The Road

Trucks are a big part of the road system anywhere one goes. In Kenya they're called "lorries." We passed by one that I imagined looked about the shape of the kind of truck that hauls pigs off to the slaughter - except this one was covered in black tarp - a small nod to humanity perhaps, on such a cold day. Not that such a thin covering would keep the poor pigs from dying of cold before they got to the slaughterhouse. 

But that was all in my imagination. Perhaps I should do more research. 

There's an Elizabeth Arden perfume, I believe, called "red door." There was a spoof on it in the form of an SNL "ad" where a man narrates "she's funny, but not in a ha-ha sort of way. (Awkward pause.) More in a scary sort of way." The visual is a well-dressed and polished woman at a society party making faces at a man and then changing them after hiding her face behind a napkin. A deep advertorial voice comes on and names the perfume as the image of the bottle appears: "Red Flag." 

Another SNL clip worth reporting: a hick voice narrating the beginning of a movie: "papa always believed laughter was the best medicine. I guess that's why eleven of us died of tuberculosis when we were youngins."

There's a reason I was glued to the TV instead of the pizza. 

Have you experienced a suddenly warmed heart when someone driving your way on a dark, dark road has turned of his brights for you? It makes you feel seen, considered. Loved. 

Have you also experienced the miracle of four-way flashers? It is so accurate and understandable. "Avoid me."  "I'm lost." "I'm not from around here." "Just drive around." "Don't expect me to do anything right."

A miracle. 

It is also a miracle that we are doing this in the OFF season so that the pressure comes only from our own confusion, not from other frazzled drivers, too. 

There's a lady I met at a gas station as I was buying yet another red bull in exchange for the use of her bathroom. We exchanged our hair's life stories. I never once told her about my cosmetology background, but was able to understand her as she told me about getting the type of perm she didn't ask for and the type of haircut her hairstylist wanted and she didn't. I congratulated her on cutting her mermaid hair to a more reasonable length (after having thought about it for two years) and we parted amiably. I really hope that as a cosmetologist I will be able to maintain the identities of my clients that they have through their hair. I love out-of-salon experiences like this to show me how to listen. 

Now that I have left the Chicago hostel, I can officially say that the girls with whom I shared the room totally friendly, totally respectful. I think sometimes it is easier for people to get along the less we are familiar with one another. We respect each other's strangerness. 

In Chicago were a few beautiful sculptures. My dilemma: if they already are works of art, why photograph them in an effort to make my own piece of art?

I tried to express this to my sister whose indifference showed me that my idea was kind of an excuse not to try. The next morning we revisited the sculptures and I found the most amazing compositions in some of them. At the end of my trip, I'll give you the link to see the best photos from my trip. 

I have so much more to share: lincoln's house, the St. Louis arch and the amazing people I met there, the wagon wheel motel - the nice man at the hotel before that who let us get milk for our cereal out of the vip lounge (!) - but there's more driving to do. Probably in Tulsa Oklahoma where we stop to see family I'll catch up. 

I also want to share about running mascara and my sister's seventh circle of hell (aka my constant snoring). More later.