RETURN! . . . and a sort of farewell.

I'd hoped to upload some road trip pictures tonight, but find that I have left my USB cable at home in Oregon. oh well for tonight.

So Erin and I made it to California! Freezing rain on the border between Oregon and Washington cost us another day of traveling, but earned us a wonderful stay with my Uncle Mark, Aunt Holly and their kids, who welcomed us into their home, fed us (multiple times!) and let us look through old photo albums documenting their own youthful cross-country trip (they went much further than we did -- on bicycles -- but not in the winter, at least!) and my mom's probably-not-as-goofy-looking-in-1983-when-everyone-had-perms-anyway hairstyle.
We were able to spend a few days in Dallas once we finally got there, spent a wonderfully misty afternoon hiking to waterfalls and around snow piles in the Columbia River Gorge, ate my mom's banana creame pie while playing cards with my sister and her brand-new roommate who came over for dinner, and I shaved off my beard.
Then, we headed straight SOUTH, with only and overnight stop to see my relatives in Medford between us and Orange County. Uncle Gordon, Aunt Monica and their daughters were our gracious and very generous hosts, and we were also able to see my wonderful Aunt Lori. We had a great time hanging out, chatting, and watching old Peter Sellers movies. I also think I ate almost all the M&Ms they had in the house.
We were expecting a 14 hour drive the next day, but made it in twelve. Our destination: a house closer than some of the Chapman University dorms to the Chapman University campus where a few of my best friends live, and where I was happy to be staying for the spring semester. Occupants of the house (which either has or NEEDS a sweet name besides just "the house") include Alec, a CU freshman I met when he moved in last summer, my old roommate Grant, my old roommate Ed, Ed's current roommate, and my former roommate, Aaron Choate (nicknamed AC to avoid confusion), and Brett, a med student who used to play in Ed and Grant's band that I named, and now plays with them in band at church. The first people we met when we pulled into the drive way were memebers of a band I had never met before who were practicing in the garage.
They said, "are you here for the 'show'?"
I said, "no, I'm here to move in."
"Oh, hi," said the lead singer (??), "I'm Aaron."
"Hello," I said, hardly phased by this sort of thing at all any more, "My name is Aaron, and I'm here with my girlfriend Erin."
Later in the evening, me, Erin, AC and band Aaron all joined hands in a circle and chanted our name together.
Even later in the week, I found out that one of my ex-girlfriends is interested in another guy named Aaron. We are everywhere.

I'm going to be taking AC's place in the house when he leaves to study abroad in Austria in a week or something, but while he's here, me him and Ed are all sharing the room, which means I sleep on the floor. Which I don't mind.

Erin, howevere, arrived in California without a place to stay, without a job to earn rent money at, without much except what was in the trunk of her car, and me (Awwww), although she did pack an awful lot in the trunk of her car(she'll tell you differently). So the first order of business was to find her housing and employment! As it turns out, she ended up moving into the house right next door to "the house!" And then she went to Hawaii.

So I moved out here with Erin, but have been without her for a few days now. I've managed to stay out of too much trouble, although after dropping her off at the LA airport I went to go see my pal Peter at LMU and we ended up getting horribly lost coming back from a comic book store on Sunset Blvd and drove around Beverly Hills and Venice Beach for about two hours before we finally just bought a cheapo map and found our way back to his campus. I also had to buy a new engine belt and air filter for her car, which were quite worn down after 3500 miles through mostly freezing weather since we left Wisconsin, and have gone grocery shopping and sort of unpacked (although it's a bit hard in this crowded room). I helped run one of Ed's shows at the Ugly Mug (I sold tickets and took pictures), have started a couple of new screen plays, and also played a lot of Mario Kart. But most importantly, I've gotten to see and hang out with a ton of my cool friends down here. I have cool friends all over the world now, but it's been great to see everyone down here again . . . it sort of feels like home.

And since I'm back in Orange again, with no out-of-the-country quite yet on the horizon, this blog's sort of come full circle. I'm going to be starting a new, perhaps more permanent one soon, so this may be my last full post here. I'll let you all know how to find me again when I settle on a spot to be found.

xoxo