In the summer of 2008, I went on a four day road trip from Seattle to Tucson with my dearest ex-roommate, Emily. I spent two days in Seattle, and then four days in a car with her. I kept a small journal of notes so I could remember all the fun/stupid/really stupid things we did or said. All of these notes made sense to me at the time, but now, almost a year and a half later, I can’t make heads or tails of some of them. Is that going to stop me from showing them to you anyway? Nope. My notes are in italics, explanations, if I have any, are in brackets. I MISS YOU, EMILY!!!

In Seattle: DAY ONE

Walked around Seattle, ate good pizza.
[From the moment they picked me up from the airport, I remember very distinctly whining for about an hour and a half that I was hungry, and that Emily and Zach needed to feed me. It was really cloudy at first, but then as soon as we sat down to finally eat our pizza -- after I made them show me practically all of Seattle in walking distance -- the sun came out. It was really good pizza.]

Coffee: Mmmmm.
[Zach took us to Bauhaus, which is a schmancy coffee house right near where they lived. I had a mocha, and it was so fucking good.]

Long walk, park.
[After walking up this absolutely gigantic hill, we took a break and sat in this tiny little park to drink our coffee. I think there were pigeons, it was really green, and I seem to recall asking Zach whether I would be arrested if I tried to sleep there.]

Apt, Bill Gates’s house.
[Back at Emily and Zach's apartment, Zach showed us Bill Gates's house on Google Earth, because he's totally been there. He told us secrets.]

Italian food. Drunk — worst drink ever.
[We went to this tiny little Italian place, which I can't remember the name of. I had whine and raviolis and we saw a dog in the window.]

Drunk recapping. Drunk reading.
[Went to a bar and had an alcoholic chai of some sort. It was absolutely disgusting, but I was still drunk anyway. Went back to the apartment and wrote several paragraphs of this. Then I tried reading. Did not go well. Do not remember what I was reading at the time.]

In Seattle: DAY TWO

Bauhaus at 12:00.
[We had a late start. I also had an eclair.]

Pike’s Place Public Market sign.
[This was very exciting.]

At Pike’s Place, list of stuff we saw: “Flowers! Fish! Honey! Jam! Free peaches! Blueberries! Cheese! Guy playing guitar whilst hula hooping! More cheese! Original Starbucks!”

Waterfront.
[ . . . why did I write this?]

Emily cranky.
[It was hot. She was whiny. I remember taking out my notebook and telling her I was writing this down so as to piss her off.]

Library. Long walk back. Ow. Death.
[Saw Darth Vader's bathroom. We had to walk uphill back to the apartment. It took us an hour, and I pulled something in my hip that didn't heal for months. We stopped at the store and bought steak.]

Emily migraine. Japanese garden. Pretty houses.
[But she went out with us to the Japanese Garden anyway.]

Cook steak on roof. Corn. Apples. Cheese. Salami.

Eat steak. Almost die from corn inhalation. Emily laughs.
[I almost choked to death . . . then we laughed hysterically for ten minutes.]

See Space Needle from window. Perverted conversation.

On the Road, Seattle to Portland to Yreka: DAY ONE

Taco Bell for bkfast.

Two and a half hours in, Emily: “I’ve run out of things to talk about on this road trip.”

Little Mermaid sing-a-long.
[We didn't have the actual song on CD or in an iPod or anything, but that didn't stop Emily. She sang it to me. Over and over. She tried to get me to sing, too. She also tried "A Whole New World," but mostly it was all Ariel, all the time. I've also documented this phenomenon here.]

Revenge.
[She wouldn't stop singing, so I farted in the car. Then she rolled the windows down to punish me.]

“Are we in Oregon yet?”

4 Taco Bell count.
[This is when we decided to count how many Taco Bells there are in between Seattle and Tucson.]

“We are now passing Beaverton.” “That’s what she said.”

Yellow sandwiches –> Emily in picture.
[I don't know what this means.]

Powell’s. Bought Watchmen, The Uses of Enchantment, The Power of Myth, and Never Let Me Go. Want to live in Powell’s.
[Sigh.]

(in Emily’s handwriting, because I’m driving) 9 Taco Bells. Ashley wants to fart. Car is very confined.

13 Taco Bells.

NRA Lady with George Bush and Cat.
[We stopped at a motel using the GPS, and the lobby was full of cats and Republican paraphernalia.]

My pee, crazy drive, [unintelligible] see pee.
[I had to pee so bad I almost ran us off the road, but I don't know what I was referring to with that last part.]

Butter dip, ginormous food, PIE. “Oh, look at that! The butter ended up in here!”
[We ate at this restaurant just after checking in to the NRA motel. I think it was called Bear's or something, but we were so hungry it was awesome. We ordered an obscene amount of food, and Emily drank her butter.]

On the Road, Yreka to San Francisco to Berkeley: DAY TWO

Emily has mean Felicia Day dream.
[The first thing she told me when she woke up is that she had a dream that Felicia Day was her friend and not mine. So I kicked her.]

20 Taco Bells.

Fan, 4 Seas Ref., Chinatown. Emily tells me about playing dead and smearing blood.
[I do not know what ANY of that means. Except for the Chinatown part (obvious: we were in San Francisco).]

I eat all Em’s food. Em drops cookie. Blows on it. Eats.

Text message from Abigail.
[Abigail offered to let us stay with her the following night. I have since lost the text message, but it went something like this: "I am not a psycho. Heather Anne can vouch for me."]

Uncle, birthday. Eccentric.
[We stayed with Emily's family in Berkeley; it was her aunt's birthday, so we tagged along. Her uncle is very, um, strange. He is obsessed with espresso and doesn't think Natalie Portman is hot.]

Trattoria Sicilia. Yummy garlic. Friendly chef. Hot waiter.
[I made sure to write this restaurant down, it was SO. FUCKING. GOOD. The dip they gave us was practically pure garlic. The chef cooked in the open and greeted everyone, and the waiter was smoking hot.]

On the Road, Berkeley to L.A. to Whittier: DAY THREE

Directions to Abigail’s house.

Worst Starbucks ever.
[Seriously.]

Six pees.

Finished book.
[We were listening to The Golden Compass on audiobook.]

Pink’s. Hollywood Boulevard. Wax Museum (shitty). Got lost in mall. “Saw show” — ten years younger.
[Pink's was disappointing, as was Hollywood. I don't know what that other stuff means.]

Bought shoes for me, Emily no shoes.

Going to meet Schilbo.
[Very nervous.]

Wrong way! Emily successfully crosses four lanes of freeway in heavy traffic.
[We were going the wrong way to Schilbo's house and had to turn around.]

7:21 Emily tries to start sing-a-long. Sings Sailor Moon to punish me.

Emily drinks [unintelligible . . . soup?]
[Oh yeah! We went to a Tapas restaurant with Abigail and Emily drank the soup. At least I think that's what happened.]

- – -

And then I have no more notes, despite there being a day and a half left on our road trip. Here is a quick rundown:

On the Road, Whittier to Tucson: DAY FOUR

• Woke up in the morning, didn’t want to leave comfy Abigail bed.
• Abigail fed us, blogged about us.
• We drove to Phoenix, stopped in Barstow. Creepy place.
• Emily’s parents house. Met her crazy dogs.
• Stopped at Ikea. Forced Emily to drink water so her headache would go away.
• Tucson!
• 37 Taco Bells was the final count, if I remember correctly. And I ate at two of them.

I can’t believe I finally finished that entry. It was a good trip :)

UPDATE: Here are some of the pictures. We didn’t take very many.