The Premise

Exactly one year ago tomorrow, I moved to Seattle to start a new life. A lot of people have asked me "Why did you move to Seattle?" and "Do you have a good umbrella?" and "Aren't you worried about the high suicide rates in the Pacific Northwest?" Although I had pretty clear answers to Questions #2 and #3 ("I did have a great umbrella but I lost it on a very awkward date" and "Oh god yes. My seasonal affective disorder is OUT OF CONTROL here"), I have struggled to provide a sufficient answer for Question #1. My bestie lives here. There are more jobs here than in my perpetually depressed home state of Michigan. Where else can you get handcrafted vegan-mango-chili sorbet for $6/pint?

I found a great place in a charming neighborhood (i.e. my bestie's house). I found a job working on an exciting social justice campaign with cool people. I made friends with young, hip (but not hipsterish) people. But I didn't put down roots here. Maybe it was the rain. Maybe it was the oppressive irony that infused everything from the Seattle Police Department Twitter feed to the truffled corndogs available until 1 AM at Unicorn. I don't know. Anyway, I came to the conclusion that Seattle was not my jam. 

So tomorrow, I will be celebrating my one year anniversary of living in Seattle by not living in Seattle any more. I will pack as much as I can into my lavender and rust 1997 Geo Prizm and drive (almost all the way) across America. 

I'm going to be taking this:

(James CARville is the one in the middle. I, unfortunately, don't own a parking patrol vehicle.)

On this route:

(Which in case you can't tell, it's a map of the United States of America. Or most of it.)

In this many days:

Nine. 

Obvi, I will be making some stops along the way, as you could probably tell by the little balloons I added to that map of the U.S. of America. 

Things you should know about my car:

1. It cost $500 when I bought it in September 2012.

2. It has about 198,000 miles on it.

3. The mechanic who most recently changed my oil expressed some concern about the road-worthiness of my car and would not guarantee that it would get me to Chicago.

4. I named it James CARville because 

    a) I bought it for the sole purpose of working on the presidential campaign

    b) It, like its namesake, looks like Skeletor but performs brilliantly

    c) I really like puns

5. The rear struts are completely shot, the back doors don't open and the clutch is a little sketchy

6. CARville didn't have any dents in it until I backed it into a vintage truck

7. It has no cruise control or CD player because technology was in its infancy in 1997.

According to Google Maps, I will be driving approximately 2,811 miles before I (temporarily) abandon CARville for Leg 2 of the Great Trek of 2013: Flight to the East Coast. You can expect stops (and blog posts) in the following cities:

Rupert, Idaho

Sandy, Utah

Mapleton, Utah

Boulder, Colorado

St. Louis, Missouri

Chicago, Illinois

Westmont, Illinois

Ypsilanti, Michigan

Detroit, Michigan

New York, New York

Hartford, Connecticut

Detroit, Michigan (again)

TBD

So we probably have an adventure ahead of us. I don't know yet because I'm not in the future. I, like you, am reading this without the foresight of finding out if I actually will be able to make it to my job interview in Chicago by December 6 or my other job interview in Hartford. I'm going to remain optimistic and also blog along the way so that you know that I'm not dead and that I am still literate. Unless I stop blogging. Which means either that I died or that I lost my literacy.

A dancer wished me "merde" last night, so I think everything's going to be great.