His Name is Garbage Because He Eats Garbage!

I got a cat!

Well, actually the keeper who's responsible for pest control trapped me a feral garbage cat. Her name was going to be Opala, Hawaiian for Trash, but I went with Rosey instead. It's sort of an homage to my late Uncle Jim, who had an awesome old cat name Pinky who sort of resembled my trash cat. She's a black and orange calico kitten with a broken tail, stink-butt, and a nasty case of fleas. She's also my project! Just watch. In ten days or so, she'll be a gorgeous picture of kitten health. You'll be able to pass her off as a dutchess at the embassy ball.

Now repeat after me, Rosey: The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain...

Rockabye

As I just wrote in an email to Rachel, I'm so homesick I might die. Not literally. Anyone who knows me knows I'm prone to hyperbole. I'm just really, really, REALLY homesick. If you offered me a plane ticket home right now, I'd take it, consequences be damned. I guess it's a good thing I get jobs in expensive plane ticket areas of the US, because I always cope. I always feel horrible for the first ten days after a move, and then I always get over it. And then I love the place/job/situation I'm in. I KNOW that's what happens. I know this wretched feeling won't last. You'd think that would help me through these rough times, but it doesn't. California feels farther from home than Alaska or Hawaii. Is it because this is the real deal, job-wise? Not an internship or a school semester with a set ending date? Do I feel like I'm trapped here? I'm not. I KNOW I could leave anytime. But I'll get over it. And then I'll feel great again. I always do.

Some horrible part of me worries that maybe this is the real thing. Maybe this is the time I don't snap out of it.

But no, it'll be OK. Like the song goes, "everything's gonna be alright."

I feel like I hold the world record for failure to leave the nest.

The big road trip was more than two weeks ago. Time for some introspection.

Things I Learned on The Road Trip
1) You can find places to go out dancing any night of the week if you try hard enough.
2) LA lives up to its stereotypes.
3) Santa Barbara is an underrated town.
4) If you find a band-aid on your pillow at the hotel, you should complain in person.
5) I have no reason or desire ever to go to Utah.
6) If you see billboards for roadside zoos with six-legged cows and the world's largest prairie dog, you MUST stop.
7) If you wear false eyelashes and a cocktail dress to a Burger King in Wyoming at noon on a Tuesday, you might get some stares.
8) Reno is not all it's cracked up to be, and it's not cracked up to be all that much.
9) My car can go 60 miles after the gas light comes on.
10) Speaking of my car, if you let it sit unused in a garage in South Carolina for a year and a half and then take it 3,000 miles at an average of 75 mph through mountains, plains, snow, and rain, fully loaded, it might have a problem or two by the time you get to your destination.
11) College night at the clubs is still fun when you're not in college anymore.
12) Vodka is not my friend (unless mixed with grape soda), but beer is!
13) The San Diego Zoo might still have the same black jaguars (or their offspring) it had in the critically acclaimed 1987 film "Rainbow Brite at the San Diego Zoo."
14) Coronada: fact or fiction? Fact: it has good Thai food.
15) Just because you get to Fresno doesn't mean the trip is over! You can always go back to San Francisco.
16) Cool travel companions make all the difference.

So now I'm in my new home city, trying to weasel an apartment out of the people at my chosen apartment complex. It's not even particularly nice, but I can't afford to lose my deposit. So I call the manager and her idiotic trainee manager everyday trying to convey the idea that I WILL GIVE YOU MON-EY (vigorously nod head, smile) IF YOU GIVE ME AN AP-ART-MENT! speaking very slowly, loudly, and angrily. In the meantime, I started my job yesterday, and it looks like it'll be a good one.

Halloween is just around the corner! Today I will hit up the discount stores for Vampirate costume components.

Turn, Turn, Turn

Tomorrow starts the big Road Trip West!

One of my best friends from Hawaii is flying here and together we will drive Route 70 to San Fransisco over the course of three days--two if we're feeling ambitious. Then we'll meet up with Dianne and head south along the coast. This marks a new era in my life: the "responsible adult era." The "irresponsible sponge on my parents era" is going out with a bang, though. I have big plans for these road trips!

Moving west to California seems like such a cliche thing to do. Isn't it part of a song or a graduation speech or something? "Live out West, but don't get too soft; live out East, but don't get too hard." Well cliche or not, it's my turn! Time to live somewhere I've never lived and do things I've never done before. Whenever I tell people I'm moving to California, the first thing they usually say is "oh it's so expensive out there." Tcha. I'll manage. I'm a little nervous about moving away from the East Coast, stronghold of my friends and family. It won't be like the internships where you have at least a few other displaced, new people ready to be your pre-assigned friends. This is another step outside my comfort zone, but I'm looking forward to it. All the best things happen to me when I get away from what I know. My life goal is never to be stagnant. I stole that from Jackie, because I like it so much. It'll be great! And if it's not great, which it will be, it'll be a learning experience.

I'm also a little nervous about starting a full time job. It seems to go against the "don't be stagnant" philosophy. But if I don't like it, if I feel stuck, I can always do something else! I can always get a new job or internship and move. Moving is good. Moving frees the soul.

So there ya go: new job, new state, new life, new blog!