I'm Almost Breathing

In a rather whirlwind move, I went from the lower-left to the upper- middle. Gave notice at UCLA, packed my car, and took off. To summarize, I found a job back in Milwaukee and decided it felt like the right move for reasons still somewhat mysterious to me, and probably to a few people who know me well. I even moved before the contract was signed. It got signed a few weeks after I started the job. I might be a little crazy. I never thought I’d move back here. Hm.

Spent one week getting myself across this great country of ours in my eggplant Honda, and it was…great! The freedom of the road! If you’re ever btw. jobs or just have a lot of vacation time, use it for a major semi-unplanned roadtrip. Make spontaneous stops. Pick cities that aren’t busy.
Did I mention I actually got lost getting out of LA? I did. I’m not embarrassed to say it out loud (anymore). I was in the right lane for ‘The 10’, and then somehow missed another lane change and ended up somewhere that was else. Got a nice tour, some wry laughter, and some good swearing in (see photo, obviously an artist's rendering of how I felt and not me actually whipping the bird), then eventually got back on the easterly.
It was a typical dreary smoggy situation leaving LA, which felt fitting for my departure. After getting almost just barely out of town, my exit to the next freeway was closed, I took the only exit that didn’t have a gas station immediately off the highway, and also had a traffic jam in the desert, about 50 miles out of town when I thought I would be free. Urg.

After the traffic jam, it was all smooth sailing! Whew! You can imagine my joy at not having half a million cars immediately surrounding me at all times. My car did not overheat nor break down through all the 100 degrees and uphill nonsense (nor did it the rest of the way). I even got myself a double rainbow (what did it mean?) to welcome me to my first stayover in Hurricane, Utah. My hotel room had a heart-shaped tub, for some reason. These are the little things that make me happy.

The next day I went to Bryce National Park, a spectacle of the natural sort. It rained a bit, but that just made it more pretty when it was finished. I talked to some Germans on the park bus during the downpour, who taught me the correct way to say danke schoen. These are the little things that make me happy.







I stopped about a billion times on the next leg of my drive to Grand Junction, CO, home of Colorado National Monument. Great park, small, non-crowded, pretty. The scenery on the way was breathtaking. Breathtaking. Sun setting behind me, little roy g bivs in my car (you know why, Val!), the landscape was lit in that burnt red/orange color, white clouds, amazing. Seriously, I think I stopped at every scenic outlook. Got to Grand Junction at 11 at night. The plan was 8 or 9. Oops.

I really really certainly recommend all parts of the Colorado Plateau. In addition to the red landscape further west, you have Aspens, Colorado River along the highway, etc. Nothing sucked about it. (even Nebraska and Iowa, although having a rep for being boring, are quite lovely)

OK, this is weird, but as I type this, I’m hearing a song called “Waiting for the Light to Change”, which was my theme song in LA. Hm.

My next stop was Fort Morgan, CO. Small town, USA, not much to report, just a nice stay, home-cookin’ restaurant, comfy bed, great sunrise. These are the little things that make me happy.

Then, on to Lincoln, NE. I stopped by Buffalo Bill’s place on the way. He wasn’t there, but I did see some buffalo. In Lincoln, I went to a vineyard and had a private wine tasting! Just cause no one else was there, but it sounds good. It was sort of fun to chat with one of the owners. Again, I say, I went to a winery in Lincoln, Nebraska. Let’s contemplate that for a second.

After a stop in Grinnell, IA, where I crashed at a friend’s who wasn’t there :( ....I was on to Wisconsin! I spent all day getting back, stopping at parks, witnessing the crazy flooding down there, crossing the good ole Mississip at Dubuque (while playing Pat McCurdy), witnessing the beauty of western WI while trying to keep ahead of an impressive gathering of dark clouds and lightning to the north, which was also quite pretty, and finishing up with a really decent rainstorm at about Oshkosh. These are the little things that make me happy.

It’s been great to reconnect with friends and colleagues, watch movies on a blow-up screen on the lake with a red moon rising behind while eating deep fried fish, have thai-coconut curry soup at The Sugar Maple, watch the actual sugar maples change colors, Packers games, get together for dinner with girlfriends and get a bonus squash, sing harmonies and learn guitar chords, salsa lessons, among other good stuff. You know who you are, and these are the big things that make me happy.

Things I miss about Calfornia:

-My sister and her family!
-Friends who enjoyed Rock Band and sarcastic remarks in or near UCLA.
-My transplant pal who I’m no longer around to commiserate with in The Second
-Year-round farmer’s market
-Philosophical chats on the bluffs above the ocean
-A solo drive along the coast up north to see seals and tar and get a heart-shaped rock from a stranger
-Sunset against the mountains

Things I certainly don’t miss and in fact make fun of about California:

-Traffic
-Billboards and twirly signs re: botox and plastic surgery
-The people who choose earthquakes over tornadoes. You can actually SEE them coming and you can run away!!!! I win.
-The cost of gas (about 50 cents more than here), or a bottle of Miller friggin Lite ($1.50-2.00 at happy hour here). Not that I drink Miller Lite, but just on principal.

The things I kinda forgot or never really noticed about Milwaukee:

-Bumpy roads – I didn’t realize how smooth roads in CA are until I got back here. My shocks do indeed need replacing, and 100 degree swings in weather do indeed rough up the road.
-Orange construction drums everywhere
“-I don’t dance unless I’ve had six beers….” All right - I sure didn’t forget this, but it only took me like, three and a half days to hear it again. It must be painful to be that clenched, my good German man.
-I’ve never seen so much jaywalking in my life. Mostly I’m for it, but sometimes people are just stupid getting in the way of cars that have the right of way. You can’t get away with that in CA -- you die, or get a $180 ticket, and that might be because you just didn’t bother to push the button since you’re going with traffic (right, Beth?).
-Rush hour downtown consists of nothing, really. At 5 p.m. only, there’s a two-block long line to get on the highway. Oh, the horror.

The things I love about this area that I may have taken for granted before:

-Sunrise over Lake Michigan…beautiful and with different character almost every morning
-The lighting, the sky, the clouds, the trees, the Fox River up north
-Actual living things besides people (I saw 2 red foxes walking to work the other day! Well, they were hanging out, I was walking to work. I live downtown fer cryin outside! Foxes!)
-Having a drink beside The Milwaukee River, sometimes commenting on the smell
-Getting together for a football game on Sunday