Stumbling out of a bleak Monday, I'm part way through a mediocre Tuesday. It hasn't been so much a factor of direct stress or assault that has made this week already lame, but rather, a bunch of subtle, distant and impending stresses and concerns. Last night I took a look around my room (which is clean for once in a blue moon) and realized that I am going to miss it. I have two months left at the Adams house and then I'm going to be living someplace completely new (if not in LA, elsewhere) and will be shifting my focus away from school to the all-important task of making money. On the phone last night with mom, I realized that materialism is going to become a distant concept, not a practice, in the next few years as I pull myself into being on my own. A commercial for All-State insurance confirmed that as I was dozing off: "during the last depression, people returned to what really mattered--the little things."

Spectator magazine, the post-graduate Critical Studies publication that I do design and layout for has hit the ground running. I'd worked through the first two articles and was working on the third when the video card in the Mac died (or so I've discerned). So Macless and workless in that realm, I'm forcing myself to play catchup on the readings I haven't done for this week and hoping that the Mac comes back to me (or they replace it) without too much trouble. Good thing the Mac is the office's and not my personal computer.

I am getting extremely excited for the road trip Brian and I are taking over Spring Break (see map posted below). Ten days until he arrives in LA (and my BIRTHDAY) and ten and a half until we are on the road. We plan on taking our time going up the coast of California, Oregon and Washington--camping along the way, photographing the coast, shooting Super 8mm, not driving into the Pacific--before hitting Vancouver. Four days in Vancouver (I am elated) and then driving back down (not via the coast, but rather, I-5), taking a night to stop over in Seattle, a night in Portland, and a night in San Francisco before hitting SoCal again. Our original plans amended (what used to entail Banff, Calgary, Yellowstone, Salt Lake City, the Grand Canyon--a giant kidney bean on the West Coast, if you will) I am happy with what we've planned. It is cost-efficient while simultaneously being adventurous enough to be doable.

Be sure to keep in touch during those days, as I will be posting from the road (one of my goals is to keep an extensive journal that will become a chapter in the book I'm writing about my time in LA--just wait until I tell you about that). In addition, we plan on taking bunches of footage, making a couple vlogs which I can post here from strategic points on the journey, and hopefully, once processed, some clips from the Super 8.

For now, I'm checking out to go check in at the office. Tuesday's looking better, Wednesday will be good, Thursday, grand, and Friday, well, you'll just have to see. Loves and hugs (bitches and thugs)!

R