Help, I'm alive.

Okay, so let's try this again. Screw you, LJ, I'm typing this up in a wordpad doc first.

As I type this, I'm sitting in a Starbucks with jou and the lovely maypirate as we all sit and respectively fart around on tumblr work on things. I'm not going to attempt to completely re-create my post from yesterday, because: obnoxious, but we'll at least attempt to cover some of the same ground. But know what's awesome? Being able to use the restroom in a Starbucks without having to get the passcode for the lock from the baristas, because if there's no passcodes then all the homeless bums would go in the bathroom, puke everywhere, and then wash themselves with wet rags and leave a huge mess. Not that that happened in San Francisco a lot or anything.

First things first. Time for an episode of Short Attention Span Theatre. Let's recap the past few weeks.

Since returning from Ohio, it's mostly been a non-stop mess of working and packing to try to prepare for this epic move. I had my going-away party two Mondays ago, which consisted of two parts; the first was dinner at a delicious tapas restaurant, with revid, leighrowena, _somniac_, indie_wonka, and ribby and her spouse the Fuzzband. Following that, most of us shuffled off down Haight Street to throw back drinks at a bar, where a large number of my coworkers joined us. A fun time was had by all; a hangover was had by quite a few. My coworkers, exemplifying everything about my relationship with them, gave me a going-away present of Absolut Vodka, San Francisco limited edition. That pretty much says it all. ("When you miss San Francisco, drink this and think of the fog!" ♥)

jou arrived the day after my going-away party, trooper that she is, to come help me back up my life and drive it all cross-country to Madison. We had a going-away dinner at ribby's house that was ridiculously delicious, and then the next day consisted of packing, Goodwill-ing, or throwing out All the Things, and once we'd either boxed everything up or mailed it at Fedex, we toddled off downtown to catch "Captain America" again. I shrieked loud enough for 4 people and we had a jolly good time.

And then, the road trip. 2,100 miles, 4 consecutive days of 12 hours in the car at a time. We survived it with love, music, and lots of NPR podcasts of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" and "This American Life." I think we are going to need some visual aides here.




Meet Darcy! Darcy as in the god-tasing minor character in "Thor," yes, that Darcy. Darcy is a sweet girl and has been the perfect little car so far.




We were able to fit a surprising amount of junk in her trunk. Baby got back, is what I'm saying.




jou, having no fucks left to give for the number of miles we had yet to drive when I took this picture. You can see allllll the crap in the back of Darcy, too.




And then: we drove!




Aaaand drove...




Whilst in Nevada we found a Starbucks inside a casino inside a gas station. ...No really. It was more common than you'd think. As rainjewel commented, if you had to live way out in the desert, all you'd wanna do is drink and gamble, too.




We encountered some ~luxury accomodations...





And contemplated sending up smoke signals for help while crossing the giant salt flats in the western end of Utah, coz they went on for friggin' ever.




Here I am rocking the "dirty hippie" look, complete with dirty bandana and map across my lap to reflect the heat of the Vulcan sun, because it was literally 101 degrees outside that day.




We encountered some crazy weather in Wyoming...




Which then turned red in the sunset. What.




O yeah. Midwestern thunderstorms, come to me.




We finally made it to the continental divide on the third day. It wasn't yet one million degrees, but I was pretty f*ing sick of being in the car at this point.




Finally! A dating service that caters to people like me! I can see the ad now: "Single white woman ISO like-minded Trekkie nerd. Must love comics, roadkill, terrible hipster music, tacos."


Finally, we arrived at my dad's house in La Crosse, in time for his 60th birthday. Being the geniuses that we are, we totally decorated his birthday cake for him.



My dad, being a troll since 1951. He loved it, of course.




Also, y'all, if anyone was looking for Banner, he's apparently in Madison. Chillin' next to the Starbucks drive-through, right behind the auto repair center. Maybe Hulk just wanted a latte.


WHEW, THAT WAS A LOT OF PICTURES. But now I am safely in Madison! I have moved all of my crapola into my new apartment, where the wonderful maypirate is my roommate, and lots of fun has been had thus far with her and jou and latenightarting. (That is, if you can call "applying for jobs all over the damn place" and "repeated trips to the DMV to get my driver's license and registration" fun. I dunno, your mileage may vary.) I still have lots of unpacking and work to do, but I'm hugely enjoying getting to roll around town having what amounts to a constant fangirl party. I quite like Madison so far.

Things on my radar in the near future: more job interviews, farmer's markets, getting back on the "writing" bandwagon after what I realized is like a 9-month dry spell due to Ye Olde Big Trip and then my cross-country move, yoga, bicycling everywhere, re-doing my LJ layout and probably 50% of my icons, putting up all my posters, eating all the bagels from the nearby shop "BAGELS FOREVER" (bagels where have you been all my life), and consuming massive amounts of fannish media. Particularly enjoying shoving myself face-first into Marvel fandom. COME THE FUCK ON, AVENGERS. I'M SO READY FOR YOU.


TL; DR version of this post:



I'M FINALLY IN MADISON! IT TOOK FOR FREAKIN' EVER BUT NOW I'M HEEERE!