewalk.
The average speed for this journey has been obscenely pulled out of its norm via Austin traffic and an 18 wheeler deciding to roll over and play dead on the I35 as I approached Dallas.

Today was a very good day.
I slept in. I bought a cow bell.

Yes.

I am officially now with more cow bell.

The nice gentleman at Tommy’s Drum Shop in Austin even game me a shiney red drumstick with which to hit said cowbell. Now how dope is that? I do declare that said drumstick matches my new manicure from yesterday.

I failed to mention that the day before yesterday, I had delighted in the opportunity of hanging out for cocktails with 20×2 co-horts Kevin & Jeff along with other fun locals Tim o Thompson & Allison Headley along with those ever so dangerous Hacker girls.

I currently have in my phone logs an sms message scolding some jaded S.O.B. who was too busy out grocery shopping to come out and join us for Mojitos and snark talk. Hmph. That particular jaded S.O.B. that insists that my 20×2 performance of 20×2 during 2003 had a particular significance. Pshaw, whatever mr. jaded S.O.B. You’se a sucka foo with your groceries.

Anyways, back to today. After humming to myself new cowbell tunes

*Clang*
I have a cow bell.
*Clang*
I know you’re jealous.
*Clang*
You know you want one.
*Clang* *Clang*
Sucks to be you.
*Clang*
And I have a pretty red stick
*Clang*
*Clang*
*Clang*
With which to hit my cool cowbell
*Clang*
You wish you had a cow bell.
*Clang*
*Clang*
This makes me cheerful.

Afterwards, I wandered a bit down lamar and had a delightful conversation with a Tasmanian shop owner of Bitch’n Threads who chatted me up re: world travels, good coffee, and how material ownership is overrated. Oooh. And she sells Kimonos fyi.

She spotted me crossing the street and her curiosity got the best of her. She suspected that I was a free-lancer. I apparently carried myself off that way. She’s a delight and the next time I head into Austin, I plan on looking her up and hijacking her from her shop for a few hours to drink some wine and talk kimonos and world travels. I love that she’s considering openign up a 1940s style nightclub in Antigua and considers it a serious question to ask herself “Now what the hell am I goign to for the *next* 72 years of my life”

That’s the type of moxy that I love.

Later I wandered down to a small cafe called Swerve where I enjoyed some quiet time with some good coffee and some reading fo the local publications.

Tara later rounded upw ith me and showed me the grass couch that they have in the backyard.

Dope.

Following that, we had some eh… ok burgers yon at kerby’s. The burgers were advertised as “Pretty Good Burgers”. I felt jipped. Even with the bacon & cheese on top.

Yon after that I trekked from Austin to Dallas, was greeted by my lovely host J.N. and then off to Tina’s home/household/ranch for food to tease the herd of dogs at her home whom I referred to through the rest of the evening as 2nd course, 3rd course, 4th course, and Dessert. Of course Leia was there with her gorgeous smile and so were newliweds Ruaraidh & Nicole along new friend Ray.

Lovely evening. Now I’m off to dream up new Cowbell songs.

Current Location
Austin,TX
Hacker House for wayward girls,

There is sunshine.
I dig it.

Ms. Hummina has likened my journey out here to be like Dora in Finding Nemo.
“Just keep swimming, just keep swimming”
“Just keep driving, just keep driving”.

It’s entirely possible.

Because it really wasn’t until today that I looked at an overall map of the US and saw how significant the drive actually was.

I suppose the big thing to learn from this experience is…
If you don’t think something’s that hard to do, then you are less likely to think that you can’t actually pull it off.

So shazam, something I need to remind myself of more often.
Even if I know something *is* hard to do, then perhaps I need to remind myself to keep things within *do-able* chunks to make them seem less daunting.

ie: From SF to Tucson was a 4 gasup trip. A trip within a single-gasup seems very do-able. Facile, even. Doing 4 gasups in a single evening seem.. well.. misleadingly easy.

Today’s been a chillout day. Manicure/pedicure & dinner (BBQ!) with my friend Henna (a ridiculously rocking electric cellist) who I had the opportunity to meet through Annie Lin whom I met at Fray Cafe SXSW 2004 and had heard wonderful things about from another blogging friend Scott Andrew whom I met at SXSW the first time I went in 2002. Funny how the world comes around again doesn’t it?


Hurray!

9:40 AM – Austin, TX
Location – Hacker House for Wayward Girls
I have arrived!I am safe! I am exhausted!

Quick list of things:
Miles Driven – 973
Hours Driven – 15 Hours
Times Lost – Urm… twice… Once when pulling off on 2990 instead of 290 for a sec… woops… and then overshooting to get to the Hacker House of Wayward Girls.
Times Pulled over – 1
Times I thought I was getting pulled over – 2 (but the second time was a false alarm. Damn Flaming Lips Song)
Times I got a ticket – 0! Just got a warning.
Number of SMS msg received – 18 (Mostly dodgeball msgs!)
Number of SMS photo msgs sent – 38 – Sent to both Flickr & Slide. If you want to get a sense of the virtual roadtrip thing, subscribe to my slideshow and follow along. I’ve been sending an obscene # of phonecam pix while driving.
Times I pulled off the road to pee – 2
Times I surpressed a reason to make an off color joke – 3 (While passing Rocky Rim Road and Nutty Brown Road… not to mention the truck stop title Boracho Station)
Times I saw cows – 19
Times I saw sheep - 4
Times I saw an Ostrich Farm – 1 (The thought passed my mind to purchase an egg.. but then again I realized my car and drive would be warm and long and I decided against this)
Times I wished something would not be named after Lyndon B Johnson within a 15 mile stretch – 413
Times I had to reboot my phone – 382340983492833942
Times I began to question my relationship with Dairy – 14
Times I prayers – 3 – because I’m confident that “oh gawd oh gawd oh gawd is there a bathroom coming up” totally counts.
Times I cussed at my laptop – 10 (dropped it… currently not recognizing the airport…grrr – apple store appointment this pm)
Times I called an exboyfriend to chat – 18 (Just 1 exboyfriend in particular. It was the desert. The call kept on being dropped. Honest.)
Beverages Consumed – 2 Diet Cokes, 1 Doctor Pepper, 2 Orange Juice, 1 Water, 2 Power Waters,
Beverages that exploded in my lap while driving – 1 – Damn. You. Doctor. Pepper.

In the list of things that I should definitely not have been doing while driving:
– Brushing my teeth
– Taking Photos
– Looking up at the moon roof
– Reading bloglines
– Snorting down a bunch of spicy cheetohs and chex mix so quickly that I nearly cough up a salty spice ball through my nose

To note:
My stay at Casa Molly was completely delightful.
Nap!
Cat!
Wine!
Roast Beast!
More Wine!
Ice Cream!
More Wine!
Mischief!
Secrets!
Delicious Chats!
Extraordinarily long sleep!
Wifi!
And a place where they make fresh salsa customized to your taste preferences tableside for you!

I! Am! Full! Of! Delerious! Joy! And! Exhaustion! and Exclamation! Points!

If you’re in Austin, Cuba Libre For Drinks @ 8:30 Pmish I believe. That’s today. Monday.
Dinner plans in flux. Contact Ms. Hummina for details and whatnot as I’ll be completely passed out.

Smoochitos!

Gack

Originally uploaded by minjungkim.

Current Location: Tucson, AZ
Casa Molly

Miles Driven - 1016.3
Hours Driven ~ 13.5
State Correctional Facilities Passed – 6
Bad Street Name Puns Tolerated – 2 (Auto Drive & Test Drive)
Cigarettes Smoked – 25 (10 Clove, 15 regular) (Terrible I know…I think an all time roadtrip record)
Diet Cokes – 2
Bottled Starbucks – 2
Bottles of Water – 2
Times peed off the freeway because I couldn’t wait for the next rest stop – 1
Times Gassed up – 3 (Woot on the gas milage! GO SATURN!)
Number of Paper maps in my posession – 0
Tools for wayward navigation – Treo + Yahoo Maps! + Tell Me
Times Lost – 0
Phone Calls Received while on road – 7
Phone Calls Made while on the road- 60
Photos Sent via SMS – 24
Number of Dodgeball Checkins – 1 (I-5!)
Sweaty Pits – 6 Total – 2 arm pits, 2 knee pits, 2 elbow pits
Lowest Temperature – 31 Degrees Fahrenheit (-.5 Celsius)
Highest Temperature – 73 Degrees Fahrenheit (22.8 Celsius)
Prayers Completed – 2 + 1 rosary
Number of Gorgeous Clouds – Too many to count
Number of cheesylines of poetry inspired – 1 “Prophets soaring from annewed joy, into the bosom of morning”
Number of Meditative Cds listened to – 0. Though I have been given 2 by my friend RP, the directions specify on the back of the CD “DO NOT LISTEN TO WHILE DRIVING”
New Pet Peeves Discovered – 2

- People who are obviously truck stop hookers who preen at 5AM at the gas station rest room that I happen to stop into.
- Hilly Hilly Dippy Roads — making you sea sick in the middle of the desert
New Joys Appreciated
- Clean Towels, Good water pressure in the shower, Being able to close your eyes for more than 1 second without fear of dying. Most importantly, a good friend with a smile at the end of your long journey.

Most Significant thunks so far:
– The differentiation between Emancipation vs. Separation
– The power of one’s will/self scripting for both failure & success
– The need to have more regular spirit journeys. Ideally that don’t involve driving through dense fog for 120 miles at 3 AM.