Sunday, August 26, 2002

Got up and made the discovery that Ruffy has an extensive library of cereal. Impressive, even. I got to meet his Mom & Dad, which was cool, & see Alexander Salamander! when he wasn't in need of a nap. He's way less fussy then. And, if possible, even more cute.

But alas, I had to part from Iowa so I could go visit Denver. Why Denver? Pretty much 'cause it's a ten hour drive from Iowa. *shrug* Ruffy, however, was nice enough to give me directions to a shorter way back to the highway- complete with a hand drawn map. He's big on the maps. Before I even left NH, he'd sent me a map he made in MS Word of how to get to his house from the highway. I think I still have it somewhere....

Anyway. Leaving. Yes, we're leaving. I bid the Ruffys adieu, after being told by RTBS that if I got into trouble anywhere, to give him a call & he'd come get me - at least, that offer was good until I hit Colorado, 'cause it was football season, & he had certain religious restrictions against entering enemy territory. *snicker*

Go across the rest of Iowa, through Nebraska. Damn if that wasn't boring country. By the Powers. I mean, it's pretty & all in a picturesque farms & good solid American heartland fashion, but wow. Boring as all shit when you're crossing a couple hundred miles of it. Especially when you're presented with this looong flat, deserted road on which you would normally got like, eighty on...but you can't go above 70 'cause you've got a trailer.* I rather imagine it's like trying to run windsprints with one of those parachutes attached to your back. Only my version of it lasted for hours & hours on end.
*And yes, I do realized that it says right on the trailers that the max speed is 45 mph. But you try that pace for a couple of hours & see how long it takes before you just go, "Ah, fuck it." and hit the gas.

Being the slightly ADD person that I am, I sought entertainment. (In case you haven't picked up on this yet, I'm big on entertainment.) Hello, trusty cell phone! (again) Talked to Polgara & Little Sister for a while. Ironically enough, Little Sister flew to LA for Labor Day weekend, & was flying back to Boston a day before I was slated to arrive. They filled me in on what they'd been up to. What they were up to consisted of some really bad sunburns & an emergency jump into the pool at Polgara's apt., a maneuver which in itself was an indication of desperation. Once that was hashed out, I hung up so they could go get lots of aloe.

And started thinking.

And had an idea.

And called Robyn.

"Robyn... I had this idea."
"Oh god."
"Shut it. I'm thinking about starting a website."
"You've already got one."
"No, another one. I was thinking...nodignity.com. Figured it was pretty much a perfect description of my life..."
"Oh, my god yes! I love it!"
"Good. By the way, I already decided that you and Sam are going to write for it with me, and I know what your first assignments are going to be- you got anything to write with? I'll give you yours now."

Thus was nodignity.com born. It took a while, since I was slightly busy doing things like finding a job, finding a second job, getting a rent deposit, & moving & bludgeoning Sam & Robyn 'cause they took forever to write their stuff...but hey! Here we are!
(Actually, come to think of it, I'm still bludgeoning Sam & Robyn to write stuff. huh.)

Now that I'd had my inspirational revelation for the week, I kept driving. And I found out something interesting.

Eventually, Nebraska ends!
I'd been beginning to wonder.

It's the damnedest thing, though. You pass from Nebraska to Colorado, & it's literally as though someone just...flipped a switch. The entire landscape just changes within the space of about ten miles. You go from flat fields as far as the eye can see to snap! rolling grasslands and eventually scrub. It was neat. It was also sunset. And, depending on how well my ability to take pictures while driving is, I might actually have some nice photos of it. I don't know yet. (See above re : not having developed film. Oops.)

Now, Colorado was at that time the domain of Opus, & he'd let Bastion Ridley hang out there. Opus has since moved to San Francisco, so now Bastion's got the state all to himself. My sympathies to the residents of Colorado. However, since both of them were out of town that weekend, I was headed to a hotel in Denver for the night.

Get off the highway, and holy mother of things holy - what a mess. It seems someone decided it'd be fun to leave a couple of construction sites in my way - because, you know, there's nothing better than a Sunday night wandering a city you don't know when there's detours. ugh. And it was just when I was about to hunt Bastion & Opus down for leaving Colorado in such a messy state of affairs when they knew I was coming to visit that the phone rang.

It would seem Anya got bored too. She stayed with me on the phone until I got through the gas station, to the hotel, registered, & up into my room, at which point, I was about to fall over, so we cut off the discussion of killing others and plotting how I should best exact my revenge on the boys for not leaving me a pothole-free Denver. (Pins, Bastion. We discussed the use of pins. Watch your back, boy-o.) Then I made the nightly call to the 'rents. Yes, I'm here. Yes, I'm alive. 's all good. Bed now. Think later.

Next up- the Rocky Mountain High!