Thankfully, LA’s prices aren’t as bad. Aaron and I drove out to Burbank today and the price was about $4.09/gallon which is pretty nominal for a big city. True it ain’t the $3.43 of Oklahoma, but at least I didn’t pay $30 for 7 gallons of gas.

The day was pretty productive. We got some lunch, went to Lowe’s to make duplicate keys, I emptied out my car and set up my computer. After taking a nap for an hour, I went out to buy groceries and was pleasantly surprised that at a grocery store called Trader Joe’s, they sell almost solely organic foods (which is what I’ve switched to for the past 3 months). PLUS, whereas in Oklahoma I’d spend $85-90/week on groceries, today I spent $50. That’s right, California is cheaper, at least for me. Afterwards I went and washed my car, came back, made a turkey wrap, and now I’m typing this up.

Don’t worry- I’m not going to be writing detailed reports like this every day. I just wanted to give a full account of the trip in sordid and (slightly boring) detail. Tomorrow I need to go 100% into looking for web design work.

Everybody keep your fingers crossed and pray. Otherwise this will be one really short stay and I’ll be back in Oklahoma before you know it.

Now to get some rest… adieu.

Except on weekends.

There was only one room available (the ‘Snow Bowl Suite’, whatever that means), and it is $149 for the night. I was sorta hoping $50-70. Damn. Apparently I’m at the south entrance of the Grand Canyon, so it’s a huge tourist mecca, and the Arizona Cardinals play here on the weekends. Just…. peachy. So what does that mean for me? Jacked up weekend rates at all the nearby motels. Awesome. Mad props, Aaron. Mad props.

But that’s been the only negative so far. The drive is, suffice it to say, pretty arduous. I started at approximately 7 pm from Oklahoma and ran into a surprising amount of traffic, and since my goal for the entire trip was not to get a ticket (successful so far), I had to follow that stupid 65 mph nighttime speed limit throughout Texas. That definitely slowed me down a good deal, even though I cheated at going 74 mph.

Once I hit New Mexico, salvation! The speed limit is 75! Which means what? That’s right, say it with me– 85! Okay fine I didn’t book it at 85 throughout NM but I was around 80-83 the entire way. And then 5 am hit. And boy howdy did I get drowsy. I kept Twittering messages to keep myself occupied throughout the night, but at this point I was so exhausted I just couldn’t continue. So just outside of Albuquerque, there was a pretty big gas station/rv camper rest area that was well lit. I pulled over and took a nap for a few hours, and left for Flagstaff, Arizona. I got here a little while ago I checked in and plugged my iMac in. (Seriously folks, it took two minutes since they have wireless here.)

Now I’m gonna go out, get some food, come back and sleep until whenever. I’ll probably hit the road again and maybe midnight or a little after so that I can get to Los Angeles on Sunday morning when the traffic should be a little lighter.

Talk…… later.

If I could put it into a more familiar situation I guess it’d be like the day before your first day of junior high school. You knew that the kids were meaner, the classes were harder, and gasp!– they wouldn’t have RECESS anymore. But, try as you may, you just couldn’t go back to the comforts of homeroom and the teachers that had guided you along the way. Even the bullies of elementary school now seemed like amateurs compared to the horrors that lay ahead. It was rushing at you, full speed, and the only hope of salvation was that you somehow didn’t drown as the waves of newness crashed hard on your helpless, frigid body.

Did I go a little far with the metaphor? Probably. But you get the general gist of it.

But I’m ready. At least, I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. In exactly 24 hours, I should be about 3-4 hours into my trip. My plan is to leave home at around 7pm (just as the sun is setting), and drive the approximately 13 hours to Flagstaff, Arizona. There I’ll crash at some cheap motel, and after resting for a good while, get driving again the rest of the 6.5 hours to Los Angeles. I’ll have to time it out so that I can reach LA at around 9 or 10 in the morning on Sunday, which means I may have to leave around 3 am Sunday morning- a dicey proposition. But we’ll see when I get around to it. Oh yeah– I’m THAT spontaneous.

Why drive at night? A couple of reasons, the main being that for whatever reason, I get very sleepy driving during the daytime, whereas driving at night I end up more alert. Make sense? Yeah, it doesn’t to me either. Second, the entire southwest is going through a heatwave, and the less I can leave my air conditioning on, the better for fuel economy. Of course considering I’ll be dragging all my immediate belongings with me the weight of my Civic will be heavier than usual, but hey– if I can save gas at least in one way, may as well do it.

I guess right now is just a time where I’m trying to put aside all emotional baggage so that I can focus solely on the details. Driving time, gas, lodging, how many cans of Monster I’ll need to buy to stay alert, etc. I suppose it’s avoidance, but if it gets me through this, I’ll work with it.

As a separate note, I’ll probably be updating either my Brightkite and/or my Twitter throughout the trip so that you can see where I am. If you’re interested, have a blast.

Finally, I also finished up my updates to my olllllld portfolio site, The Designs Bakery. Take a look if you get a chance, and let me know your thoughts.

As I moved all my furniture, junk, and let’s face it– life — from my apartment back down to Norman, where my parents are, I could feel the past slipping away. Did I really live in this apartment for the past seven months? Did I really work at a company in OKC for a year? What shirt was I wearing yesterday? Do I like Superman or Batman better? It’s really interesting how memories can be so important and stir deep emotions in one moment and then be fleeting and ethereal in the next.

I miss a lot of people at work. Really. I hadn’t realized how much they’d become a part of my life until after my last day of work (yesterday), I came home and was reading some funny articles online and I caught myself thinking, “Ha! I’ve gotta tell the guys at work about this site—oh. Right.” I talked to Natalie from work today and she was really down. Talking to her actually made me miss the people even more– and then Chris got on the site and wrote that he missed me and I got all choked up. Saccharine and sappy? Yes. But did it happen? Yeah that too.

But I suppose that’s all part of maturing and growing up. Leaving the familiar behind in order to embrace the new for the hope that life will be better in one way or another. It’s frightening, panic-attack inducing, and yet….

I have to do it.