Calmly Running Around and Franticly Sitting Still

Between March of 2001 and July 2004, I spent a lot of time and energy trying to decide where I wanted to be, and what I wanted to do. It all started when I quit my job in San Francisco; sold my house in Berkeley, California; took ten days to drive 2600 miles with two women, one man, and one dog in a little car with a U-Haul trailer; noticed the man's smile in the Grand Canyon; stopped along the way with the man, the two ladies, and the dog at the Arizona Meteor Crater (very cool!), Roswell, New Mexico (very weird), and the Alamo (remember it?); knew I was in love by New Orleans (alas, dropping the man off at the airport); visited the Civil Rights Memorial with the ladies and the dog in Montgomery, Alabama; got very drunk in Atlanta at the haunted Days Inn with the ladies and the dog; dropped off the two women at the Atlanta airport (alas, hung-over); arrived with the dog at my sister's house in Knoxville, Tennessee; drove out for a week-long date with the man in Nashville, Tennessee; hit the road again for a peaceful, long weekend by myself in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; from there, drove north to celebrate a hot, rainy Fourth of July with family in Washington, D.C.; returned to Knoxville, only to get on an airplane and visit the man in Oakland, California; returned to Knoxville, then got back in the car and had a few spectacular days with the man in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; let a couple months pass in Knoxville, then turned around and drove with the dog and the man the whole 2600 miles back to California -- this time taking the northern route through Metropolis, Illinois (Superman!) and Kansas City, Missouri (city in a park!); saw the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota (corny! - really), visited Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills in South Dakota (both awe-inspiring), and drove across miles of salt flats by the Great Salt Lake in Utah (surprisingly beautiful); bought a house in Oakland, California; got a job in San Francisco (yes, in that order); celebrated a crazy, excruciatingly hot Fourth of July with the family and the man in Washington, D.C. and Williamsburg, Virginia; back in Oakland, hosted the Thanksgiving of all Thanksgivings with the man, the dog, and legions of family in the new house; couldn't cure the dog's cancer, and on the rainiest, saddest winter day ever, had to put him to sleep; went back to Knoxville to celebrate Christmas with the man and the family; got a crazy puppy; sold the house in Oakland; spent two long weekends looking at more than 40 houses in Kansas City, Missouri; bought a house in Kansas City; returned to California; took 10 luxurious days with the man to drive 650 miles up the California coast and over to Mt. St. Helens, Oregon; took two more days to drive the same distance back, stopping at Oregon's Crater Lake on the way; took the crazy puppy and the man and drove 1800 miles in about two-and-a-half days to make the move to Kansas City; quit my job in San Francisco (yes, in that order); got married in Oakland (this time we took an airplane); and then, in the fall of 2004, I took a deep breath and tried sitting still and concentrating for three years straight (that was when I entered law school).

I'm in that third year of sitting still and concentrating and, I swear, it has felt more like franticly running in circles than anything else I've ever done.

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map: My years of driving around.