journal entries, lessons learned, and a snapshot of life on the road

Lately, particularly while traveling, I’ve been forcing myself to keep a pen-to-paper journal. Here’s a peek.

Friday 9/18: Phoenix, Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago

5:00am Hug my mother goodbye outside the Phoenix airport. Apologize for yelling at her about getting lost and almost making me miss my flight. Walk inside, check in, and take off on my unplanned adventure.

10:13am Meet up with Matt in the Denver airport. Think about how insanely cool he is for driving out to spend my 4 hour layover with me. Drink iced tea as he drinks beer. Discuss love and what it means to be in an adult relationship. Fly to Minneapolis. Change planes. Fly to Chicago. Pat myself on the back for hitting 4 states in 12 hours.

7:00pm Crash at Derek’s place. Eat, drink, and talk about the process of growing up. “It’s the hormones,” he says. “You’re just an entirely different person at 29 than at 24. It’s less about what you’re going to do and more about who you’re going to be. Things calm down.” I tell him that I’m relieved to hear that, because right now? It seems as though things might never calm down; in my life, in my head.

***
Sunday 9/27: New York City

4:00pm Wake up from a nap and realize I only have 2.5 hours left until the train taking me from Chicago to NYC pulls into Penn Station. Stare out the window. Drink hot chocolate. Listen to a lot of Sara Bareilles on repeat.

6:25pm Hug Becca in the middle of the train station, after a few rounds of, “Wait, where are you?” “Huh? I’m in front of the pretzel place, where are you?” Take the subway back to Park Slope. Watch her give a coughing woman a throat lozenge. Think about small, everyday kindness and how it’s much more rare than it should be. Feel appreciative to have her in my life.

***
Tuesday 10/13: New York City

7:35pm Rush to meet my godmother for dinner in Tribeca. Order mac & cheese. Catch up on our lives, her divorce, my what-the-fuck-am-I-doing-ness. Drink what feels like all of the wine in the restaurant.

***
Saturday 11/7: Washington, DC

7:01am Wake up to the sound of nine other women moving around our bedroom in the hostel on 11th street. Look at the time. Curse out loud once I realize that I only fell asleep two hours earlier. Think about insomnia. Wonder what it’s like to be a normal person who sleeps. Contemplate stabbing the girl in the bottom bunk who has the audacity to blow dry her hair at this ridiculous hour. Try to fall back asleep. Fail miserably. Go back to the original stabbing plan.

9:31am Walk downstairs to the common room for free breakfast. Pile my tray with blueberry muffins, orange juice, and a small bowl of cereal. Eat quietly, surrounded by groups of people who are chatting, but not in English. Wonder if any of them are talking about how many muffins I took. Have a bite of the first muffin and realize it’s delicious and that they can talk all the shit they want because I’m getting fat off of these muffins unless someone tackles me to the ground and pulls them away from me first.

10:45am Settle into a big leather chair in the hostel lobby. Pull out my laptop, hook into the free wifi, and email out a freelance writing assignment I finished the night before. Play online. Contemplate whether anyone has ever watched porn in this common room before. Think about giving it a shot. Remember I don’t have headphones with me. Read blogs instead.

12:00pm Receive a text message from an ex that was meant for his new girlfriend. Have an unavoidably dramatic phone conversation about it. Hang up. Take two minutes worth of deep breaths. Laugh. Move on.

Posted in: day to day shenanigans, girl gone nomad