Things that might be decidedly odd…

The Movies and Nicaragua Prep

Yesterday, I went and saw the new King Kong movie with my parents, my cousin Lisa and my aunt Suzie. It was definitely an intense 3 hours. Of course the story line was nothing new and they did make some changes (both for the good and bad) from the original version, but I did like it. Like Lord of the Rings (done by Peter Jackson, the same director), the pacing in this movie was slower than most which has its plusses and minuses. On one hand, the action scenes just kept going on and on which was exciting but fatiguing. Other scenes seemed to drag on for too long, but it wasn’t really that bad. Afterwards, we grabbed some dinner (sans Suzie) which was nice too.

Today I’m devoting all my effort to finish my packing for Nicaragua. I sent Sarah a slightly concerned email last night because I think all the warnings given to me by the travel clinic about scary diseases are starting to freak me out a little. Still, I’m trying to remain calm and I’m sure I’ll be fine once I get there. I was also asking her about how much money I should bring and this line was part of the response (emphasis added by me):

There is an ATM machine in Granada which usually works, so if you would prefer not to have that much cash on you, then you can use the ATM when we get there.

Methinks I should make sure to bring enough cash (:

Back Home and ‘Brokeback’

The past couple of days back at home have been nice. In general, I haven’t been up to too much. Yesterday, I went down to the Fisherman’s with my parents for drinks and dinner. We then visited my uncle up in Anaheim for a little bit. Today was fairly laid back as well.

However, this afternoon I started getting antsy and decided to go see Brokeback Mountain by myself. I would have liked to have gone with somebody, but there’s nobody around here to go with, so I just went by myself. I’ve only seen two other movies in a theater by myself before: High Fidelity and Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers.

Don’t worry, there are no spoliers within.

Apparently in the past couple weeks, it’s expanded to a slightly less limited release. It was showing at the Rancho Niguel 8 in Laguna Niguel as well as some other theaters slighly farther away. Even Rancho Niguel is not that far away though. It’s probably the third closest movie theater to here. This is a solidly Republican area and I wouldn’t have been surprised if it wasn’t showing here at all. Still, this theater was probably the closest one to Laguna Beach (one of southern California’s gay meccas) that was showing the movie. For my North Carolina readers, Laguna Niguel itself feels a lot like Cary. Lots of subdivisions with identical tract homes surrounded by the occasional strip mall, school or park.

Still, this peaked my curiosity and I headed over to epodunk.com for some same-sex household statistics. It turns out Laguna Niguel gets a 142 (42% more same-sex households than the US average) and Aliso Viejo (next city over, where the movie was also showing) gets 180 (80% more same-sex households than average). Still, my parents’ city (San Clemente) gets a measly 83 (20% less than average), so it’s not universal for the area. Laguna Beach is a whopping 478 (nearly 5 times the national average), which is actually about the same as San Francisco (479). These are still the suburbs and settled down people though, so it says little about the number of single gay men (for example) that inhabit these places. If I had to guess, I think the high numbers in Aliso Viejo and Laguna Niguel maybe reflect spill over from neighboring Laguna Beach where housing prices are even more astronomical. Get partnered, buy a house in the cheaper burbs over the hills, etc. For my North Carolina readers here are the names and scores of various Triangle cities: Durham (152), Raleigh (106), Chapel Hill (97), Carrboro (117). Seattle garners a respectable 341. I’m a bit surprised that there are so many same sex households in this area. It makes me wonder if this place is a hot bed for Log Cabin Republicans (a gay Republican group for those not in the know). I’ve done searches on dating sites before too and there are WAY more available gay men here than in the Triangle, which I admit still surprises me somewhat. I mean when I was in high school, there was nobody who was out (at least that I knew of) and people were socially quite conservative.

Anyhow, I caught the 3:30 bargain matinee ($7 is such a bargain, NOT), arriving just moments before it was supposed to start. The crowd was interesting. At first glance, it seemed overwhelmingly filled with female senior citizens. There was a youngish straight couple sitting next to me, but overall the crowd seemed older and sophisticated in the “oh, I’ve heard this movie has been nominated for a bunch of awards and is groundbreaking so I must see it darling” sort of sense. That said, I liked the movie. Some people have complained that the actors lack passion, but I think that’s just supposed to be how people in Wyoming are. The love story is fairly organic in that it doesn’t seem forced to be a “gay movie”. Still, the man in love with a man theme is obviously central to the film. The scenery is spectacular, although apparently the movie was never shot in Wyoming at all but rather Alberta and New Mexico.

Meme Update

Well, now that I’m back from my drive, I can update that map of states I’ve visited. Here’s the ones where I was physically present even if only just for a moment in the airport:

Here’s the states where I’ve been physically present outside an airport:

And the real map, for states where I’ve spent the night:

Miles Driven

Before I left, I posted my intended itinerary. Of course I got behind starting on the first day, but managed to catch up. Instead of 675 miles each day, here’s what I actually ended up driving:

Day 1: Carrboro, NC to Auburn, AL (492 miles, 8 hours)
Day 2: Auburn, AL to Sealy, TX via Pensacola, FL (789 miles, 16 hours but stopped in Baton Rouge for 2 hours)
Day 3: Sealy, TX to Lordsburg, NM (860 miles, 15 hours)
Day 4: Lordsburg, NM to San Clemente, CA via Escondido, CA (623 miles, 11 hours)

2764 travel miles over 48 road hours (that discounts the 2 hours I spent in Baton Rouge)

Actually, I went a little further than that due to things like getting lost on various frontage roads in Texas and getting to and from the interstate from my hotel. The odometer on my car says I traveled a little over 2800 miles since I left.

Pictures from Road Trip

Here are my pictures from my recent cross country trip. Unfortunately, almost all of them are from the end of the trip. Still, lots of pictures of the desert for you east coast types.

The Drive: Day 4

This morning, I got up earlier than I had the past two days. Without a complementary breakfast, I was on the road by 8:45am mountain time.

About an hour or so in while stopping for gas, I grabbed some orange juice to go with an apple I had brought with me from NC for breakfast. Much of the day was spent crossing Arizona. The speed limits are pretty high (75 mph), which helps the time pass. At the same time though, there is really NOTHING out there, which makes the time pass slowly. Still, I saw some neat stuff here and there. After getting onto I-8 near Casa Grande, AZ there were a lot of Saguaro cactus visible from the road. Once getting into California a few miles, Imperial Dunes was also visible from the road. For lunch, I stopped in Gila Bend, AZ at a Subway where the prices were higher than what I’ve always paid in NC. Even though I had abotu a half tank left, I stopped in Yuma to get gas because as soon as you get into California the prices go up at least 20 cents per gallon because of the difference in taxes.

I was making great time and called my parents to say I would probably be arriving sometime between 6pm and 7pm. Unfortunately, that meant I would be going through San Diego during rush hour ): My dad suggested taking I-15 to CA-78 to I-5 instead of going to I-5 directly. There was a major traffic jam in Escondido though because of an accident though. Still, it may have been faster than fighting I-5 north which according to radio traffic was jam packed all the way from the 5/805 junction through Oceanside. Despite the traffic, I made it back at around 6:30. It felt great to finally get here, but even better to just be done driving for a while!

Catch Up on Updates

Well, I’m now sitting at my parents’ place in California. The whole drive went very smoothly.

I just posted two entries from the past couple days that I was unable to put up because I didn’t have internet access. They should be showing up listed with the times I wrote them, but will have just appeared a moment ago.

The Drive: Day 3

Right now, I’m kicking back in my room in Lordsburg, NM (about 20 miles east of the NM/AZ border). That puts me right about where I had originally planned to be before I fell behind schedule with my late departure on the first day. Today was another marathon drive. I started at 10am central time and got in here at around 11:45pm mountain time (a bit less than 15 hours). The total distance traveled was 720 (from Sealy to the NM border) + about 140 miles (from the border to Lordsburg) = about 860 miles. Whew, that’s a lot of driving.

I got to San Antonio around noon and talked to Jeff T on my phone for a bit. He’s was in transit to Arkansas, so it worked out nice that we got to keep each other company for a short bit while being hundreds of miles away. I vented to him about the whole paycheck thing.

There’s other news on that front too. This afternoon I got a short email from the director of graduate studies, apologizing for having me dropped and causing this mess. It’s an interesting development for a couple of reasons. First, his way of going about this has been TOTALLY different than my advisors. Regardless if my concerns are justified or not, his saying sorry soothed my anger quite a bit. It w as the diplomatic way to handle this situation. It’s amazing what one small apology can make. Contrast that to what my advisor did (write an angry invective about how I am in her eyes a ungrateful failure) and my reaction and in what direction that shifts the dialog (a nasty, bitter and unproductive one IMHO). Also, my advisor gave the go ahead to have my check released. I then sent the relevant person my parents’ address so that she can send my last check there when it becomes available some time after the break is over. The way things are going, I’m still planning to let things lie as they are. As much as I want to refute her points in the last angry email, it’s just not worth my time or mental well being to play that game.

After passing San Antonio, there was really nothing for over 500 miles. There were a couple of small towns and a gas station every so often, but that was it. Then out of nowhere, El Paso seemed to just magically appear. The city seemed much larger than I had imagined it to be too. The change struck me as pretty dramatic.

The plant life of Texas as you travel across it is interesting. Swampy forests turn into more normal forests which become more sparse. Then the trees start getting shorter until they’re basically scrub brush. Then the scrub brush gets smaller. No dramatic change ever struck me, because it just seemed to change so gradually.

Near El Paso, I had a longish dinner at a sit down restaurant in a truck stop. I had some tacos with guacamole (mmm). At this point, it was about 9pm and I headed for the NM border (about 30 miles from where I ate). I then called my parents to check in with them. I had intended to get to Deming (about 80 miles from the border), but once I was there, I figured I could go some more. Although I was hoping to make it to the AZ border, once I got to Lordsburg (20 miles away) I was getting pretty tired and decided to stop here. I’m sure I could have made it to the border, but who knows where the first hotels will be after crossing into AZ.

The hotel I’m staying at is a little odd. As I pulled up, there was this guy standing holding the door of the place open. It turned out he had just mopped the floor and was trying to get it to dry. He was pretty friendly fellow and told me before I even went inside that he only had smoking rooms left. Me being so tired, I said that was fine. Really, the smell doesn’t bother me that much. Actual smoke bothers me, but just the remnants doesn’t affect me too much once I get used to the smell after a couple minutes. Still, because I didn’t want the rest of my clothes to stink like that, I just got out a change of clothes and put my bag back in the car. This place is actually pretty full. The guy said he only had 3 smoking rooms and no non-smoking rooms left when I arrived. I wouldn’t figure a place in the middle of nowhere on a Wednesday would be so crowded, but maybe there’s extra Christmas traffic? Most of the cars in the parking lot are from Texas if that says anything.

Unfortunately, this hotel is also one of the few Best Westerns that doesn’t serve a complementary breakfast. That’s sort of annoying, but I’ll probably get out of here lateish anyways. Plus, I have a bunch of apples and nuts in my car that I haven’t touched at all yet, despite having brought them along to eat on the way. Tomorrow should be the final day of the cross country trek though. I’m not sure exactly how far I am from home because I don’t have access to a computer, but from what I figured out before and my odometer readings, it seems like about 600 miles to go.

The Drive: Day 2

Well, it’s late on Tuesday night (aka Wednesday morning), but I wanted to jot down my thoughts real quick.

Today was a fairly long one. I started in Auburn around 9:30am and headed towards Montgomery. Because I want to visit every state at least once at some point in my life, I took a brief detour down to the Florida panhandle to have lunch near Pensacola. Upon crossing into Florida, there was a palm tree. How fitting even if it was pretty cold outside. I then got back onto I-10 and crossed back into Alabama. Heading into Mississippi, you could see some storm damage mostly in the form of debris littered around the road, an unusually large number of fallen over trees and still unrepaired highway signs.

I stopped at a rest stop in MS to stretch my legs and then another one in LA to use the bathroom and call Stephen. This weird guy was saying something about my head/hand/handle and hurting or something, but I had no idea what he was talking about, told him that and got the hell out of there. I think he might have referred to how I flushed the toilet with my foot (”does it hurt to use your foot?” maybe?). It was just a little too bizarre for me.

Anyhow, I got back to the car and proceeded to check my email. There was another nasty email from my advisor. After talking to my parents this evening, I’ve decided I just need to let go of this whole ordeal and stop egging her on by responding. She always has to get the last word in on anything and despite my continued efforts, she still just doesn’t get what I’ve been saying in the last several emails. It’s like trying to communicate with a brick wall. Essentially, it’s time to go forward with my life and close this chapter. Continuing to dwell on this just causes me extra unnecessary stress and frustration.

I also answered an email Kendra sent me by typing it out on my phone (short yet time consuming still). I gave her my new number and she proceeded to send me some photo of a doctor pepper can and some other stuff from her desk at work (I think). While doing that, Stephen called. However, his parents were trying to figure out the best route for me to take and he said he’d call me back later. I got back on the road though and he called a bit later. Upon getting into Baton Rouge around 5:30pm, there was some stop and go traffic. Fortunately, I only had to go two freeway exits down. Unfortunately, there was bad stop and go on the city streets as well. Baton Rouge appears to be one of those cities that has just grown faster than its roads, which makes things sort of a mess. I had dinner with Stephen’s family. The home cooked food was great. The social interaction with his family was cool too (it’s lonely out there on the open road).

I got back on the road at 8pm and headed west. By that time, the traffic in Baton Rouge had let up, which was definitely nice. At first I figured I’d shoot for the Texas state line. I did stop there to get some gas, but there just weren’t any hotels coming up. Then, I saw some and even got off the road. However, I ended up on some crazy ass Texan frontage road from hell. I couldn’t get back on the road because the signs would creep up too fast for me to make the sudden left I needed to make. Eventually, I ended up at the end of a dark one way street, which dumped me onto a random country road. Because it was one way, there was no way I could go directly back! Fortunately, I saw a cop parked in front of what looked to be an abandoned building. He gave me directions back to the interstate.

After some more driving I made it to Beaumont, figuring I could find a place there. However, all of the hotels I drove by looked VERY sketchy (broken signs, cars with big dents, etc.). I called my parents to tell them I was looking for a hotel but hadn’t found one that looked decent yet. By this time, it was already something like 11:30pm (central time) and I didn’t want to have to call them any later. They weren’t home though, so I just left a message. Eventually, I got back on the freeway figuring I’d look for something between Beaumont and Houston.

After driving for a while, my dad returned my call. There wasn’t much in between the two cities, so I just kept driving. I talked to my dad for a while and then my mom. Eventually, I decided I might as well just get through Houston. The traffic there is usually bad during the daytime, whereas late at night there was hardly anybody on the road. Among the many other things, we discussed her outing of me to my aunt and uncle. It was good to have that conversation as I’ve spent some time figuring out what I want to do about that whole thing.

Well, it’s 2:13am and I need to go to bed. I’m at some Best Western in Sealy, TX. San Antonio is only like 150 miles further and the mile markers seem to indicate that there’s *only* 720 miles of Texas left. I can make it that far in a day and probably then some. If things go well tomorrow (fingers crossed), I can make it to New Mexico. Then, from there it’s just one more long day’s drive to San Clemente.

A Couple More Things

My grades finally appeared on Student Central this evening. Despite all the drama with my assistantship, I somehow still got an H (wtf?) in the 6 hours of research and reading I was enrolled in as well as an H in my math class. That pretty much makes my graduation official now! Yeah!

I put my blog back into Pacific time, so don’t think time is going backwards or anything (:

I wrote said angry letter to the 2 faculty and 1 staff member involved, making sure to cc it to the department chair and the associate chair for administration and finance. The chair emailed me back and said they’ll investigate what’s going on. Hopefully, some good will come of it.