street dreamin

Standing in the Kroger magazine aisle, last year sometime, I has this priceless encounter...

Scrappy-looking 15-year-old boy, with an armful of bootleg CDs: Are you buying a house?
Me, with an armful of glossy house magazines: No.
Scrappy: Oh, are you getting those for a class then?
Me: No...
Scrappy: Oh shoot! Girl, you're street dreamin!

And then he walked off, without even trying to sell me a CD because, clearly, I fell into the category of "street dreamer." And while I'm not 100% on the definition, my guess is it's the urban equivalent of what my mom means when she says, "champagne taste on a beer budget."

Nail on the head, Scrappy. I was caught street dreamin in the middle of Kroger, and promptly called out.

BUT! A year later, I'm actually looking for a house — a real house! Granted, I won't be the one to slap the big fat down payment on the table, but I'll be paying half a mortgage. That counts, right?

Ryan and I spent most of Sunday cruising around with our real estate dude. Saw a few nice places, but haven't found it yet. We both have this feeling that when we see "our house," we'll instantly know it's the one. These were two of our favorites... can't tell much from just one picture, but trust me, they were cute.

makes me ill

There is some alien force at work in my body: a combination sore throat, some imbalance of estrogen and progesterone, and maybe a fever (although my cheap plastic thermometer says no... I'm regretting not buying the more expensive one). I imagine that whatever is wrong with me, there is some mutant germ swimming down my bloodstream, and he is angry, and looks like this:

He may also be angry because, instead of sleeping all day like I should have, I sat trying to hash out my resume for way (way) longer than I care to admit.

I'm done with this day. Time for some dinner, then to watch The Wizard of Oz or some other happy-no-brainer in bed until I fall asleep.

the way west

June 2005: a muggy mid-family-vacation Jekyll Island night, my brothers and I had a flash of brilliance — WE SHOULD TAKE A ROAD TRIP TO CALIFORNIA!

Four years later, we've actually found a way to make it happen. We leave Atlanta on July 5, and we'll return (barring any technical snafus, fingers crossed) August 3.

This will be a serious dollar-stretching journey, as we're trying to stick to a budget of under $2,000 (each). Sounds like a lot, but not when you add up food, gas & lodging for 30 days of travel.

I would LOVE to hear any recommendations you have for things we should see along the way!

Here's our route:

New Orleans
Austin
Roswell, NM
Flagstaff, AZ
Grand Canyon
Zion National Park, UT
Bryce Canyon, UT
Las Vegas
Los Angles
Morro Strand, CA
San Francisco
Yosemite National Park
Death Valley National Park
Mesa Verde, CO
Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO
[Somewhere random in the panhandle of Oklahoma]
Lake Dardanelle, AR
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