Well I originally planned to start this blog the day I left for California, which was August 21, 2010. It is now September 3 and I have been in California for 9 days. In my defense, I was busy driving across the country and apparently they frown upon texting while driving, so I figured blogging while driving probably wasn't cool either. So we are going to take a minute to rewind time and start at the beginning of this story. Hey, it's my story and I can manipulate time if I want to. So go back to Saturday, August 21, 2010. It's about 10 AM (projected start time 9) and I have managed to effectively box up my twenty-five years of existence and fit it in the trunk of my cherry-licious, 1999 Honda CRV. Before I started packing I kept saying, "Oh, I don't have a lot of stuff. Packing will be a breeze." Well, it turns out I'm a hoarder. Sitting in my bedroom amidst receipts from past vacations and ticket stubs from every movie I've seen since I could get into rated 'R' films, I thought I might need an intervention. But it turns out throwing stuff away was very cleansing and therapeutic. Plus, I knew that if I showed up to my friend Kelly's LA apartment with a car full of sentimental crap I would be homeless. With my new, streamlined life packed and ready to go, I fight back tears as I say goodbye to my brother and sister and we take pictures like we are headed off to the first day of school. This will be the hardest part of living on the left coast, being so far from the two people who I love more than anyone else in this world...besides Justin Timberlake of course. Kidding! Kind of. Straight out of a country music video I drive away watching my brother not waving and my sister fake chasing after me.
First pit stop: Jumping Jack's Coffee approximately 1.5 miles from my house. I couldn't leave without one more of their ultimate Chai Tea Lattes. I pity the fool who has never had one.
Second pit stop: My grandparents' house in Kannapolis, NC approximately 40 miles from my house. At this rate it will take two weeks to get to LA. We had to take this detour because we were returning my grandparents' truck that we had borrowed. Interesting note: The G-rents came to my "farewell" dinner the night before and Maw-maw was supposed to drive the truck home. Well, Maw-maw was sippin' on the spirits and we had to convince her that no, indeed she could NOT drive.
Final pit stop: Nashville, TN. Went to dinner at Deno's, a popular steak and pasta restaurant near Broadway, and just happened to be sitting beside Carrie Underwood and her hockey-playin' husband!! Ok, that didn't happen, but I did feed a homeless man my leftover roasted chicken. If you've never done this, try it. I could not let my waitress take away a full chicken breast and throw it away when I passed at least ten homeless people on my way there. Thanks to Ginny for inspiring me to reach out to the people I would have normally passed by with, at most, a sad smile or sympathetic frown.
Day 1 down. Tomorrow GRACELAND.
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