on saturday i will be in dent, minnesota. on wednesday i will be in seoul, korea. on thursday i will be in bangkok, thailand. weird.

my dream from last night: i am in a pub waiting for a friend. i go into the bathroom where i discover a very angry canary (might have been a gold finch). the canary says a very aggressive "CHIRP!" then jumps onto my shoulder and grabs very tightly with its little feet. i walk out to the desk and ask if they know anything about this bird. the bird sees an animal-skin rug and jumps down to angrily peck. its tearing the hell out of the rug. no, they've never seen the bird before. it grabs onto my shoulder and i take it to nate's house where nate has eaten too much pumpkin. he's throwing up what looks like an entire pumpkin. then some guy walks in with two goat legs which run around by themselves. this guy is a magic guy but his magic goat legs have been acting up and he wants to catch them and get rid of them. they go hide in the apt. after a while i catch a glimpse of them running into the corner where they turn into a budda statue. we decide to toss the budda statue over the porch railing to get rid of it. when it hits the ground it turns back into goat legs and runs around angrily. i still have an angry canary on my shoulder. the legs kick a hole in the door to come back in. i say, "the legs are back and they're pissed!". the legs come up the stairs and into the room where they just stand in front of us. then i wake up.

if you know what this means you should e-mail me.

I have voice mail durring my trip.... its free for me, so go ahead and leave a message if you want....

To leave me a message while I'm away:

-Dial this access number: 1-800-706-1333
-Press *
-then 2
-Enter my account number: 7211216353906
-then press #
And leave me a message.



also i will be checking my e-mail sarahgrams@yahoo.com

no more cell phone for me until i get back.

i stayed in chicago for 2 days. once rachel left i felt like i had to get out of there, so i drove to madison. there were a bunch of people i wanted to visit in chicago (so if you're reading this don't feel bad) but i started feeling like i couldn't stop. like i had to keep up the momentum until i reached minnesota.

in madison i had a mini reunion. again i felt like i had to leave after 2 days, so it was off to minnesota. i got here on aug 1st and immediately started building the fence. its been fence fence fence ever since. (see pictures below!)

i have had a lot of time to see old friends, go to the state fair, art fair, see my parents, etc. now i am really ready to leave. i leave in a week and its not soon enough. i have been thinking about this for over a year. planning since march and i really can't wait to go. i'm not even feeling too excited because i have had so much time to be excited, that now i'm just ready. sometimes i feel a little nervous. its hard to sleep. i have weird dreams. i started sleeping outside in the backyard at my dad's house in the porch. for some reason that helps. weird.

oh. speaking of reunions, i am missing my 10 year high school reunion. i really wanted to go. no lawn bowling for me. oh well.

i'm tired. no cohesion. its 1am.

you should look at the pictures because it took a long time to scan them. here it is again in case you don't read further because i rambled and you got bored.

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?selected=453550

i am in minnesota. heather told me she has been checking my blog everyday so i better get busy. we left off at my drive to austin. i dont' really feel like talking about it except to say that it was very relaxing and very hot. i thought i would get really bored with my own thoughts but i didn't. maybe i stopped thinking. that could be the secret.

austin was fabulous. (did i mention that i was driving to austin to pick up kim and move her to chicago? yep.) anyway, i recommend a visit to austin. the highlights of my 3 days were: swimming and kayaking the springs, staying overnight on a farm outside of town with kim's friends, biking around town for kim's going away bar-hopping extravaganza, good food, seeing "legally blonde 2" (for the second time).

we sent a bunch of kim's stuff and loaded up the truck with room to spare. dog and cat sat in the front with us. they hate each other, but the dog was in denial (refusing to look at the cat) and the cat was sedated so it worked. we drove 10 hours to the east side of Arkansas and pulled into a state park. here starts the drama. its dark. we start to set up camp. the mosquitos were vampirous (is that a word?). insane mosquitos meant lots of my super-duper insect repellant. lots of insect repellant meant our skin began to burn. enter man from bushes with lantern in a cloud of bugs. "well now i'm completely lost! i was out on my boat and it started to get dark and i pulled up to boat launch and now i have to find my tuck to get the boat out. which way to the cabins?". we point down the road to the left. he says "they can't be that way!" and turns around, (covered in mosquitos) walks back into the bushes and dissappears. huh. oh yeah, burning skin. so, we decide we have to get out of there as soon as possible. just get to a hotel. maybe a super 8. in a flash we pack up our tents and dishes, get the dog and cat in the truck and start driving to west memphis (my new nemesis). memphis the nemesis. then the cat starts to pee in kims lap (we discarded the carrier hours before when the sedated cat seemed fine in our lap). she says "the cat's peeing!". clearly the thing to do at this point is pull over. but, never having been in this situation before, i was confused and frozen. then "the cat's still peeing!". so i pull over. i undo kim's seatbelt because she has her hands cupped under the cat's but to catch the pee. i run around and open her door. the cat is less sedated aparently and begins doing these lunging, jumping flipping things because its on a harness and it would really like to run away and climb a tree right now. kim is totally soaked. we put the cat in the carrier, kim takes off her clothes, i pour water all over her (all in soemone's front yard) and she puts on clean clothes. then we have to get back in the pee-pee truck with pee-pee kitty and the dog and the mosquitos and the burning skin. 20 minutes later we are at a super 8. we must not have smelled that bad because she gave us a room. stealthy manouvers and the dog and cat are in the room. kim washes the cat and takes a shower while i go to the truck stop for a beer and odor remover. got trucker odor stuff. no beer because its sunday. harumph. confederate stickers. i go back and we both take turns working on the pee-pee truck. then bed. the cat meows for 1/2 hour every time i move. i try not to roll over. but, when you can't roll over, all you want to do is roll over. i roll over. mrow! mrow! mrow!......
ok. morning. 8-10 hours and we will be in chicago. drive drive drive. kitty is now in the litterbox which is on the lap of the passenger (see the picture in the link below!!). this works fine. we get close to chicago. kim looses her wallet. we have to backtrack. we can't find it. this really sucks for kim because she has no money with her and can't access her account or open a new one or drive. 1/2 hour later we are in chicago. we go to the place kim is moving to but it is locked. the landlord changed his mind and they can't move in for 2 more days. luckily a neighbor is home and he lets us put the stuff in the basement. nice neighbors. then i drive kim to the place she is staying. then $50 parking tick while we are unloading. what a bad 2 days. i decide that a good day traveling is when nothing goes wrong. i just hope that nothing else goes wrong. but its 11:30pm, what could happen? luckily nothing does. i finally get to go meet rachel who is feeling really sorry for me and has the jaquzzi waiting. heaven.

hey everyone, check out the following link for some pictures!

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?selected=453550

The pictures aren't in any sequencial order but this is what they are:

1. drivin drivin drivin (Kim from Austin -> Chicago)
2. Kim's dog (chicken) and cat (action talley). i call them sniff-sniff and pee-pee. They rode in the front seat with us the entire way.
3. Desert sunrise outside of El Paso at my campsite
4. Part of the fence i am building for my mom (the backside of the gate). The gate is my favorite part. We got the metal peices from an arcitecture place that salvages stuff from old buildings. these were peices of an old chandelier.
5. More fence (the front of the gate). its fun to push this gate open and closed.
6. Fence. there are 20 panels in this fence. i'm still not done, but close. 3 panels to go and 3 days to work so i think i will make it.
7. Fence.
8. Fence. you can tell the fence is consuming my brain
9. Whew, back in time to my road trip. arizona desert near senora. its hard to capture the desert in a picture.
10. Bart simpson desert storm.

chowchilla. is not a dog. its the first place i noticed the extreme heat as i left the bay area for austin. i had only driven about an hour but it was in the 100's and wasn't going to get much cooler until chicago. my attention was being drawn to a billboard advertising for me to "start a new life in chowchilla". i considered it for a moment. erily peaceful, with palm trees and an eternal sunset, the sign was beconing to me. i thought of a similar sign i had seen in one of the back to the future movies. the inviting sign is shown in a corn field just before the movie jumps 30 years later to a strip mall in the same place. i doubt chowchilla will ever become strip malls. in fact i'm not convinced that chowchilla really exists. someone had planted two palm trees directly behind the sign to compliment the two palms in the picture, but besides that there was apparently only one house in the entire area. who would start a new life in chowchilla? i picture someone just getting out of prison. i turned on the radio. christian rock. next station. christian call in ministry show. the caller is asking if she will see her dog in heaven. answer: its not entirely clear, but she is assured that once she's dead she won't care. that's a good answer, i think. next station. christian folk music. quick, next station. another call in ministry. caller's question: "do we all have guardian angels?" good question. i never knew the radio could be this handy. answer: "the biblical evidence points to 5-6 guardian angels/person. but (laughs) its important to point out that they don't look or act like the angels you see in the movies" i am puzzled that the minister knows what angels look like. i wonder what my 5-6 angels are doing right now? they must be very very bored, i think.

(Actually July 10-15th) Eugene/Portland: everything started with a drive up to eugene, oregon with an old college friend, eric. we decided to take my truck because it was easy to camp out of the back (which was part of the reason i got a truck in the first place) so i was happy to try it out. but as we got into the central valley without air conditioning, temperatures were probably close to 110 degrees. little did i know the next few weeks would bring a lot more heat than that ! do you like that foreshadowing? is it keeping you interested even though my first few sentences are boring? anyway, we found a little hippie cafe in weed, california to eat and ask about camping. we were surrounded by national forests in the foothills of mount shasta, one of the shakra points of the earth (as rachel told me). we both felt very aligned when we got a good tip from a cute girl, and left to navigate into the forest. we stepped out into the beautiful setting sunlight when someone drove by and yelled "faggot!". i was confused. there were two of us. but the guy yelled "faggot." one faggot. was he talking to me? was he talking to eric? maybe he thought we were both boys and we were together? neither of us are faggots, but i was quick to point out to eric that he did sip his soup like a "faggot". but that guy couldn't have seen eric sip his soup...or could he? ....
i forgot to mention that the whole point of the eugene trip was to visit ben. he's the guy from college with the big fro that we tried to dye purple but ran out of dye because he just has too much hair. ben is a big hippie now and he has the biggest beard i have ever seen (almost). he works at 3 co-ops and was going to be working at the Genesis juice stand at the oregon country fair when we were going to be coming. Genesis juice is very delicious. if you ever see it in a store, i highly recommend the red stuff with ginger. so we decided to go to the fair and find ben. we had no idea what we were in for (more foreshadowing). the fair was fabulous. picture a combination of burning man and the renisance festival set in the ewok villiage... that might come close. strict tie-dye and body glitter dress code. i know that could sound a little oppressive, but it was pretty magical. everyone shows up in costume, there were some of the best bands i've ever heard (especially the one with the girl who played the saw) impromptu drumming parties. venus flytraps on stilts.
we found ben then we lost him. then we found another college friend, maggie, who lives in portland, so we decided to head off there for the night. we arrived 2 hours later, totally exausted and totally ready to go out. so we did. around the corner for a "quick" PBR.
the next day found us all a little bit under the weather. after a wonderful long breakfast we decided to go to the park to lay still for a while. that's when i got my first bee sting. happily, i am not allergic to bees. in fact, i may be immune. perhaps i should dapple in bee-keeping?
my hands are getting tired of typing. two nights in portland. left thank you hikus on the typwriter. i love portland. drove down the coast. never found ben again, didn't have his number. maybe he will call and we can swing over to eugene for a night or two? drove. thought about surfing in oregon. no! must keep on keepin on! ate tacos. drove. swam in a beautiful swimming hole somewhere near the ever mysterious "lost coast" of california. thought about checking out the lost coast. no! must get eric home in time to catch his plane! drove. saw elk. checked out the elk. took a video of distant elk. drove. drove. drove. ah ha! in oakland. phone rings. its ben.