20 hours done, many more to go.

On my drive from Ann Arbor, MI to San Jose, CA:

I'm in Boulder, CO right now, just for two nights and one day. Being back here is simultaneously heartlifting and also a little haunting, seeing as I lived here (and grew up a lot) for four years. I've been fortunate enough to see most of the important people, even though I've crashed into their lives quite suddenly (and on a Monday). I forgot how sunny it is here, and the sun makes everything slow down, especially compared to Ann Arbor. Everything is pretty much the same, and familiar faces are all around. I have discovered how this city is just a little too small for me, The closeness of the community and place were comforting and insular during a crazy time in my life.

Please check out my friend Damhnait's (Daav-net) blog, bendyroad (see links to the right). She is going to work at NASA in LA in the late summer, and on the way traveling to Canada and the Arctic, where she'll spend three weeks very dirty studying bacterially mediated sulfur deposits on the ice. [For you lay-people out there, that means she's looking at bugs that make sulfur and poop the sulfur out on the ice - in hopes of discovering similar behavior on other planets]. Here is Damhnait - she's ready for space right now!

Tomorrow Grandma Jean and I depart for Salt Lake City, a long drive across Wyoming. She is 90 years old and loving the trip.