catch up

okay, so i’ve come to the conclusion that i’m not a very good blogger. i’ve made it to my mom’s house in north carolina and am leaving for baltimore tomorrow. here's a summary of the rest of the road trip since my last posting:

DAYS 6-7, DENVER

the rest of my stay in denver did not involve much excitement. i watched the u.s. open and was inspired to subject l to play tennis with me when she came home from work. one night, i made dinner for l, her cousin, and her cousin’s boyfriend – a jamie oliver recipe of tomatoes and chicken. afterwards, we went to a local bar and hung out. the next day, l took me to boulder to have dinner with a friend of hers. the visit would’ve been complete if we had been able to go to the denver art museum – most of the building was closed due to renovations. the art museum was something that we always said we would see when i visited. bummer. regardless, it was nice to see l.

DAY 8, KANSAS/ST LOUIS

drove through kansas and arrived in st louis. kansas is kind of scary – three anti-abortion billboards appeared along the highway within 5 miles of crossing the colorado-kansas state line. i had to stop once for gas within the state, and i felt stared at, like they can just tell that i was a liberal and am going to hell.

thankfully, i had cd’s of ‘this american life’ to keep me sane. at this point, i’ve also listened to ‘skinny dip’ by carl hiaasen, ‘a woman of independent means’ by elizabeth forsythe hailey and ‘good grief’ by lolly winston, books on tape courtesy of my la stitch-n-bitchin' ladies :) ‘skinny dip’ was great – carl hiaasen is now on my list of authors to keep an eye out for – great sense of humor and wit. ‘independent means’ wasn’t as engrossing. i was actually glad when it ended. not sure if i didn’t like the reading of it or the material itself. ‘good grief’ was good timing – it’s about a woman whose life is turned upside down when her husband passes away. her life changes in ways that she could never imagine – it gives me hope about what’s in store for me with my move.

i made it to st louis late that night and then stayed up even later, glued to the television with the agassi-baghdatis match. it was the last time that i would see agassi play.

DAYS 9-11, NORTH CAROLINA

arrived in hendersonville, nc for b’s wedding. she was crediting the event to me – during a visit to la a couple of years ago, she and her now husband had arrived at a cross-roads of sorts, having been on and off since high school. i pointed out to her how obviously in love she was with g and that she needed to give him a second chance for herself. g had been the standard to which she compared every other guy she had dated or even interested in. i hadn’t met g at that point. in fact, i only met g the day i arrived in hendersonville. what was i thinking, encouraging her to concede to him? but having seen them interact now, i truly believe that they will share a beautiful life together, maybe dramatic but wonderful.

the wedding went smoothly. it had been rainy in north carolina because of hurricane ernesto, but the wedding day was beautiful. even mother nature believed it was meant to be. the bride was gorgeous in her stunning dress. the groom seemed nervous but was very handsome in his army formal. a couple of people at the wedding were from my high school so it was actually really nice to catch up with them. kind of funny that i never talked to them when we were in high school together, but they’re fantastic people. come to think of it, i didn’t become friends with briana until college and then got to know her best friend, a, through her. all that lost time, but better late than never.

i left on sunday to proceed to cross the rest of the state for jacksonville, nc. i finished ‘gods in alabama’ by joshilyn jackson, another book on tape, and really loved it. i started it as i was entering the south (around kentucky). it's the kind of story that makes southern literature so enticing.

when i arrived at my mom’s, she had an amazing dinner waiting for me. ah, i was home.

DAYS 12-17, JACKSONVILLE, NC

for the past week, i haven’t been doing much. i know i should be ashamed, but my mom has made dinner every night. and to make it worse, she’s been doing the dishes. to my defense, though, she doesn’t pass on to me what she has in mind for dinner, and i don’t want to mess up her plans, which i've done before, to my regret. and i do try to wash the dishes, but she would jump in front of the kitchen sink and would at most let me rinse.

i’ve been trying to set up the phone line and dsl service for the new york apartment while betty is working, and it’s been the worst experience ever. i’ve placed the order with verizon since august 29 so it’s been 2 weeks. nothing is set up yet. there was some error with our line that took them over a week to discover. earlier this week, i was on the phone with verizon for almost an hour, getting passed to 8 different people - i think i was passed back to the same department twice. i used to think that people exaggerate when i hear stories like this. seriously, 2 weeks, about 10 calls, almost an hour and 8 different people on one of the calls. nada. grr.

all the logistics for me leaving the new car with my mom and taking the old car up north to hand off to my sister’s boyfriend/almost-brother-in-law should be in place. auto insurance in north carolina is immensely cheaper than in la! and i washed and waxed the car yesterday for her to start driving it today (she has some getting-used-to to make) and will give the same pamper treatment to the other car this afternoon. see, i try. (i also patched the chip in the bathtub!)

hope this will do for now. i’ll work on being a better blogger.