warning: this may be long. and may not be in the order in which it happened. i'm just going to write as everything pops into my head.

getting to texas was interesting. especially since the extent of my greyhound bus riding-ness only consisted of two trips to stratford ontario, toronto, and orlando flordia. despite what mom believes, the chicago bus station is not all that scary. i was perfectly comfortable there, even at 1am. after i left chicago (the first time), i headed down towards houston, with a brief layover in st. louis.

st. louis to houston was mostly uneventful. except for the part where greyhound lost my luggage somewhere along the way. which, frankly, doesn't make since. i was on the same exact bus from chicago to houston, so technically, my bag should have been there when we got to houston. but it wasn't. imagine that.

texas was fun. i haven't seen my grandma shirlee in a while, so we were pretty happy to see each other. i was sick for a few days (figures. i would get a *cold* in *texas*), but we still managed to amuse ourselves. we talked a lot, read a lot, ate mexican food a lot, and ate tasty organic food a lot. caroline (grandma's cat) ate a gecko. it was gross. i should know, as i was standing there watching caroline eat it, while i said "miss caroline! that's gross!"

there were also a lot of geckos there.

we drove a lot too. we went to port lavaca, port o'connor, collegeport, bay city, victoria, and some place thats close to port o'connor. we also went to matagorda bay, which was really beautiful. we picked lots of shells too. three that we found had hermit crabs in them, so we kept them as pets for a little while. until we decided we really wanted one of those shells, so we put two back in the bay. the other one, we put in a bowl with water and bleach. have you ever done that? its interesting. the hermit crab turned white and after a day, we were able to pull him out of the shell.

when i left texas, i headed back towards the houston bus station, on my way to idaho. bus stations i stopped at (in case anyone cares, which you might not): houston, fort worth, amarillo, denver, salt lake city, nampa (idaho).

the hostel in nampa was pretty nice. i was pretty much the only one there most of the time. so i read a handful of the books on the bookshelf, and took a nap on the couch. which was really comfy. i also took a few pictures of the mountains and whatnot.

i left idaho on the 18th (got there on the 16th), and headed off to canada. more bus stations i stopped at: nampa, pendleton, seattle, vancouver (b.c), chilliwack, hope, and penticton.

at the border, we had to go through customs and all that shit. except for me and another girl. we were special. we got to go to immigration. the excitement!

i even outed myself to canadian immigration. so did the other girl. hee, it was funny.

the immigration lady also gave me some paper, telling me i had to have my ass out of canada by september 30th. cuz i didn't have a return bus ticket. oh well.

we got to vancouver roughly about 3am. the bus didn't come until 6am. the bus station was open until about 5am. so what did i do? slept outside on the bench in the cold. it was interesting. i've never slept on a bench in the cold before.

finally, my bus came, and there was much sleeping from vancouver to penticton. and when there was sleeping, there was much amazement at the mountains. because those fuckers are huge. and beautiful. damn right.

when i got to penticton, there was a few minutes of confusion as i tried to figure out which way south was. because the hostel is a block south of the bus station, you see. and because i had lost all sense of direction.

i checked into the hostel, called erica, wandered briefly around penticton looking for a bank, got back to the hostel, and erica and gillian picked me up.

i had fun. i even got to go to a birthday party full of people i didn't know, except for erica and gillian. it was fun and awkward and interesting. and as erica put it, full of "raging dykes." which it was. i also met their friend holly, who is pretty cool.

i also spent a few nights staying over at erica's, sleeping in the spare room, which had a really comfy futon.

if you get the chance, watch the movie 'Gummo'. yeah. just watch it.

and one day (i don't remember which), we went to boston pizza, which was also fun. 98% of the fun was from the company i was with (erica, gillian and holly), and the other 2% was from the drink i had, which had the consistancy of a slurpee and was vodka and coconut milk. tasty.

other things i did while in penticton: went to a used bookstore (a lot. hooray for books), walked around town a lot, took pictures, met interesting people at the hostel (jerome, chantal, guy, lisa, daryl, and other awesome folks, who sadly, i can't remember their names), bought a talking heads lp (actually, that was in summerland), and i got a tattoo.

yay for tattoos! its a red and black star, on the inside of my right arm. its healing pretty well. i got it last monday.

oh, also? i managed to get the talking heads lp home safely. and it kicks ass.

on the way back from canada, i went through vancouver, seattle to chicago (with brief stops in spokane, butte, billings, minneapolis), and then from chicago to kalamazoo, where mom was supposed to pick me up. i say supposed to, because she wasn't there when i got in. i called work, and she said she wasn't sure if i got in a 6pm or 9pm.

aw, shucks. i missed you too mom.

i had lots of fun, and met some really interesting people on the busses and in the hostels (jimmy, dawn, bobbie, pops, jerome, chantal, guy, pierre, daryl, reuben, jessica, nate, and other people whose names i didn't catch). i also got a bracelet from jessica, because i bought her some dinner when we stopped in minnesota.

also? i saw chantal half naked. hooray for hostels! because you see, chantal is really hot. and really nice, which is a good combonation.

states/provinces i've been to: indiana, illnois, missouri, arkansas, louisiana, texas, new mexico, colorado, utah, idah, oregon, washington, britsh columbia, washington (again), idaho (again), montana, north dakota, minnesota, wisconsin, illinois (again, and indiana (again).

16states (17if you count michigan. and i didn't count it twice if i was there twice. just gets counted once) and 1 province.

hm.. i don't really know what to write now. i'm sure i'll think of something later to write about the trip.

music: anti-flag